car hire in france

manwithnoname

Hi all

i am wanting to hire a car in france in 3 weeks time, but all the hire companys take a creditcard swipe when you pick up the car, to get excess/fuel charge etc if you crash it, or dont return it with fuel.
most companys terms and cond's say something like - "they will "block" an amount on your card equivelent to the excess and a couple of tanks of fuel." this comes to about 600pound at the cheapest.
now i know they dont actually take the money off the card, but does this mean my card still has to have that amount of credit available.
my only credit card has a 500 pound limit, which i cant increase, and is paying for my day to day costs while there!

thanks for your help. m.w.n.n.

(also posted in travel section.)

Road_Hog

I don't believe that they can do this with a debit card, so if you have a Visa debit card which looks just like a credit card then use that.

But do check, but I'm pretty sure they can't do it with a debit card because it would have to actually come out of your account, not just be
pre-authourised.