Car Hire In Spain - No Credit Card - Help!!

sarah1975uk

Hi again lol happy new year. Well back from christmas in spain, car hire was a last min panic, oh parents rented a car for us where they live in spain so luckily we werent without a car after all. I did ask at the airport when we arrived and all car hire companies were sold out. Spain was lovely in the day shorts and t shirt weather but to cold to swim in the sea or pool at night was chilly, kids drove us nuts asking for euros bit bored without the beach etc but was nice to get away.

del182

Does anyone know if i can hire a car at Girona airport with a solo debit card ??

Del

louise3965

We have just rung valuecarrentals.com who say solmar are still accepting debit cards but they don't have their 2008 prices in yet, maybe in a week or so. So I will contact them and book one for us in 2008. Thanks for this information x

janinem1974

louise3965 wrote: »

We have just rung valuecarrentals.com who say solmar are still accepting debit cards but they don't have their 2008 prices in yet, maybe in a week or so. So I will contact them and book one for us in 2008. Thanks for this information x

i am trying to hire a car at Gerona without a credit card-only using a DEBIT CARD.
carjet states sol-mar does not accept debit cards now, but AURIGO CROWN does (they also have £0 deposit and everything included in the price)
slightly more expensive; £108.99 compared to the cheapest i could find of £83.31 (but nothing was included in this price-Avis-and they require deposits etc.)

for interest i found this on flybe.com car hire:
FROM AVIS SPAIN T&C

PAYING FOR YOUR RENTAL: The cost of the rental can be charged to an Avis account or any of the leading credit cards accepted by Avis. If other methods of payment are used, a cash deposit for the approximate cost of the rental plus an additional 20% must be paid upfront.
Cash rentals are only valid for car groups A to H and are subject to the final approval by the Avis rental office. If the information required is not presented by the customer or is insufficient, we reserve the right to decline the rental

UncleTravellingMatt

To let you know, i was in the same sitaution, as i was travelling to spain (flew home today) and needed a car but had no credit card. I found this site and read these threads with interest.

I followed advice on here and called some firms up for advice, but they all had the same reply - "no credit card at the airport and no rental."

Anyway, I got to Gerona airport last Tuesday, walked up to the Europcar hire window, got a price, then decided to play it dumb about credit card and go from there. The lady filled out the rental agreement form, then asked for my passport, my licence, then, gulp, my credit card. We even hoped to use my girlfirends debit card, so she pulled out her visa debit card, handed it to the lady and she said thats fine. She appeared to like the visa logo on the card, and that was enough for her. I dont think a solo or similar non-visa debit would have done it for her to be honest, as she did acknowledge the visa logo on the card. The card we used had virtually no funds on it by the way, so they do not take a payment off it at the time of rental, as any amount she would have entered would have been declined i am sure.

As for fuel deposit situation, they give me the car with a full tank of fuel, and i returned it with a full tank of fuel, which is the fairest way of doing it in my opinion. This appeared to be normal for europcar hire, as oppose to most other firms who like to shaft you with paying for a tank up front, regardless if you use it all or not. we had a very economic fiat bravo diesel which only used about 2/3 of the tank and that was with a lot of mileage.

I hope this helps someone, as i know spain is a bit of a nightmare to hire a car from without a credit card... until you acutally get there. I was worried but thought i would try it, and had no problem at all.

UTM

woml

If you want to pre-book car with Solmar with debit card (and avoid the risk of doing it when you get there - personally I'm not that brave!), you have to book through VALUECARRENTALS.COM. We only had a Solo card, not even a Visa Debit and that was fine. Hope this helps.

janinem1974

hi all,
i arrived home tonight after a great holiday, marred only by CARJET incompetence of handling my car hire booking but i will add another message on later when i unpack and recover!!! explaination to follow........

I used AURIGA CROWN using my Visa Debit card with NO PROBLEMS AT ALL (yippee). Paid €50 'deposit' on card for full tank of petrol and returned car very empty. GREAT car hire- will use again and highly recommend.

Bobfidler

Hi,

I had the same problem about car-hire, as I only had Debit Cards.

Following the details on this thread I have just called valuecarrentals.com and booked a car next week for pick-up and return to Alicante Airport, booked with Solmar using a Visa Debit Card.

There were no extras to pay apart from the full tank of petrol at the airport, which I was assured would be fine with a Debit Card.

So presuming that the car is there o.k. I have paid about £17 more than the cheapest quote I could find for the same car, but at least I could use a Debit Card both here and in Spain, and the booking was accepted!

Thanks for the previous posts they were very helpful.

janinem1974

Bobfidler wrote: »

Hi,

So presuming that the car is there o.k. I have paid about £17 more than the cheapest quote I could find for the same car, but at least I could use a Debit Card both here and in Spain, and the booking was accepted!

Thanks for the previous posts they were very helpful.

hi bobfidler

please let us know how u get on. i had no problems booking in the UK using my debit card it is only at Spain the debit card comes into issue.
will be interesting to know your ourcome with Solmar to se if it is company policy or they can use their discretion at different depots.
good luck, hope you have no trouble.


PS- to whoever thinks im promoting certain car companies - get a life - i was trying to avoid this problem plus help others in my situation. it was very insulting to be accused of such in a private message!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

mummytofour

http://www.economycarhire.com/ These ppl have been reccomended on MSE b4. I have not used them as I have not had a holiday in way tooo long sniff sniff