Hiring a car without a CC. Use pre-pay CC?

zagfles

reclusive46 wrote: »

Oh I was aware of that. I was more referring to credit/debit cards. Paying for cash with rentals can be difficult with the major companies, although I think Hertz offer some kind of cash deposit card system but you need to have something ridiculous like 2000 dollars (or its equivalent) + the cost of the rental. I don't really have any experience with smaller companies. Most of my corporate rentals are with Hertz or Avis. I see plenty of people refused rentals for various reasons to do with them not having a credit card or the right type of debit card though.

If you have rental insurance/CDW or card coverage (Some old MasterCards have rental protection and the Amex Platinum does as well) theres not really any reason not to pay for a car rental with a card.

I think a lot people are asking for trouble not having insurance, I noticed on the bottom of my last rental that it said the replacement cost of the car would be 32000 USD, I wouldn't want to be paying that if I totalled the car!

I've never done it with a major company, only small companies of which there are usually loads in typical Spanish/Greek resorts. Never had to leave a deposit, just gave driving licence as ID and that was it.

The car hire market has changed a lot in recent years though. There's a tendancy towards additional charges to keep the headline rate low, so they do well on comparison sites. For instance the rip-off practice of making you pre-buy the fuel, or claiming that the insurance is all inclusive then coming up with a long list of things which aren't covered (tyres, windows, underside, keys etc) and trying to flog extra insurance at some silly price to cover these.

There've also been lots of anecdotal reports of people getting spurious charges on their CC months after rental for supposed damages. Of course if you have insurance and excess insurance you won't have to pay, but you would need to declare it when renewing your own car's insurance.

Jazee

With enterprise I was able to use a debit card, but cash was a no no.

Mr_F_Dorsetty

My experiences of hiring cars and motorbikes in foreign countries, whether I've been living there or have been visiting, is that it is a wise person who takes ALL the insurance they have to offer when hiring.

Yes, it costs you more but it's nothing like the likely huge financial pain if something even minor happens to that hire vehicle.

In Spain for example I was living up in the Coin Triangle and my own car was in for repair, so I hired a car in Torremolinos. Then later that day some local lunatic up in the Sexmo (great name eh!) area decided he wanted the road space I was on - I had to evade him and ending up off the road, head first in a ditch.

It was no problem because no one was hurt and I was fully covered. No matter what insurance they offer, I take it all.

Because, the horror stories you hear when you live in Spain about tourists getting their hire car hit or stolen or broken into (a regular thing) and then being faced will bills for thousands of €'s are frankly both true and scary.

People can do what they like obviously but for an extra €30, €50 or even €75 myself I'd never take the chance, just in case.

mumzcuddles

Thanks so much, it looks like Alamo have a 'pre-agreed voucher' scheme so I need to ring them up as soon as the USA local offices open.
Probably just me, but I'm getting sick to the back teeth of being told how I have to pay/spend my money, whether it be to have to use a credit card or when the bank just send contactless cards or get rid of cheque books, can't even pay cash at some places???

I know it's their rules and if I want to use their product then I have to jump through their hoops, but lets be honest, they will have their own insurance to cover car thefts/write offs so I don't really understand the necessity for a credit card. Oh well, grumble over.
Thanks for taking the time to answer peeps

sjw64

mumzcuddles wrote: »

Thanks so much, it looks like Alamo have a 'pre-agreed voucher' scheme so I need to ring them up as soon as the USA local offices open.
Probably just me, but I'm getting sick to the back teeth of being told how I have to pay/spend my money, whether it be to have to use a credit card or when the bank just send contactless cards or get rid of cheque books, can't even pay cash at some places???

I know it's their rules and if I want to use their product then I have to jump through their hoops, but lets be honest, they will have their own insurance to cover car thefts/write offs so I don't really understand the necessity for a credit card. Oh well, grumble over.
Thanks for taking the time to answer peeps

Thanks. It would be interesting to hear about the voucher scheme if you ever go down this route.

Aquamania

When we have to hire cars on business, our travel agent issues us with a full value voucher, so no credit card is required
(Actually I think there is a limit in the small print of the voucher, something like 100k USD)

But I think the travel agent only do that as our employer has a very good credit history with the travel agent

Aquamania

mumzcuddles wrote: »

Hi
I'm looking at going on holiday and need to hire a car. I ditched the credit cards about three years ago as I was struggling to repay. Credit score will not be great as I had a ccj back in November.
I've been told I need a credit card to leave a deposit. Anybody managed to hire without one or with a prepaid credit card?

Thanks

You don't usually need a credit card for a deposit.

A deposit is normally only charged if you don't pay with a credit card. (If you pay via credit card, you give permission to charge the card later with the amount due)
Last time I enquired, they said they needed £10k deposit if not paying by credit card (or full value travel agents voucher).

reclusive46

mumzcuddles wrote: »

Thanks so much, it looks like Alamo have a 'pre-agreed voucher' scheme so I need to ring them up as soon as the USA local offices open.
Probably just me, but I'm getting sick to the back teeth of being told how I have to pay/spend my money, whether it be to have to use a credit card or when the bank just send contactless cards or get rid of cheque books, can't even pay cash at some places???

Its the way the worlds moving. Cash is expensive and card is a lot more convenient (Especially in America where you just swipe your card and for low value purchases you don't sign) and provides a lot more security to the merchant.

In the US, I've been to a few restaurants that will only accept payment and tips by card. No cash at all. You also can't fill up at some petrol stations (Or most in rural areas after 6pm) if your not using a credit card at the pump (On a side note, you may be asked to enter a zip code, enter the numbers of your post code and finish it off with 0s to make 5 digits. I.e. NR12 9BT would be 12900).

Most US airlines won't take cash in their airport lounges or on board the plane either.

System

The US is a special case as when they talk about Debit as their domestic debit cards are multibranded to use a brand like Pulse or Interlink as 'debit' system with PIN or Visa / MasterCard over their 'credit' system when signing.

UK debit cards (bar Maestro) are processed as via their 'credit' system so will usually work in US hotels that don't accept US debit cards.

reclusive46

Heng_Leng wrote: »

The US is a special case as when they talk about Debit as their domestic debit cards are multibranded to use a brand like Pulse or Interlink as 'debit' system with PIN or Visa / MasterCard over their 'credit' system when signing.

UK debit cards (bar Maestro) are processed as via their 'credit' system so will usually work in US hotels that don't accept US debit cards.

Oh I aware of the PIN/signature debit procedure. The problem is since the Durbin amendment different rules apply to debit cards that run on the signature networks (Visa,MasterCard,Amex, Discover etc) such as overcharging (I.e. charging more than original authorisation in a hotel). These don't normally apply to international debit cards (For Visa debit cards anyway) but some merchants will still apply the same rule regardless and not accept debit cards.