Car Rental at Lamezia Terme Airport (SUF): No Deposit, Debit Card and Full Insurance

Lamezia Terme Airport (SUF) is the main airport of Calabria, in the middle of the region and next to the A2 motorway, about an hour from Tropea. For one week in November we found 671 rental offers here. Fourteen of the 16 companies we recommend have their desk at the airport, 10 of them accept a debit card, including Locauto, which asks for no deposit, only a symbolic 0,01 EUR authorisation at pick-up. This guide to car rental at Lamezia Terme Airport covers each of the 16 companies we recommend, debit and Revolut cards, deposits, automatics, prices by month, the ferry to Sicily, and what to know before you drive to Tropea, Scilla or the Sila mountains.

Data last verified: October 2026. Written by Simas Krasaitis, founder of Autorentwiz and former head of car rental at ADCRent.

Short on time? The key facts:

• Desks: 14 of our 16 companies are at the airport, in the terminal or the car rental area a short walk away. GaldieriRent and Last Minute Rent share a free shuttle
• Debit cards: 10 of the 16 accept them, including Locauto (no deposit, only a 0,01 EUR card authorisation), Budget (200 EUR), Alamo and Enterprise (500 EUR)
• No deposit: Locauto (only a symbolic 0,01 EUR card authorisation), with a debit or credit card. With their own zero-excess cover and a credit card, GaldieriRent blocks 100 EUR and Viaggiare 150 EUR
• Revolut: none of the 16 companies accepts cards from online-only banks
• Automatics: only about 1 in 4 offers in our search was an automatic, so book early if you need one
• Ferry to Sicily: 10 of the 16 allow the car on the ferry from Villa San Giovanni to Messina
• Late flights: most desks work every day until 23:00, and Budget until 23:59
• Prices: November is the cheapest month (about 10 EUR a day on average), August the most expensive (about 36 EUR)
• Free consultation: message us on Messenger and our car rental experts will compare all 16 companies for your dates, card and landing time. You get the same discount as when you book through our search

Lamezia has a long list of companies, and most of them are at the airport itself. To make our list, a company needs a rating of 8.0 or higher from verified renters at this airport, and its staff must score 8.0 or higher here too. Of the 27 companies rated at Lamezia, 15 passed and had offers in our search. Europcar, Avis, Target Rent and Felirent did not. We also added Locauto: it has too few reviews at Lamezia for a rating yet, but renters at Pescara Airport rate it 9.4, and it is one of the companies we recommend most across Italy. Other companies with no rating at this airport yet are not on the list. More than half of the travellers who ask us about Lamezia have only a debit card, and 10 of our 16 companies accept one. Our car rental in Italy page compares Lamezia with the other Italian airports.

Company	Rating	Hours	Card	Deposit	Ferry to Sicily
Alamo	9.0	08:00-23:00	Debit or credit (not Maestro)	500 EUR	Allowed, free
Dollar	8.6	08:00-23:00	Debit or credit (not Maestro)	700 EUR	Not allowed
Drivalia	8.6	08:00-23:00	Credit only	400-500 EUR, 1,000 EUR on vans	Allowed, written permission
Viaggiare	8.6	08:00-23:00	Credit only (not Maestro)	700 EUR, 150 EUR with its own cover	Not allowed
Autovia	8.5	08:00-23:00	Credit only (not Maestro)	750-950 EUR	Allowed, written permission
Enterprise	8.5	08:00-23:00	Debit or credit	500 EUR	Not allowed
Thrifty	8.5	08:00-23:00	Debit or credit	700 EUR	Allowed with a fee and written permission
Hertz	8.4	08:00-23:00	Debit or credit (not Maestro)	700 EUR	Not allowed
Flizzr	8.3	08:00-23:00	Debit or credit (not Maestro)	about 630-860 EUR	Allowed, written permission
Keddy	8.3	08:00-22:30	Debit or credit	800 EUR	Not allowed
Budget	8.1	08:00-23:59	Debit or credit (not Maestro)	200 EUR	Allowed, written permission
Italy Car Rent	8.1	08:00-23:00	Credit only	900 EUR, 1,500 EUR on vans	Allowed, written permission
SRC Rent Car	8.1	08:00-23:00	Debit on small cars, credit on bigger ones	800 EUR on small cars, 1,200-2,000 EUR on others	Not allowed
Locauto	Not rated here yet	08:00-23:00	Debit or credit (not Maestro)	No deposit (0,01 EUR card authorisation)	Allowed, free

