I certainly won't be panicking! Even if they start charging I'll stay with the Co-op as I'm happy with their service and their ethical policy and to me that's important.
If everyone is going to be charging, I can't see the point in changing.
I have everything I need with Nationwide. I do still have a full account with Barclays, and as soon as my IVA is finished I shall go back and use that as I have a debit card with that.
I'm fine with things as they are at the moment.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Just returning to the original post concerning car hire, I have been looking around for a couple of months now for a prepaid card that lets you do this, the Cashplus card is ( as far as I can find out via websites and with help from this forum) the only one that I could find.
There is a monthly fee or a 'pay as you use' option and this can be changed on a monthly basis to suit whatever you plan to use it for.
If you require just to hire a car, the pay as you use option is probably the best once the company has 'switched' it on for you after a few months of regular use.
In reference to debit cards, not all hire company's accept debit cards or cash for the hire of a car and some take a huge deposit, I once was quoted 900 euro deposit for a one day hire of a fiesta so make sure of the deposit charges before you hire.
Also if you use a debit card, it has to be one which has raised/embossed numbers, all pre paid card except cashplus do not have this, I also have a paypal card and the numbers are not raised/embossed
Finally just a thought, the co-op cashminder account that the NAT14 mentioned does come now with a debit card but some people are saying that it is in fact a Visa Electron in disguise which if it is, again are not accepted by car hire company's.
Last edited by Endsmeet on Sun Jul 19, 2009 6:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thankyou all so much for your replys. I will definately be looking into alternative prepaid cards. We have a tuxedo and a paypal card already but neither of these will allow you to hire a car.
Looking around on most car hire websites in the T&C it states that they won't accept prepaid cards. Life isn't meant to be easy at all for us in IVA's...lol!! The other problem is that we need the car in less than a month so won't be able to use the card for the few months first as stated.
I've had a dig around about the Co-op debit card, apparantly it was acting as a electron but they are now reverting it back to being a visa debit card. Hopefully they will accept our application and it will be a normal direct debit card. It's annoying as I don't even want a debit card, that's what contributed to getting us in this situation in the first place!! Happy spending...cash is much easier.
Thanks again...I'll keep looking and keep you updated!!
I've had a look at reviews of the cashplus card and there seems to be a lot of negative comments. For example people transferring funds and them taking over a month to credit on the card, customer services promising that the hire car facility has been turned on then when trying to use it to hire a car it won't work etc
If anybody has a cashplus card could you tell me if you have expierienced similiar problems??
Hi Nat,
Not sure if this will help, but we had the same problem when we wanted to hire a car abroad.
We did not want to use our debit card as this is the only account we have and all our money goes into this, so we applied for a got a pre paid credit card called Gold Card (cash plus) we were told that they needed to see 3-4 transations on it before they would unblock it for car hire. We put on some money on it to use for petrol fot the month and true to their word it was unbolocked after 3 transations. We have had no problems with it at all. I think we had to pay a fee for setting it up but it was well worth it.
Thankyou for all of your help. Thanks to all of the links and help I think the problem is now solved!!
I have just spoken to somebody at our local Enterprise Car Hire Branch and they will hire a car with a prepaid card, any of the majors cards - Visa, Mastercard etc so our current Tuxedo pre paid card will be fine. They will take the cost of the car hire off the card plus a £150 deposit. As the refund can't be put back onto the card they will issue you a cheque - this can take up to 28 days to come back....a small price to pay!!
We will go and book the car next week after we've been paid so I will let you know how we get on!!
Great news - and a great thread for anyone else who is looking at car hire.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Just an update, I have had an email back from the clearcash team and as long as the car hire company accepts mastercard then the clearcash card can be used for carhire. It appears there are a few options available for anyone looking at car hire.
IVA.co.uk The best place for debt advice. Thanks to Melanie Giles, David Mond, David and J (Elv5) Kallis, Dand, Skippy, Andy Davie
