hastobe Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 We were boooked to fly to France for 5 days on Wednesday - to see thenotaire / bank etc. Then MOH lost his wallet so we had tocancel his cards. Both our credit cards were in joint namesand so that left both of us without cards. Major problem - wewere due to pick up a hire car at the airport (its a fair mileagebetween our airport, accommodation, bank and notaire) - but wereinformed no way. No credit card no car. We offered ourdebit card and even offered to leave cash with them as surety - butnothing doing. There is no way we can get replacement cards intime (less than 48 hours until we fly) so we have had to arrange aferry crossing and drive down instead. We can't recover anythingon our flights, car parking or the deposit on the car hire - apparemtlyit is 'a consequential' rather than a direct loss and so not covered.Just thought we warn people - in case anyone else was planning / forcedto arrange car hire in France without having a credit card. (Apparently the UK will accept a visa debit card - but the french carhire companies won't)Hastobe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owens88 Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 Sorry to hear that. I can understand the car hire company, but not the credit card co. Even if they couldn't print the bit of plastic in time they should have been able to issue a new account for you to use virtually - and I am sure an international car hire co. would have found a way to cope with that. However the warning about over reliance on credit cards is a salutary one. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeb Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 I'm surprised! Since we've been in France (4 years), we've never had a credit card, and have hired cars on several occasions (usually Hertz or Eurocar). We have a La Poste account - very basic - and use the carte blue. Perhaps there are different rules for French cards/hire cars?Is it possible to claim this loss from your household insurance policy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Trollope Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 Quite. This UK CC/Debit card thing has been going on for ages - you will find that a Spanish (eg.) debit card will be accepted, but a UK one not. Something to do with the UK clearing banks being stuck in the 50's, I guess... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaligoBay Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 [quote user="nicktrollope"]Something to do with the UK clearing banks being stuck in the 50's, I guess...[/quote]Why do you say that, Nick? La Poste takes 15 days to clear a cheque from another French bank. Hardly what I would call speedy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 Perhaps the real problem here is not with the banks or the car hire companies but with having only joint cards. We have a mixture of joint and "own" bank accounts and credit cards. Also, I never carry all my cards around. Lesson learnt after handbag got nicked once! Having the equivalent credit card for a Fr bank account is useful, but if that was also joint names, and was in the wallet, that too would have been useless! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hastobe Posted May 9, 2006 Author Share Posted May 9, 2006 Yes Judith - lesson learned! I will be opening my own credit card account once we return from France and keeping the card well out of the way of MOH....who is at the moment in deep.....Hastobe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.