As we race towards the holiday season, many people will be looking at hiring a car to ferry themselves around the place while overseas.
They will no doubt have been alarmed by a recent report from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) that highlighted how as many as two in five Irish holidaymakers who hired a car overseas last year experienced difficulties – with long waiting times, hidden fees and misleading descriptions among the most common problems.
According to the CCPC, the problems have continued into this year, with its helpline receiving 78 contacts about issues relating to car rental, mostly with unexpected or excessive charges so far in 2026.
We have two stories from readers that illustrate the kinds of things that can go wrong.
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“I booked a rental car in July for our summer holidays in Tuscany,” begins the mail from Ronan. “The rental was for eight days and I booked it through booking.com.”
He paid €574 and added another €116.42 for fully comprehensive insurance for the eight days, taking the total cost to just under €700. He had booked and paid for a car using his debit card with the same company in the UK in the past and had no issues.
But that was about to change.
“When we arrived at Florence train station to pick up the car, we were told that we would have to provide a credit card and a deposit of €500,” he says. “Neither my wife nor I use a credit card. I used to have one but done away with it [be gone Satan] and all of that.”
He says he was told he couldn’t have the car “because of the rental agreement which states that we have to give a deposit of €500 on our credit cards”.
Somewhat flummoxed, Ronan tried to come up with a workaround. “Then I realised that I had a virtual credit card on my banking app, but he wouldn’t take it. I said I would offer him a deposit of €500 on my debit card and I could claim it back if I returned the car in one piece – he refused.”
It cost us €1,000 and we had to leave the car back to Florence. This cost us an additional €250 on train fares
In a bit of a panic at this stage and realising that they were going to be stranded, Ronan offered to pay €500 extra for the car “as I knew this would be cheaper than having to book a rental car at short notice”.
The offer was refused.
“Luckily we went around the corner and a very kind man at Avis allowed us to book a car with the debit card, but it cost us €1,000 and we had to leave the car back to Florence. This cost us an additional €250 on train fares as we had planned to deposit the car back at the airport in Rome so we had to get a train from Florence to Rome and from Rome city centre to the airport,” he says.
He wants to know why the company he had previously used in the UK have a different policy at Leeds-Bradford to the one it had at Florence? And he wants to know why some car rental companies insist on a credit card when a debit card should suffice?
The reason why many – but not all – car hire companies insist on a credit card is because they believe it is a more effective way of managing their risk before giving you the keys to a car that costs in excess of €20,000.
Car hire companies routinely place a pre-authorisation on a credit card to cover potential costs such as fuel, tolls, parking fines, late return charges and damage and there is firmly held belief that credit cards are better suited to this, as a customer with a credit card with a certain agreed limit has an established line of credit that has been pre-approved by their own bank and processing delayed charges is easier.
[ Hiring a car abroad: Here’s how to avoid any nasty surprises this summerOpens in new window ]
While car hire companies might have the same name, they will operate by different rules in different countries. In the US, for example, credit cards are almost universally required, while in Europe debit cards can sometimes be accepted, but generally speaking only by the largest companies.
It is a cautionary tale and anyone looking to hire a car this year using a debit card would do well to check the Ts&Cs with the company rather than simply assuming that because they were able to make the reservation with a debit card they will be able to drive away in their rental without also having a credit card in their own name.
A reader called Gerald was in France for a few days at the end of April and he rented a car in Nantes Airport. He was not best pleased to be hit with a charge of just over €930 for damage he says he was not responsible for after he got home.
He emailed to say he arrived at the car hire desk on the Sunday of his departure from France at around 1:30pm and asked for the car to be given the once-over by a member of staff.
“I was told that no employee was available to do so,” he writes. He also says the fuel tank was only three-quarters full when he hired the car and not completely full as he had been told and says he was told he would be given a credit for the quarter of a tank. He says that never happened. But of more concern was the alleged damage to the car.
“The vehicle was not damaged upon return, and I have a witness to confirm this,” he says. He says the proof the car hire company sent him of damage to the car were blurry pictures taken on April 28th at 4:45pm “approximately two days, three hours, and forty-five minutes after I returned the vehicle”.
“Waiting so long to take these photos is unacceptable, and I cannot be held responsible for any damage that may have occurred between the time I returned the vehicle and the time the photos were taken.
He stresses that he was “not involved in any car accidents with anyone during the rental period. I am not responsible for this damage.”
This is another commonly told story and the best advice we can give Gerald is to make contact with the European Consumer Centre (ECC) which now operates under the auspices of the CCPC.
Its website – www.eccireland.ie – has a templated letter that can be used to complain directly to the car hire company and, if that fails, the ECC has the capacity to intervene on behalf of individual consumers.
