Car Hire

oceanova

This year so far I've hired cars in Oz, Ireland and Spain using a 3rd party broker each time. After reading MSE tips I took excess annual cover, which gladly I did not need. But the reason for my posting is to make people aware about Ireland. Using carhire3000 I found a great deal, a ford focus for a week for £70 pound, a bargain I thought until the lady at the desk of 365 car hire asked me for a 1200 euro deposit on my credit card, something I did not have, so I had to take her insurance. 12 euro a day plus pay for a full tank of petrol and return empty, and then still have a 195 euro excess. Just out of interest Spain charged me 85 euro deposit and Oz charged 300 dollars. The point is excess cover is great if you need it but you still need very large deposits in some countries.
Has anyone else experienced this problem and maybe we can make a list of countrys/companies who charge these large deposits and make other people aware.
Gary