Car rental with just a debit card ???

Guss

We are popping across the sea to Northern Ireland soon and plan to rent a car from the airport. Now before I ring round the various rental agencies I thought I'd ask this on here.

My partner has a credit card but I only have a debit card due to having CC problems several years ago, which I am currently paying off. I vowed never to use credit cards again. The problem is my partner doesn't like driving much so it will be up to me.

The problem with this is that I've not come across a car rental agency that only accepts debit cards so it would mean my partner taking out the rental contract and then adding me as an additional driver. This incurs extra expense we'd like to try and avoid.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I know people might suggest taking out a payg credit card to build up my credit history but it's too late for that since we will be travelling in a couple of months.

z1a

I've used Europcar a couple of times in Spain though. Paid with cash both times, could have used debit card.

pompeyrich

SIXT say they accept UK debit cards, Maestro and Visa but will take £250 deposit and reimburse it on completion of the rental, perhaps worth a call.

A couple of others come up on google, indigo and debitcardcarrentals, although I have never heard of these agan worth investigating in your circumstances.

AdrianC

Look at it from the rental company's point of view. They're handing you £10k or so of car, with potentially an uninsured liability of quite a few hundred quid. They want to know that they can get that shortfall covered in the event of you not handing the car back, or handing a crumpled ball back. THAT's why they insist on credit cards, rather than just debit. Or, if they do take debit, they earmark a deposit on it...

DoaM

Can you not take out the rental but your partner pays for it?

Do the T&Cs say absolutely that the driver must be the one who pays?

Dr_Crypto

I did it in Spain years ago - never again. They took something like £1k from my account and returned it at the end. Two lots of transaction fees and I lost on the currency fluctuation. Only use a CC now.

Mercdriver

Before I drove several times I booked and paid for car hire through Avis without being named as a driver at all. Avis didn't bat an eyelid.

Guss

Thanks folks for all the valuable replies.

Doam:
We did that a couple of years ago and when we went to pick up the car there was so much hassle as according to them the name on the CC payment had to be the driver! Got our way in the end.

Pompeyrich:
Yes that seems sensible as long as any excess is backed up by funds on the debit card I don't see why more companies don't accept debit cards as long as you have the extra insurance to cover total loss due to a crash.

peachyprice

Avis take debit cards and will ringfence £200. I use them regularly in NI. They're usually also the cheapest, especially at Belfast City. A few weeks ago I got a 3 day rental for £42 whereas Hertz wanted £130.

macman

DoaM wrote: »

Can you not take out the rental but your partner pays for it?

Do the T&Cs say absolutely that the driver must be the one who pays?

I suspect that the problem is that in the event of the hirer wanting to make a claim for damage off the card, then if the cardholder has not signed the contract, he has not consented to allow them to do that and could sue them.
If he signs as a second driver then he has consented to those terms and the issue no longer arises.

Guss

peachyprice wrote: »

Avis take debit cards and will ringfence £200. I use them regularly in NI. They're usually also the cheapest, especially at Belfast City. A few weeks ago I got a 3 day rental for £42 whereas Hertz wanted £130.

Thank you for the heads up on this :beer: