Hi

We tend to take a credit card as a safeguard should anything go wrong - particularly on the medical front ( ).

However, I'm sure that you can easily get by without one if necessary - and I'm sure that alot of people must go there each year without one.
Regarding the car hire - I would have a word with the company before you go and see how you can get round not having a one ..I'm sure there must be ways and means.

One thing I would suggest, if you are able, is to open a Nationwide Flex account, which you can 'load up' before you go...this will give you the best exchange rate and easy access to cash.
Failing this the Post Office have also bought out a card you can pre-load before you go.

Hopefully you may find someone on here who has been without a card to put your mind at rest.

You would need to call the car hire company to check if they accept a debit card. Most locations do but a small minority do not. You'll probably find that the rental company takes a couple of hundred bucks out by way of deposit and then credits it back to you when you return the car.

I would check with the rental company you plan on using. Get email confirmation of their rules re debit card at the location you are planning on using. A while back I checked with our Airport Station Managers of : Alamo/Thrifty/Enterprise/Hertz/Avis/Budget/National/Dollar -for someone on this site,and the only one that would take a Debit card was Budget- with local ID. They ALL want a major Credit card.
That is not a minority.

Depending on location, even Budget may not allow you to take the car with a debit card,although they will allow you to use it to pay for it as you return the car.
If you Google 'Orlando Airport' for example,then click on Car Rentals,you can look at the reservation rules for debit cards on all the companies I mention.

I Forgot to mention I will be paying upfront (prepaying) all charges inc there platinum insurance.

Yes, it IS a minority that will not take a debit card. It tends to be the major airport locations that require it. Locations outside the major airports mostly do not require it. I have rented with several companies using a debit card (off the top of my head, Enterprise, Budget and Alamo were among them) and they were all at various locations in California.

Since the majority of rental locations are NOT at major/larger airports, it is correct to say that, overall, it is only a minority that will not accept debit card (but I appreciate that holidaymakers are unlikely to rent a car from a location outside of an airport).

Of the major rental companies- 1 out of 8 will take a debit card. By my calculation that is a minority.
It is not a matter of opinion. Their policies are clearly stated online.
You may not have found it too difficult to rent,although you have stated that it has been a couple of years since you did so, if you are a local resident.
We are not advising local people here.

If only 1 out of 8 rental companies will accept a debit card, how do you explain my wife being able to use one for TWO companies (Budget and Alamo) in the last few months? If you have a US drivers license it is no problem to use a debit card. I concede that it would be more problematic for overseas visitors, especially for airport locations, but please don't make it sound like every single person has to use a debit card regardless of their location, which is what your initial post implied.

The original question was posed by 'Buster in Hull'.
That is in England.
I went to considerable trouble to ascertain the correct information from 8 Managers of Rental locations before I posted it on this board. I have seen people turned away for lack of a credit card many times as I told you before.
This is not something I have "implied". On the contrary,this information can be verified by the click of a mouse.
So, 8 Managers are all wrong and you are correct..... hmmm, I see.

Buster- call the people you are booking with and get in writing what the booking conditions are and you can put your mind at rest. Happy travels.

I have to agree with emdia43 on the issue of the credit card. The person asking the original question will be travelling from England with probably a UK driving licence and will be collecting a car from the airport like the majority of travellers! "Buster in Hull" is not an American citizen so therefore will not have the same priviliges.

Yes emdia, you go by information from managers of locations in ENGLAND. I have made it quite clear that I am in the US and you CAN use a debit card in the US provded you have a US ID. End of discussion (unless you are saying I am lying about using a US debit card at several different rental companies).

I realize now the original poster is from England and that the use of a debit card would therefore be problematic in this case.

Really, all this trouble from one sentence in my original post ("Most locations do but a small minority do not") when the crux of that post was quite correct: that the poster should contact the rental company to ask about paying by debit card (something which you yourself agree with!).

I hope this is the end of the matter.

And I hope so too, otherwise this topic will be locked.

luci

BTW- I am in the USA-all the info I posted pertains to US rental companies. Buster's question refers to renting in the USA.

Why do so many threads end in arguments?

Locked.

Buster, sorry. Please feel free to start a new thread. I'm off on my hols soon but I know the forum will be monitored by the other mods/admin

Pippy