Who is correct here? Holiday car hire question.

[rarararar]

I've booked a hire car in France through a broker (basically when I used an online search Travel Supermarket-type search engine it just automatically went through this broker company called Economy Bookings). The actual car hire company is Enterprise.

I am due to pick up the car from the Enterprise branch at the airport in France this week.

Enterprise say they accept credit or debit cards. This is clear in writing in their website and and I have also spoken to the actual branch on the phone today to double check. They were very clear that debit cards are accepted.

However the broker, Economy Bookings say I must present a credit card otherwise I won't be able to pick up the car.

Who is correct?

(context is I had my purse stolen and ordered a new credit card which is still in the post and may not arrive by the time I travel. I asked the broker first but then got confused when I saw conflicting info on the hire car company website so I contacted them directly)

I would think that Enterprise are correct if they say they accept debit cards, they probably will. That's who you'll be dealing with and I'd think it unlikely they treat direct customer bookings different to those who went through an intermediary.

However, unless you're prepared to take their extra insurance to reduce the excess, be prepared to leave a hefty deposit (often 800 to 1500 Euro). This is one of the advantages of credit cards, they're only reserving part of your credit limit not taking all your holiday spending money and then some, leaving you unable to spend money on holiday unless you've got plenty of extra money in your account.

Thanks @BarbaraofSeville I hope you are right. Thankfully I have savings so will be able to switch them across to my bank account for this purpose, but I'm just scared they'll refuse a debit card altogether and we'll be stranded with a toddler in tow!

@rarararar can I ask how this panned out? We are using Enterprise in France in a couple of weeks and although they do clearly say debit cards are fine on their website I have the same anxiety about turning up and being refused!