Messed up holiday car booking. Help!

[stayathomegardener]

First world problems and all that.

Dd and I fly to the Canaries on Tuesday morning, just checked in and tried to book a hire car with Ryan Air, all going well until the end of the booking when it confirms you need to present a credit card on arrival.

Yep, I don't have one.

We are staying in an isolated Airbnb in a volcano, are we doomed?

Action plan so far, I've just been approved for a credit card but it won't arrive for a week. Dd has a credit card but won't be able to drive as she's not 21 till the week after.

DH arrives 9 days later with his credit card so we will be mobile then but grrrrrr.

I'm normally so organised too.

Any solutions I'm not thinking of?

Does the credit card need to belong to the driver??

Just pay using daughter’s card...what’s the problem?

Your daughters card will likely work if she gives you the PIN and she’s got enough of a credit limit for a hold to be put on the card. Fiancé has used mine before and it’s been fine, and I can’t drive.

Which island? Tbh if you're not in a town or resort you'll struggle.

We've stayed in both air bnbs and hotels in Tenerife and Lanzarote, and without a car you can't get about very easily. We've hired a car each time.

Staying in a town like Puerto de la Cruz or Playa Blanca without a car is ok, as there's lots of bars and restaurants and attractions in walking distance, but I would have been bored without being able to drive around.

Though most recently we were in a hotel with heated pools, sky tv, a pool bar and restaurant, and we were quite happy to just chill out by the pool most daytimes.

Use your DDs credit card surely?

Ok so card has to belong to the driver.

DD's card even if they accepted it only has a student limit of £500

Its central Lanzarote, definitely a place we need a car.

Kicks self.

Which island? There are some companies that will let you hire with just a debit card - would that work for you?

www.autoreisen.com/car-hire/car-hire.php?isla=Lanzarote

Could you not ask your DH to organise an extra card for you on
his CC account? And express deliver it to you?
Friend who didn’t have a CC got one arranged on his wife’s CC account (with her permission!) for the very same reason.

@CwtchesCuddles that says credit or debit card!
Trying that now.

Hmm. So you're staying inland somewhere near the volcano park, meaning you're not near the resort towns. You'll be a bit stranded til he arrives then, even town buses are a bit shit.

How are you getting to the Airbnb from the airport? You'll definitely need to stock up at one of the big supermarkets near the airport.

Is the little pool heated? It's not massively warm there at the moment.

@Tartyflette we don't share a bank accounts or names so I suspect that's going to be problematic.
I'm not sure DH's bank knows I even exist.

Weird but it worked well for the last 30 years. Perhaps we should change that.

I hired a car in Alicante before without a credit card, on a comparison website I used it gave two options to pay a £1500 hold on a credit card and £60 hire or to take extra insurance which bumped up the car hire to £200 but meant we didn't need to pay the £1500. Might be worth emailing them direct as hopefully they can offer you a similar option

Cant you cancel the car hire and go to another hire company?

In my experience though hire companies abroad ALWAYS want a credit card...

Use autoreisen, they're one of the few companies who are well priced and don't pile on hidden charges, and accept debit cards.

However, make sure you have plenty of spare money in the account as they might want to hold some money and it could be 1000 euro or more. You don't want to not be able to access any money or have all your direct debits bounce due to this.

But definitely have a credit card available for this sort of thing, makes things much easier.

We had thIs in Spain. OH was designated driver even though I’d made the booking.
He doesn’t have a CC, I do. They wouldn’t let me use my CC as I wasn’t driving, so DH was able to use his DC, as it’s for indemnities .

I used Elizabeth car hire one Lanzarote and it was cash in the day if I remember rightly.

Unmumsnetty ❤️ @CwtchesCuddles
Just waiting or confirmation on that but website is clear they take debit cards too.

Thank you all so much.

I can recommend Autoreisen (or however you spell it too).

I'm pretty sure we used a debit card because we didn't have a credit card at the time and we made a slight scratch on the car coming out of the airports stupidly tight exit and they never charged us for it; and I stressed about it aaaaaaaaaall holiday.

Autoreisen accepted a debt card so all good. Thank you all.

Don't panic try autoreisen. Will.link.
They are brilliant no extras. We booked for gran canaria and car can be picked up with a debit card

autoreisen.com/car-hire/terms.php#p01

Oh I'm late to the autoreisen party! They also provide free extra driver and decent child seats

Autoreisen are brilliant