Holidaymakers are being warned to expect a summer of car hire disruption after it emerged that the DVLA is to scrap the paper counterpart of driving licences from 8 June, with drivers told to obtain a special online code before heading abroad – or possibly be refused a rental car.

In what it says is a purge on red tape, the DVLA is abolishing the paper counterpart that currently accompanies all UK photocard licences. It is advising drivers to destroy the document (not their paper licence if they still have one) because it will no longer be legally valid.

Instead, all endorsements will be held electronically on a web-based service called “Share Driving Licence”.

But fears are growing that the “very muddled” introduction of the new rules will almost certainly lead to some hirers being turned away by car firms this summer. This is because many car hire companies insist on examining the paper document to check on any endorsements or bans.

After 8 June holidaymakers will have to log on to the DVLA website the day before they leave and input their driving licence number and national insurance number. The system will then generate a one-time passcode which the holidaymaker can give to the hire company when they arrive at the desk.

The code is only valid for 72 hours, which will mean that holidaymakers hiring a car in the second week of a foreign trip face having to find an internet cafe and log on abroad, or pay roaming charges, if they want to show the car hirer their record.

If they fail to produce the online code, the car hire firm may call the DVLA’s premium rate line (charged at up to £3 a minute) to check the driver’s status – if they can get through.

A spokeswoman for Hertz says: “We will ask customers for the DVLA one-time pass code, or for the PDF of the driver record, or we will use the DVLA premium-rate line – but this has restricted hours of operation.”

DVLA says the Share Driving Licence system, which is still being worked on, will be ready in time for 8 June.

It says consumers will also be able to download their driving history as a printable PDF, although it is unclear whether all car hire firms will accept that, or how drivers without access to a computer will cope.

DVLA insists that the changes have been widely publicised but few people we contacted this week were aware of them, including frequent car hirers – and even people working close to the industry.

Consumers booking car hire for post-June holidays have not been warned the new rules are coming into play. The terms and conditions of most car hire firms still explicitly state that paper counterparts must be produced at the time of hire, and do not warn of the impending rule changes.

For example, Avis’s booking terms currently state: “You must bring your original driving licence with you in both parts if it is a new-style UK licence. Failure to bring both parts may result in the rental being refused.”

However, it said that from 8 June the counterpart will no longer be required, adding that it is working with the DVLA to ensure “minimal disruption”.

The British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association which represents the car hire industry, says UK hirers unaware of the rule change will most likely be treated in the same way as those who currently turn up without both parts of the licence.

Staff phone the DVLA’s 0906 premium rate number, and charge the customer accordingly. It couldn’t say what would happen to car hirers abroad as foreign hires are not part of its remit.

Mark Bower of the car hire insurance website MoneyMaxim.co.uk is fearful of major problems at car hire desks across Europe this summer. “Most people are simply unaware that these changes are on the way – and it is not just renters. I spoke to one big car hire firm in Portugal this week and they knew nothing of the changes to UK licenses. Six weeks away from implementation the whole thing is very muddled.”

He advises holidaymakers to follow the DVLA instructions but at the very least to take their national insurance number with them.

And he also fears that some of the more unscrupulous operators might use this issue as “another excuse” to persuade hirers to take the firm’s expensive extra insurance.

He recommends that drivers obtain a PDF copy of their driving history from DVLA prior to heading off on holiday as “probably a wise move especially in the first months of transition”.

To access your driving history, the car hire company will enter the last eight digits of your driving licence, plus the passcode you have brought with you, “so it’s another thing that you have to remember to do just before departure. Or you can do it at the desk with your smartphone if you can remember the website address, don’t mind the data roaming charges, can remember your national insurance number and are impervious to the long queue developing behind you”.

Others forecast that renters will, in future, be required to let car hire firms access their driving history when booking – with possible implications for the price charged.

Ernesto Suarez of icarhireinsurance predicts that car hire firms will use the data to offer better terms to drivers with no endorsements or fines – and higher prices and higher excesses to those with a worse record.

Meanwhile, there are already questions over the accuracy of DVLA data. Kenneth Kidd, from Bideford in Devon, contacted Guardian Money this week to say that when he logged on recently to the DVLA’s View Driving Licence service that is up and running, he was shocked to discover that he was listed as having no entitlement to drive anything. He stopped driving for a while fearing he could be arrested if stopped by the police.

DVLA said this week that this was a one-off that has now been corrected, but what would have happened if he rented a car after 8 June? A spokesman said: “Changes to the driving licence will take effect on 8 June 2015. There is up-to-date information on gov.uk and we are working closely with industry to ensure that their systems and processes are ready for the changes before we implement them.”

Disc so tax won’t slip your mind

Schoolboy Harvey Millington is the brains behind one of the UK’s fastest growing businesses. He sends motorists discs to remind them when their car tax and MOT expires – replacing the tax discs that the DVLA recently scrapped.

The rule change has caught out thousands of motorists who have unwittingly found their car untaxed and clamped.

Harvey, 13, from Taunton, Somerset, came up with the idea after noticing his father’s car was no longer showing the tax disc after they were phased out last October. He has set up a limited company to sell the discs, and has so far sold £3,000 worth at £4 a go.

Users log on to his site Taxdiscreminder.com, input their car registration details, and he looks up when the car tax and MOT expires. Then he prints the information on a disc replicating the ones DVLA has abandoned.