In the last few years, we've travelled extensively in New Zealand without a credit card. If any problems with a pre-book, I send a cheque in the mail, but this is rarely required.
Eight weeks ago, we finished a night flight from Hong Kong to Heathrow and to Edinburgh, arriving somewhat weary at the Avis car rental desk (in our seventies, with accommodation booked 50 miles south of the city).
We were staggered when they refused to give us our booked car, because we had no credit card - in spite of it being booked and paid three months before in NZ.
To be quite fair to Avis, the rules were in black and white on the contract and we'd ignored them.
Why? Because we had a gold debit card from a major UK bank and one thousand English pounds, our passports and return flight tickets. But it was a Saturday, and on reading the contract carefully, we realised the real reason appeared to be, sadly, Avis could not trust its staff in non-banking periods.
Writing to the managing director and board in the UK, I'm still awaiting a reply and it took our NZ travel agent about five weeks to get our money back.
Ater being told quite dispassionately by the Avis man he didn't think anyone else would help us, we ended up at the Europcar desk, where a thoroughly sympathetic and helpful young man put the whole deal on our gold debit card, and provided a virtually new car.
They looked after us equally brilliantly at Heathrow Airport seven weeks later, when we returned it. So for service with a ‘yes', remember one name well; Europcar.
W Paiuker, Tauranga City.