Car Hire In Spain With No Credit Card?
I am traveling to spain soon and need a hire car. I have been told that i need a credit card to do this. As i do not have one and don’t particularly want to get one just for this, is it possible to get a pre paid credit card and use that?
It should be, but if I was you, stick to a big company like AVIS or HERTZ.
Alamo car hire (part of nationwide vehicle hire) in Spain totally dumped on me we had pre paid the entire rental AND deposit, but thier pencil necked airport rep refused to give us a car without seeing a credit card. This was at 1am in Allicante. We had to get family out of bed to drive nearly 200 miles round trip to rescue us, and to this day I have recieved no apology, and no refund (£300 plus, lost)
Tread carefully, and really make certain you are getting your car under your terms. If possible arrange pickup at a time when an english speaking rep can be found, or at least phoned should things go tit’s up.
We hired from Avis next trip, 100% excellent service, and got bumped up to a medium size a Seat Cordoba in as good as new condition because the small car we had paid for was un-valeted when we arrived.
It’s pretty much worldwide that you need a credit card to hire a car. The reason is for security and insurance. I’ve never come across a company that will let you hire a car without a credit card, and I’ve travelled quite a bit in my life.
A credit card is handy to have whilst travelling in Spain. It saves taking too much cash with you. You also get a good rate of exchange if you need to buy goods. Once you get home you can cut it up or shred the card.
The well known car hire companies such as Avis and Hertz are great people to hire with but expensive, compared to hiring in Spain with someone like Carjet Iberia. You will save as much as a third of the cost.
Sorry but you wil have this problem anywhere you hire a car. They need to see your creditcard for various reasons:
1. To charge the hire
2. Insurance
3. To verify that you actually can be tracked down if you steal the car.
Debit cards won’t do it either.
You should be able to use a prepaid debit card. I often use prepaid debit cards when traveling because it can be safer than using a credit card or debit card that is attached to my bank account (in case anything happens). I have put hotels on reserve and paid for them using a prepaid debit card, so I am sure you should have no problem with hiring a car because it is essentially the same thing.
I think the kind of prepaid card ‘rose1′ is referring to is the ones that dont have your name on them, in which case, Im sure those ones wouldnt work. You probably need one that is reloadable and holds your identification, like the accountnow prepaid debit card ( http://www.accountnow.com ).
That might work. Why do you “need” a car? In most places it is tremendously easier to just use public transport.