** Vehicle Hire queries **

Fred Swanson

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s15r330

Chimichangas wrote: »

Flying to Alicante, any recommendations for car hire?

I seee most companies are taking 1100euro deposit as an excess in case of any accidental damage etc? How do I get past this?

Havent booked a car in years but I dont recognise such a big excess, and worried they could decide to take such an amount for little or nothing..
I understand there are some ways around it(getting the excess covered..??) but how does it work?
What do I need to do, to get this excess cover, and then do or not do at the car hire company desk??

Was there in June. Booked with Centauro. Took out full excess cover and I think the card hold was little or nothing. Hassle free experience.

Chimichangas

s15r330 wrote: »

Was there in June. Booked with Centauro. Took out full excess cover and I think the card hold was little or nothing. Hassle free experience.

You took it out with Centauro? I see they offer an option with little or no excess but that option seems quite pricey?

Im hoping i can get a cheap option and not have a high excess.

s15r330

Chimichangas wrote: »

You took it out with Centauro? I see they offer an option with little or no excess but that option seems quite pricey?

Im hoping i can get a cheap option and not have a high excess.

Yep, got a Fiat 500 for 5 days with zero excess for around €90.

Just checked there, Fiat 500 Oct 27th-Oct 31st, no deposit and full cover with no excess for €112

isnottheword

Can anyone clarify - is there any company that will take Credit card without Locking up a significant amount of cash? I thought they only did this with visa debit??

coylemj

Is the company asking to take money as a deposit out of your CC account? The normal process is that they simply lock down some of your credit limit in case you damage the car but that will not be a transaction that you will see. The same happens when you check in to a hotel.

Say the name of the company and see what reaction you get here.

Cocobongo

Where abouts in spain do you want to rent? I’ve been using a company that works in canaries that only requires debit card / no deposit and fairly low prices. Give me a sec i’ll find out the name

Edit: autopluscar.com

isnottheword

Trying to sort out for someone at work. They've tried various companies - all the same.

Fred Swanson

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isnottheword

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

can you name them fred or pm me the details.

Fred Swanson

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LiamaDelta

If you take out the full excess insurance they generally only pre-authorise a small amount as a fuel deposit.

Kuva

Can anyone recommend a company in fuerteventura, that doesn't require a credit card or huge excess?

Heisenberg.

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Yamanoto

A lot like the airlines, car hire firms tend to make the most of increased demand by fleecing folks heading home to Ireland for Christmas.

Recently booked a car through Autoeurope & a week or two later the price had dropped (by about €6), but I'd be surprised to see that replicated over the festive period.

737max

study showed 10 to 14 days beforehand is cheapest but that doesn't apply to peak season e.g. 23rd December to 2nd Jan.
I won't be hiring over xmas. next week I'm hiring for under 5 euro per day.

Heisenberg.

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Yamanoto

Scenario I haven't faced before and wondering if anyone has any idea.

I want to get an additional driver on a rental, but only for a single day of a 2-week hire. Is that possible or will the rental company require you pony up for the entire duration?

Fred Swanson

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grimeire

Hey,

I booked a car on carrental.com as my own broke down and i needed a car immediately.
The car on their site it was €68.56 with hertz rental.

i went to collect the car and they told me that they only accept credit car and not visa debit, so i couldn't book the car. I went to every car rental place in the airport and everyone of them said the same that i needed a credit card.

that was last wednesday and i contacted carrental.com the next day and i am yet to hear a response.

can i get this money back or did they just basically steal €70 from me?

thanks for any help

Caranica

grimeire wrote: »

Hey,

I booked a car on carrental.com as my own broke down and i needed a car immediately.
The car on their site it was €68.56 with hertz rental.

i went to collect the car and they told me that they only accept credit car and not visa debit, so i couldn't book the car. I went to every car rental place in the airport and everyone of them said the same that i needed a credit card.

that was last wednesday and i contacted carrental.com the next day and i am yet to hear a response.

can i get this money back or did they just basically steal €70 from me?

thanks for any help

Did you read the terms and conditions? It's standard practice that only credit cards are accepted. If it was in the t&c and you didn't read/notice it you don't have a leg to stand on I'm afraid.

grimeire

the part in their terms and conditions that mention credit card doesn't actually explicitly say no visa debit credit cards. It just says credit card. isnt a debit credit card in theory a credit card, as you have the credit in your in bank account?

here is their terms and conditions section that mentions credit card.

"Your voucher / eVoucher will normally be available once full payment has been received and the car confirmed by the car hire company. Please note that certain ‘request’ cars may take longer to confirm and we will advise you, the renter, if this is the case. Where the car cannot be picked up due to insufficient documentation or failure to provide a valid credit card, this will be treated as a ‘No Show’, which means you will not be entitled to a refund of money paid. Please ensure that you, the renter, travel with your voucher / eVoucher, your full valid national driving licence and other identification – please check the ‘What You'll Need To Take’ section of your voucher / eVoucher once the car is confirmed to see if any other documentation is required."

I cant get over these car rental companies only accepting a credit card when i have more in my bank account than the vast majority of cc will give in credit.

Caranica

A debit card is not a credit card. Credit cards offer protections to a company that debit cards don't. It's as simple as that.

I believe some companies do accept debit cards at some destinations but they require a significant deposit.

Unfortunately if you accepted the T&Cs online but didn't comply with them, you are unlikely to get a refund.

grimeire

grimeire wrote: »

isnt a debit credit card in theory a credit card.

No. In accounting credits and debits are opposites.

In terms of the cards they are very different and have different conditions - one is spending savings the other is creating a loan.

grimeire

i think Caranica post "Credit cards offer protections to a company that debit cards don't" says it all the banks will protect their money but not ours

calfmuscle

I had a similar issue with car rental. Compared this week. Very sneaky company avoid at all costs!

Caranica

grimeire wrote: »

i think Caranica post "Credit cards offer protections to a company that debit cards don't" says it all the banks will protect their money but not ours

No, it's says that car hire companies want to be sure they get their money.

grimeire

Caranica wrote: »

No, it's says that car hire companies want to be sure they get their money.

i think its far more likely that the banks are a lot happier to cover the credit cards as they get to charge high interest rates on the loans compared to just the transaction fee they receive with debit cards.

why protect something you are only making 50 cent to a €1 from??

don_carlos

Very frustrating I agree, I don't have a credit card either and have had great difficulty hiring a car. In case you still need a car, Europecar will hire with a debit card if you provide 2 utility bills and they take a 250 euro deposit refunded after the rental. Dan Dooley will also rent with a debit card but both companies require that you take the more expensive insurance, raising the daily cost considerably.

grimeire

don_carlos wrote: »

Very frustrating I agree, I don't have a credit card either and have had great difficulty hiring a car. In case you still need a car, Europecar will hire with a debit card if you provide 2 utility bills and they take a 250 euro deposit refunded after the rental. Dan Dooley will also rent with a debit card but both companies require that you take the more expensive insurance, raising the daily cost considerably.

thanks i will know for the future. i never thought it would be that difficult to rent a car. i rented one i Greece a few months back and all i needed was my passport/driver's license.

bad enough, not getting a car and having to pay for a taxi home from the airport, but on top of that they dont refund me.

from looking at their reviews it seems im not the only one who had this happen to them.