Help - Just booked a car - or have I?

alyth

I'm off to France soon and have just booked a car at the French airport I am flying into and out of through Europcar. I don't have a credit card and booked it using my switch card - I've received a confirmatory email saying my booking is all okay.

However, the confirmation says that a major credit card must be presented at the time of vehicle pick up - am I going to have problems???

Very worried now.....

isotonic_uk

best thing to do is see if there is an FAQ where it details this or give them a ring.

http://www.europcar.ch/europcar/faq.jsp

alyth

isotonic_uk wrote: »

best thing to do is see if there is an FAQ where it details this or give them a ring.

http://www.europcar.ch/europcar/faq.jsp

the link you've posted is German but I'll have a look on their UK site now - thanks.

spiff

Had a similar situation with Hertz but when I called them they said my debit card was fine, no CCard needed

cubegame

http://www.europcar.com/EBE/module/render/General-Rental-Terms#2%20PREREQUISITES:%20WHAT%20DO%20YOU%20NEED%20IN%20ORDER%20TO%20RENT%20A%20VEHICLE?

This seems to suggest you will need a credit card. I think they are pretty much standard for renting cars and even if you can book/pay with a debit card you need a cc for the deposit.

alyth

thanks for your replies - just rang Europcar, you do need a credit card to pick up the car to be used as the deposit - cue loud screams from me as I leave in a week's time!

I can cancel the Europcar car hire thankfully, but has anyone any suggestions on how I can get around this? I'm a mature student and my income comes from four different sources hence not being able to get a credit card.

cubegame

A bit of googling leads me to believe that your best option is to look at a Hyper U or Super U location. They allow debit card only bookings.

http://www.magasins-u.com/portailu/national/pg_d_sysu_eservices_locationu_acc_nat

Some people also suggest Avis might do it if you open an Avis account.

alyth

I've spent all morning looking at this and came across the same thing as you - Super/Hyper U reservation is possible, I'll look at that in a minute.

Thank you so much - it's not a complete nightmare as I can hire a taxi to go where I want to go which might work out cheaper, but the flexibility of a car would have been useful.