To ask you to help me sort this holiday nightmare!!

[CantKeepCalm2]

I’m sick with worry over this and unable to sleep as a result.

My husband, kids and I are going on holiday to Spain in just over a week. We are going to Alicante but to keep costs down, I booked flights to Madrid as I saw the train looked cheap from there to Alicante. I think the airport is half an hour from the train station in Madrid but thought with the train being cheap, we would hopefully be able to figure out a shuttle bus or something that might take us.

Fast forward to now and the train prices have sky rocketed. I was really silly not to book at the time, but I didn’t expect the markup to be quite so extreme.

I came up with a plan b. Hire a car in madrid to drive us to Alicante on arrival day, and same again on departure day. I’ve booked this all but have now realised we are going to have issues as neither DH or I have a working credit card. Long story short but we moved from the UK to another European country and when I lost my credit card, i tried to cancel it on my husband’s app and accidentally cancelled his card. I tried to resolve this with the bank but they couldn’t deal with me as I wasn’t the main card holder. On top of that, I have a pin block on my credit card as a result of getting the pin wrong 3 times. Again, this has been a nightmare to sort as the bank wouldn’t deal with me and my husband has been rarely home due to his work (military).

Anyway, after booking the hire car a couple of days ago, my husband was able to call the bank. Unfortunately it’ll take 10 working days for his new card and the pin should arrive 3 days later, so this doesn’t help with our hire car. They advised me I could go to an ATM and sort my pin. I tried that today but to no avail, the ATM here didn’t have a “pin services” option. And I’ve been thinking, surely I can’t change my pin anyway since I don’t know the pin to begin with.

We can cancel the hire car and receive a full refund up to 48 hours before the trip. If we do that, it’s going to cost us loads getting the train, plus I haven’t figured out a way to get from Madrid airport to Madrid train station. I can’t change the flights because direct flights will cost us an extra £1000 at least and I can’t afford that. What do I do? I’ve really messed this up badly and know I sound like the most disorganised person. I’ve just massively dropped the ball on this one. 😢

Do what MRex says.

Let's face it

Well done OP have a great time.

Well done! Sometimes when you're panicked, it's hard to think outside the box. A post on here and you've sorted it!
Have a lovely holiday

Well done op. Have a great holiday!

Hi @CantKeepCalm2, this happened to me with a car hire company as I also don't have a credit card. They offered instead to take a £1200 deposit instead which I in no way could afford as had no savings. However, if you do, might this be an option for you? Worth checking out.

A bit late to reply but I rwad you had a Virgin Credit Card. Did you know you can download the virgin credit card app and view your pin? Might be able to reset it on there aswell.

Download Rome2rio and check there. Sorry I don’t have more advice but I have relied heavily on this app to get me around Italy by train and bus. X

Have you looked at hoppa? They are really good for transporting tourists from a to b, you get a choice of own car or share a bus. Not sure if there but worth a look as cheaper than a taxi, more convenient than busses etc. Good luck, none of us can be organised all the time and hindsight is a wonderful thing. X

Also, could u possibly just apply for a new card and it will be there in days hopefully? X

Because you may not have funds in you account?

When I lived in Spain, most people used the buses which were cheap, frequent, punctual and most importantly air conditioned. Is that an option for you? I never took the train in Spain, only ever the coach. It was some years ago but double check with a rough guide type website to see what the current situation is. Good luck!!

Is your accommodation in alicante free cancellation? If so maybe look see if u can book something closer to Madrid Airport instead?

Haven’t read all the replies but there are brokers who find car hire abroad without credit cards, I needed had a credit card and rented cars in Spain and France via them

Buy a prepaid credit card!

This happened to us in Switzerland once - we had no idea we would need a credit card and we don’t use them - and a guy from the queue stepped in and allowed us to use his card to secure the car. He said we looked trustworthy!

This is a great idea

We were at Atocha a few days ago - if you have luggage on some routes, it needs to go through a security process, like in an airport. The queues were quite long so allow plenty of time.

I wish we could close threads.

If you read the thread, OP is sorted. ( yet advice keeps coming….)

Have you spoken to the car company. Online the terms were credit card only. But when I phoned up and told them I didn't have one, they said we could use a debit card once it was the one shown at the desk. Might be worth a try.

Aaaaaah!

SHE HAS SORTED IT. PLEASE READ THE THREAD. 😂

Give the money to a friend and ask to use their credit card number, expiration date and 3 digit code. They could maybe call the car hire company themselves.
Obviously wont' work if the company needs to put the card in a machine, but if it's only for a deposit, should be fine.
For ages I didn't have a credit card, only debit without Maestro/Visa, and I had to ask friends to book certain things for me.

I’m not.
No fool wants to go to Madrid in August least of all OP.

😂😂😂

I give up!

Download Cabify or Uber and book a car once you land. You can pay by PayPal. I just got you a quote, see below. Good luck.

Just to add, I hired a car from Centuro with my debit card. They didn’t bat an eyelid when I gave it to them. Also if you take the extra insurance out and it lowers the excess.