No credit card - holiday ruined??

[Rockmehardplace]

I’ve booked a driving holiday and need to hire a car. Turns out I need a credit card to use as a deposit against any damage and I don’t have one. I’m distraught as everything is booked & paid for. Have applied for a credit card via my bank but they’ve said it could be 7 days till they make a decision and I fly on Monday. Does anyone give instant credit cards (I have savings, no debt, good credit rating etc). To stop me losing all the money on the holiday and DC being gutted????
im already distraught about the whole thing so don’t need telling how stupid I have been :(

Idk whether these used to be acceptable, but I hired a car in Italy from Avis in June and they had a sign up listing these as one of the card types they do not accept.

You can sometimes use debit card but you’ll need the deposit amount available for them to take / hold, and then refund. This might be one option.
If you buy their excess waiver directly from them, I don’t think they still need a CC but I could be wrong. Think the hold amount comes down to like £250 or something. Worth checking with the car hire company.

Look for another hire company maybe?

Seems odd to have booked a driving holiday but never apparently ever driven abroad

or if you have driven abroad, then go with the hire company that you went with previously that didn’t require a CC

Do you definitely need a car? Shuttle taxi from/ to airport, book tours that collect from your accommodation, take local buses or taxi.

You can use your debit card!

Ok as long as you paid for the holiday on credit card you can get refunded.

Some companies will accept your application and then send you a digital card to add to your Apple/Google wallet. That might work. I have a feeling virgin credit card do this

This happened to us, but we only found out on arrival. The paperwork said to bring the card you paid with, but the company wouldn’t budge on a credit card. They cancelled the booking and we got a full refund, but we had to hire a car with a very dodgy seeming local operator. Can you cancel and book with a different operator who’ll accept a debit card?

The experience really put a dampener on the holiday for me.

Not always…

We had this in New York- didn’t find out till we were in the hire office needing to leave eeek! But they accepted viewing our boarding pass that we weren’t going to run off it with the car as we were leaving the country in two days.

I rented one in France and they used my debit card with no issues (via enterprise).

Who did you apply for your card with? I'm more shocked that it's taking you 7 days to get a decision on a credit card, I've had multiple cards over the last few years and all have been instant decisions whether I've done them via the bank or through a credit app site.

Does where you’re going have a ‘Goldcar’ branch OP? You can take out their ‘Key & Go’ package which is full insurance, full cover blablabla and so you don’t have to leave any card for excess. It costs a few hundred more but DP and I always do it after having several incidents with companies trying to get money from us for tiny scratches 😂

I have a Halifax credit card, the details became available on the app hours after I applied online. Might be useful.

We don’t have a credit card and we’ve hired cars.

Open a Monzo account, apply for a Monzo Flex, they approve it instantly if you qualify and you get a virtual card immediately to use on apple/Google pay. The card arrives quickly too

We have been caught out twice in Italy. First time, no credit card and found it impossible to find somewhere that accepted debit card and the second time we had our credit card but not the PIN number (new card and we thought they could use the card details still but nope, we had to put it in a card machine with the pin) so we ended up with no car again and a lot of walking.

If you do get one make sure you have the PIN number too!

Good luck, at least you are looking now as we were faffing around at the airport for hours when we realised.

Get the insurance that covers everything and leave a deposit on your debit card - Europcar car do this

My daughter had the same in Greece but they accepted her Starling card - she had enough cash on it to cover the cost of the hire.

I was going to suggest Monzo and adding the card to your wallet, another poster has beaten me to it.

You won’t get a physical card with them by Monday but I doubt that will be needed.

There are certain companies that take Debit cards, when booking a car hire you can specify this. We don't have a CC and book hire cars all the time as live abroad and often travel to the UK/ Europe/Asia. Not impossible but sometimes a raff.

Another recommendation for Goldcar keyngo!

hat country are you going to?

When we went to the US we had the same problem and we discovered Turo - like AirBnB fir for cars i.e. you hire direct from the owner.

We got a much better car that way!

They operate in the US, Canada, France, UK and some other countries, and accept debit cards. (Or did 5 years ago, I assume they still do).

www.turo.com

For other European countries see this article

https://www.dittofi.com/learn/turo-competitors

Good luck!

Dh got one through Monzo within minutes and it came next day in a the Saturday post.

If you pay the additional insurance they don't usually care about this. Call them and see?

We’ve rented cars in Balearics and Canaries and never needed a credit card. We tend to go for small, local companies, as it’s the bigger chains who tend to need deposits and holds. Maybe see if there are any local companies you could use instead?

Same for us in Greece, pick up a car from the airport, use a local firm, their policy says a CC but we always pay cash.
Greece may be different to other countries though, I have noticed that most Greek businesses prefer cash these days.
Give the car company a ring and explain you don't have a CC or else cancel and use a local firm