Company	Rating	Hours	Card	Deposit	Ferry to Sicily
Last Minute Rent	8.8	08:00-22:00	Credit only	600 EUR on small cars, 1,000 EUR on others	Allowed, free
GaldieriRent	8.6	08:00-22:00	Credit only	600 EUR, 100 EUR with its own cover	Allowed, written permission

Locauto stands out at Lamezia: it asks for no deposit, only a symbolic 0,01 EUR authorisation on a debit or a credit card at pick-up. Budget blocks 200 EUR, also on either card and without any extra cover. GaldieriRent (100 EUR) and Viaggiare (150 EUR) go below that only with their own zero-excess cover, which costs more per day, and only with a credit card. Drivalia blocks 400 EUR on small cars, and Alamo and Enterprise 500 EUR. The highest are at SRC Rent Car (1,200-2,000 EUR on bigger cars), Last Minute Rent (1,000 EUR above the smallest cars), Italy Car Rent (900 EUR) and Autovia (750-950 EUR).

Lamezia has one terminal, and the rental desks are either inside it or in the car rental area just in front of it. Alamo, Enterprise and Locauto share an office about 50 m to the right as you leave the arrivals exit on the ground floor. Dollar, Hertz, Keddy, Budget, Italy Car Rent and Viaggiare are in the terminal building: follow the car rental signs. Drivalia is in the building in front of the terminal, on the right. Thrifty, Autovia, Flizzr and SRC Rent Car are in the car rental center about 100 m from the terminal exit, across the car park: Flizzr is at the desk under the SIXT sign.

GaldieriRent and Last Minute Rent share a free shuttle to their office on Via Martin Luther King, about 1.3 km away. Leave the terminal, turn left under the canopy and walk to its end, then call the number in your voucher. Last Minute Rent also gives a meeting point on the right of the exit, in front of the Bar Bruzia.

Autorentwiz tip: about half of our Lamezia customers need an automatic, but only about 1 in 4 offers in our search was one. The cheapest automatics among our companies were a Volkswagen Polo at Autovia from 65 EUR a week and a Kia Sportage at Viaggiare from 69 EUR, both with a credit card. With a debit card, Keddy had a Peugeot 208 automatic from 119 EUR and Enterprise a Volkswagen Taigo from 136 EUR. Automatics sell out first in summer, so book early.

At Lamezia the desks keep the same hours every day of the week. Most of our companies work from 08:00 to 23:00, Budget until 23:59, Keddy until 22:30, and GaldieriRent and Last Minute Rent until 22:00. None of them opens before 08:00, so an early morning flight means waiting. Autovia and Italy Car Rent hold your car for 2 hours after the booked time, Dollar and Keddy for only 29 minutes, and most others for about an hour. Add your flight number to the booking.

The Eni station at the airport junction of the SS280, Bivio Aeroporto, is about 1 km east of the terminal, on the right as you drive from the airport towards Lamezia Terme. Fill up before you return the car, because most rental conditions ask for the same fuel level you started with, and the refuelling charge at the desk is much higher than the pump price.

Yes. Ten of the 16 companies we recommend accept a debit card: Locauto (no deposit, only a 0,01 EUR card authorisation), Budget (200 EUR), Alamo and Enterprise (500 EUR), Dollar, Hertz and Thrifty (700 EUR), Keddy (800 EUR), Flizzr (about 630-860 EUR) and SRC Rent Car (800 EUR, on small cars only). Last Minute Rent, Drivalia, Viaggiare, GaldieriRent, Autovia and Italy Car Rent take credit cards only. Some companies want a credit card for their biggest cars: at Thrifty that includes the intermediate SUV, at Alamo the premium cars. At the desk you need a physical Visa or Mastercard in the main driver’s name, with the card number printed on the front, and Alamo, Dollar, Hertz, Flizzr, Budget and Locauto do not take Maestro. Our guide to renting a car in Italy with a debit card explains what the desk checks.

None of the 16 companies we recommend at Lamezia accepts cards from online-only banks such as Revolut: all of them list these cards as not accepted. You need a card from a traditional bank in the main driver’s name. If Revolut is the only card you have, send us your dates on Messenger before you book, and we will tell you what can work.

Locauto asks for no deposit at Lamezia, only a symbolic 0,01 EUR authorisation on a debit or a credit card at pick-up. Among companies that take a deposit, the lowest are GaldieriRent at 100 EUR and Viaggiare at 150 EUR, both only with their own zero-excess cover and a credit card. With a debit card, the lowest deposit among companies that take one is 200 EUR at Budget. Our guide to saving money on car rental shows how to weigh the deposit against the price.

