Car Hire UK - Visa debit card only

I've been searching for car hire and having trouble finding a company that will accept a Visa debit card for the deposit.

I do not have a credit card.

Can anyone recommend a method for searching for a car hire company that will accept Visa debit for the deposit or know of a company which does ?

I have sufficient funds in my account to pay the deposit required which I've seen to be between £1000 and £1250.


I've been trawling through the results from the comparison sites listed here on MSE (Kayak, Carrentals and Travelsupermarket).

It's proving to be very frustrating and time consuming to go through each link to get to the fine print about exactly what payment methods are accepted for the deposit.

Final straw was when I thought I'd found one only to get the small print through after confirmation that they do not accept Visa debit. Thankfully I was able to cancel and the payment was refunded the same day.

I've already taken out a car excess insurance policy (again provided through the links on MSE)

It's for pickup/drop off in Edinburgh between 24/12/14-01/01/15 if that makes a difference.

Comments

  • Update
    Confirmed with Europcar that they accepted visa debit if you are resident in the UK.

    Logged onto their site directly and booked and paid for the car hire and deposit. The deposit was taken as part of their eready service which takes the drivers details and the deposit up front. The deposit was £250.

    Total cost was £65 more than the cheapest deal from the search engines.
  • meer53
    meer53 Posts: 10,217
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    I hired a car from Thrifty last week online and used my visa debit card for the deposit when i picked it up. It was £150. The hire for 2 weeks was £250, this included insurance.
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