11436 Car hire in UK

I dont know if anyone else has come across this problem, but we had to go to the UK for a week just before Christmas for a family gathering. Before we left I had researched the cheapest car hire and booked with Budget through Vroomvroom. I paid for this with my English debit card, and everything seemed fine. When we got to Stansted Airport, we were told that we had to pay with a credit card, and not a debit card. If we did not pay with a credit card we were going to be charged with very high extra insurance costs. I explained that I only had a debit card, and nothing was said on the website. We then had a 20 minute argument, and eventually I gave them my Italian bank card, which is not a credit card, but does not have the word debit on it. She accepted this reluctantly as she did not know what sort of card it was. When did all this change? We always used to use a debit card from Barclays???:no:

Category
Travel & Holiday Advice

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 09:39

Hi mammamia,
I have found [URL="http://www.autoeurope.ie"]www.autoeurope.ie[/URL] to be the cheapest website for renting cars, they are way cheaper than AVIS,Hertz and Europcar and many more.
Take care
Paul:smile:

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 12:50

What a terrible experience! do they make more money out of credit card purchases or pay less commission. I dont even carry a credit card and if i did i would not know the chip and pin number.. I really feel sorry for you, I would certainly complain about the service you received .

I shall be aware when I use a car hire firm just in case:yes:

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 15:52

I think one of the problems using a Debit card (similar to cash) is that you could empty your account and if there's any extra to pay on the car hire they won't be able to get it.

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