Timmy Molloy - London Boy

Hi

The company who I hire a car from here asked me to present a new card for this months renewal as my end date is 12/09. Rang UK bank who I have the Mastercard with and they said they credit score all renewals, but as I'm now offshore they can't credit score me so I wont be getting a new card.

Dont really care about not having a credit card. I use it very little.., only for the car hire and there's only a small amount owing on it.

It does present me with a small problem though. Is there an easy a quick way I can get a credit card here with little fuss. I only need it for the car hire.

Back in August I spoke to Emirates Bank briefly about credit cards, and they offered me a card with 10000Dhs limit if I gave them a cheque from my local account for 10000Dhs. Hmmm!

I guess the other question I could ask is are there any firms who hire cars accepting debit card or even cheques as payment?

TM - LB

co durham boy

a debit card will suffice,as long as its got the visa/mastercard operating system attached.
the only difference being the money is debited direct from your current account instead of a credit account.
they won't know the difference if its credit or debit as the is taken through the same operating system.

Timmy Molloy - London Boy

get away! are you being serious?

I'm not 100% convinced cos I thought the point of the credit card is they can pre-authorise future rentals, or know that your balance is enough to cover excess payment arising from accident damage - but I might try and give it a go

norsk

There's no real difference between a debit and credit card from the merchant's point of view. They are both guaranteed by the card schemes, and the only way they can be guaranteed funds is by authorising and then settling the authorisation on your card. If they only authorise (and don't settle) they have no guarantee of getting that money as the authorisation expires after a while (max 14 days I think, but usually a lot quicker) .

I've used my visa debit card (which clearly says debit in large letters on the front) as security for my car rentals in the past...

Alternatively you could get a prepaid credit card. There must be someone in Dubai/AD who offer them by now. They even have them in Saudi...

flares

is what I would suggest - NBAD do them

Timmy Molloy - London Boy

Thanks for the tips. I just read up on NBAD online and yes, this could be the answer.

Seems incredible that you could obtain a card that doesnt need a check, and having a bank account isnt a pre-requisite.., then you can go out and hire one of them Maseratis which I like and cost over £100k

Autonomy

oh please buy it... go on... that would be dope....

cranston

what bank is that with?

I hope its not NatWest.

goatherder

Up to 45 days depending on the card issuer typically. Debit products being the worst usually.