In Bilbao, specifically. We’re having a week over there and want to hire a car. I’ll be doing most (read all) of the driving but due to my chequered past I don’t have a credit card. Rental places insist on payment being made on a credit card in the name of the main driver.

So – does anyone know if I can pay on a prepaid card and then ideally leave the deposit on a different card (MrsMonkey has a grown up credit card).

I’m in Bilbao at the moment. Picked up a hire car from Budget at the airport. It didn’t seem to matter if the card you used to pay for the car was different to the one you used as a deposit.

1. Make sure you get a car from one of the airport desks (a couple of cheaper options operate ‘nearby’ and are a royal pain to get / from.

2. Buy third party instance as much cheaper. See Moneysavingexpert for details.

Should be fine. Deposit doesn’t need to be on the same card so you can use the mrs’s for that.

As others have said, they don’t care which card the deposit goes on.

I use annual policies with ihirecarinsurance – linked from moneysavingexpert I think. Bear in mind that with a lot of these policies, you will have to pay excess up front then claim back – but they’re pretty good about paying up quickly. So make sure you can actually pay the excess if the worst happens. Otherwise, perhaps pay for an excess reduction at least.

Cool. We were looking at third party insurance so I’ll bear that in mind – we have the funds to cover any excess if required, just no credit card in my name!

Try Holiday Autos for the car hire.Had some cheap deals from them.£1 a day in December in southern Spain.