Pre Paid MasterCard for Car Hire?

RicardoDiaz

Hi there

I am taking the family to France in 3 weeks and want to hire a car however my wife and I do not have a credit card. We can't get a credit card for about another year due to repaying previous on debt management.

It is normal practice that hire companies require you to book with a credit card and additionally freeze around €1000 to cover the excess should you smash the car up. The hire companies will not allow me to use a visa debit or leave the deposit in cash (which I think is bonkers!)

I was wandering if anyone knows if I put enough money on a pre paid MasterCard to cover hire cost plus deposit whether this would work? Surely it would be like having a mastercard or would it not work? I phoned 1 company and they said no it has to be a credit card but surely they wouldn't know the difference?

Please help me!

reclusive46

RicardoDiaz wrote: »

Hi there

I am taking the family to France in 3 weeks and want to hire a car however my wife and I do not have a credit card. We can't get a credit card for about another year due to repaying previous on debt management.

It is normal practice that hire companies require you to book with a credit card and additionally freeze around €1000 to cover the excess should you smash the car up. The hire companies will not allow me to use a visa debit or leave the deposit in cash (which I think is bonkers!)

I was wandering if anyone knows if I put enough money on a pre paid MasterCard to cover hire cost plus deposit whether this would work? Surely it would be like having a mastercard or would it not work? I phoned 1 company and they said no it has to be a credit card but surely they wouldn't know the difference?

Please help me!

Many prepaid companies will block rental and hotel transactions. So this probably wouldn't work. If you can't get a credit card then I'd suggest you find another company who will take a debit card or ask to be added onto a family members credit card as an authorised user just for the trip.

manami_mnm

Most of the pre-paid cards are treated as credit cards when used at POS. So, I think you can do what you have described.

reclusive46

manami_mnm wrote: »

Most of the pre-paid cards are treated as credit cards when used at POS. So, I think you can do what you have described.

The POS might treat it as such but most prepaid companies will block transactions from certain Merchant Category codes like car rental companies.

Citysam

Hello! I have been having a simular problem. By what I can make out, most will not accept pre=pay credit card. Some will take a debit card though. Having read this thread about hiring in Spain, I went to the Indigo Car Hire website and left a message. They got back to me really quickly and were really helpful (they have companies who accept debit card payments). I have also read that the amount blocked varies but is normally a couple of hundred pounds...I haven't been yet though so I dunno if this is correct...

[URL="http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?

t=442281&page=1"]

Hope that helps! xx