Car hire without a credit card?

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bonza1

Registered User
Messages
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Ist it possible to hire a car without a credit card?
My dh is travelling next week for work, and we used our visa debit card to book a car online. We now find that they require a credit card to pick up the car, for a security depoist at the airport? I rang them,a dn they said if he does not ahve a crdit card in his name they will not release the car.
Thats nuts. We dont operate a credit card. He is self employed and we run a very tight ship. the visa debit is ued for everything. Any way around this?
 
What country is the car being hired in ? ... In general the answer is no .. but I think in some cases some car hire companies may accept a Debit card if you have sufficient funds in the account and they place a hold on it for the period that you are renting .. it's not to cover the rental cost usually but the deposit is for damage excess.

Can't speak from personal experience though , I've only ever hired with a credit card.
 
Did you book directly with the rental company or via an consolidator like Auto Europe ?

If you booked via Auto Europe/CarHire3000 or similar give them a call and ask their advice.

If you booked directly with the car hire company and aren't getting any satisfaction from them then cancel and rebook with Auto Europe or similar .. I'd recommend Auto Europe, but give them a call rather than do it online .. they're normally very helpful and they'll be able to advise if cash rental is possible - their site seems to suggest in some places it is, but you'd need to leave a cash deposit.

(No connection with Auto Europe, just a happy customer)
 
Its Auto Europe I had the initial booking with, no joy, Credit Card only.
Am stumped. Thanks for trying to help.
 
Could you put some money on a pre paid credit card like the 02 one and use that?
 
It may be then that Auto Europe don't have any contract with rental companies in Italy that allows cash/debit card rentals ...at least they should offer free cancellation ..so best cancel then I suppose.

You could try calling Car Hire 3000 or Nova to see if they've got contracts with Italian rental companies that allow cash/debit card rentals.
 
Cant put money on a prepaid credit card, they wont accept them at the car rental desk in Italy.
Have cancelled with Auto Europe.
spoke with Nova, no go either.
Am about to try Car3000
 
bonza1 said:
Cant put money on a prepaid credit card, they wont accept them at the car rental desk in Italy.
Have cancelled with Auto Europe.
spoke with Nova, no go either.
Am about to try Car3000
Click to expand...

I have hired cars before without using a credit card, albeit in Spain and Portugal.
What i had to do was take out their own all risks insurance, which is expensive, around €10 a day depending on what is being hired.
 
Yes, think I may be getting somewhere. Hertz will do it for me at 28E a day. But the hire charge is almost double the amount of other companys. Caught and caught again. DAmn.
 
I've never had a credit card but have booked cars, hotels etc in many countries in the world using my debit card.
 
Can you tell me with who, Cos I am having the devil of a job getting this sorted!!!
 
Try Enterprise. I have booked cars with them and only used a debit card. Mind you, it was in the States and not Europe.
 
Its practiably impossible to rent a car without a major credit card. All of the big companies will insist on one , you could try some of the smaller independent ones but apart from paying over-inflated prices for below-par cars they will insist on a cash deposit of €600-€1000.
Save yourself a lot of bother and get a credit card.
 
I recently tried this with Avis in America. I had a credit card and my husband had a debit card. As we wanted to hire the car in his name they wouldn't accept it, insisted on a credit card.

On the other hand, I did exactly the same thing with Avis in Italy last year and they accepted the credit card in my name fine.
 
Remember most of these organisations are franchised in each country so rules will differ. If you are going to Italy and Hertz will take a debit car for the booking in advance then take it. In my experience they are good on the ground for Italy but be sure to take out full insurance because knocks are a way of life in many towns and cities. Maybe the 28E includes full insurance? Check it.

I took out Gold Membership to take the hassle out of deposits becasue I rent regularly.
 
Just updating for information's sake. We eventually got Auto Europe to sort it for us. Amazing how the squeaky wheel gets oiled. We rang them again, got onto a supervisor, explained that we had booked a car with a debit card, it was Friday evening, travelling for business on sunday and could they possibly help us? Well Supervisor got onto Bergamo for us, and arranged that on payment of 500E he could have the car on Sunday evening, as per booking. And on return, he would get full deposit back, barring accident etc of course. Sent him an email to that end immediately. Very helpful in the end, got him totally sorted and a HUGE pressure off him thank god.
Best bit is, when he got to Bergamo, they only asked for 350e, and e got every penny back when he returned the car to Rome. No excess payment, nothing. So its do-able, just not easy.
Credit card application for future use is in process.
 
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