Booking a Honeymoon without a Credit Card!

adton

My wife and I are planning a trip to South Africa next year for our honeymoon. We have sourced all flights and accommodation in the various places that we are planning to stay there. We have the money to book it, only problem is we don't have a credit card to book with, and we don't want to get one anyway. We are considering asking a travel agent to book the holiday for us, but will they charge a fortune to do this? Anyone have any suggestions as to how we could go about booking it?

Miguel_Sanchez

Get one of the 3v temporary credit cards perhaps?

You put money on them and it only allows you to spend what's there.

sillysocks

I haven't used one of these but saw them advertised the other day and it might be what you're looking for....

http://www.o2online.ie/o2/o2-money/

It says it can be used anywhere that accepts Visa.

mikedragon32

Or see if your bank can issue you a Visa Debit card. Some banks have brought them in to replace Laser cards and they can be used anywhere like a Visa Credit card, once there's money in your account. PTSB and Ulster Bank have them anyway, BOI are rolling them out soon afaik.

adton

Thanks for the replies, but unfortunately there is a limit on those cards of 350 or so. I'd need to pay one lump sum for the flights which would be a few thousand, so the prepays are out.

adton

mikedragon32 wrote: »

Or see if your bank can issue you a Visa Debit card. Some banks have brought them in to replace Laser cards and they can be used anywhere like a Visa Credit card, once there's money in your account. PTSB and Ulster Bank have them anyway, BOI are rolling them out soon afaik.

Nice one, just checked ptsb website, this looks feasible. Looks like we'll be going on safari after all!

dee.

Just a word of warning about visa debit cards, I have one from ulster bank and had quite a bit of trouble with making a large purchase. Firstly I purchased my camera online for over €2000 euros last year and that transaction went smoothly. Then a few months ago I lodged about €2500 to order a laptop from apple. Tried ordering online and over the phone and it kept getting denied. Ulster Bank were saying Apples bank needed to authorise my card (?!) the guy at Apple was so friendly but couldn't believe they were actually saying that. Spent the whole day on the phone to various depts at UB, went into my local branch, got so much conflicting information. In the end the solid answer was.. there is a limit on the visa debit cards, they cannot tell you how much that limit is (ridiculous, I know, considering you're prepaying the money) and they cannot raise it. Now one person on the phone said this limit is €2000, another person in another section said there is no limit, so I don't know what to believe. I paid over €2000 for my camera so I don't believe the 2k limit. It was a lot of hassle and in the end I just withdrew the money and ordered it on credit card.

Super long story but yeah, I had a bad experience. Fingers crossed that it works for you though.

sillysocks

Have a look at the end of this page. You can top up the card by 2,500 (but you have to do it over a few days as 350 is the daily limit) or by 10,000 if you go into an O2 shop with ID.
God I sound like a saleswoman for them!

Went to South Africia for our honeymoon and its definitely worth the effort of trying to find a card to use so you can get there

http://www.o2online.ie/o2/o2-money/about-o2-money/

Savman

dee. wrote: »

Just a word of warning about visa debit cards, I have one from ulster bank and had quite a bit of trouble with making a large purchase. Firstly I purchased my camera online for over €2000 euros last year and that transaction went smoothly. Then a few months ago I lodged about €2500 to order a laptop from apple. Tried ordering online and over the phone and it kept getting denied. Ulster Bank were saying Apples bank needed to authorise my card (?!) the guy at Apple was so friendly but couldn't believe they were actually saying that. Spent the whole day on the phone to various depts at UB, went into my local branch, got so much conflicting information. In the end the solid answer was.. there is a limit on the visa debit cards, they cannot tell you how much that limit is (ridiculous, I know, considering you're prepaying the money) and they cannot raise it. Now one person on the phone said this limit is €2000, another person in another section said there is no limit, so I don't know what to believe. I paid over €2000 for my camera so I don't believe the 2k limit. It was a lot of hassle and in the end I just withdrew the money and ordered it on credit card.

Super long story but yeah, I had a bad experience. Fingers crossed that it works for you though.

I had the same problem with Ulster Bank + Apple, still something of a mystery but there was absolutely no workaround and in the end I just gave up after many calls back and forth.