At Lamezia the excess, the part of any damage you pay yourself, was about 1,200-3,500 EUR in our search. Locauto, SRC Rent Car and Keddy had the lowest, from 1,200-1,300 EUR, and Budget one of the highest, 2,300-3,400 EUR, so its low deposit comes with a high excess. You can cover it in two ways. Full coverage added online when you book costs less per day, but the desk still blocks the normal deposit, and if something happens you pay the company and claim the money back from the insurer. The company’s own cover, sold at the desk, costs more but removes the excess on the spot and can cut the deposit, as with GaldieriRent (100 EUR) and Viaggiare (150 EUR). If you already bought full coverage, you do not need the desk cover as well. Our pick-up tips show how to film the car and what to check at pick-up.

Across all offers, car rental at Lamezia Terme Airport costs about 22 EUR a day on average over the year. November is the cheapest month at about 10 EUR a day, less than half the yearly average, and August the most expensive at about 36 EUR, with July almost the same. January and February cost about 12 EUR a day. Most rentals at Lamezia last 6 or 7 days, and 8 to 9 in July and August.

Daily average across all offers at Lamezia Terme Airport for each pick-up month, data from October 2026. Prices move every day.

Season	Months	Average per day	What to expect
Low	November, February, January, March	about 10-15 EUR	The lowest prices of the year
Shoulder	December, October	about 17-19 EUR	Good value outside the holiday weeks
High	April, May, September	about 25-27 EUR	Spring holidays and the late summer
Peak	June, July, August	about 32-36 EUR	The most expensive weeks of the year

Our November search found these starting prices per day by car class. A small SUV started below a medium car, so it is worth comparing both. Premium cars started at about 17 EUR a day, and vans with 7 or more seats at about 70 EUR.

Autorentwiz tip: one customer told us that only one company at Lamezia would take her debit card. In our search 10 of our 16 companies accepted one, but the card rules sit in the rental conditions of each offer, not in the search results. Before you book with a debit card, open the conditions and check the card section, or send us the offer on Messenger and we will check it for you.

Many travellers combine Calabria with Sicily. The ferries from Villa San Giovanni to Messina cross the Strait of Messina in about 20 minutes and run around the clock, and Villa San Giovanni is about 115 km and 1 hour 15 minutes from the airport on the A2. Before you book, check that your company allows the car on a ferry. Of our 16 companies, Alamo, Locauto and Last Minute Rent allow it at no extra charge, Drivalia, GaldieriRent, Autovia, Flizzr, Budget and Italy Car Rent allow it with written permission, and Thrifty charges a fee. Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, Keddy, Viaggiare and SRC Rent Car do not allow ferries.

What we compared	Details
Crossing	Villa San Giovanni to Messina, about 20 minutes
Drive from the airport to Villa San Giovanni	about 115 km, 1 hour 15 minutes on the A2
Ferry allowed, free	Alamo, Locauto, Last Minute Rent
Ferry allowed with written permission	Drivalia, GaldieriRent, Autovia, Flizzr, Budget, Italy Car Rent, and Thrifty with a fee
Ferry not allowed	Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, Keddy, Viaggiare, SRC Rent Car

If you are flying into Sicily instead, our car rental in Sicily guide covers the Sicilian airports. For the ferry and Scilla, Reggio Calabria Airport is closer, and our Reggio Calabria Airport guide compares the two Calabrian airports.

The airport sits next to the A2 motorway, which runs from Salerno to Reggio Calabria and has no tolls. The SS280 links the airport with Catanzaro, about 40 minutes east. Naples is about 4 hours north on the A2, and our Naples Airport guide covers renting there.

Tropea is about 65 km and 1 hour from the airport, and Pizzo, on the way, about 30 km and 25 minutes. The old town of Tropea is closed to cars, so park in one of the paid car parks around it and walk in. Capo Vaticano, with the beaches south of Tropea, is about 1 hour 10 minutes away. In July and August the car parks near the beaches fill up by mid-morning.

Scilla, the fishing village on the Strait of Messina, is about 105 km and 1 hour 10 minutes south on the A2. Inland, the Sila plateau and Camigliatello Silano are about 1 hour 20 minutes north-east. From 15 November to 15 April, state roads in Calabria and some sections of the A2 require winter tyres or snow chains on board, so ask for them when you book a winter rental for the Sila.

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