We don't do credit cards and are looking into a vacation for next summer already. We went to San Antonio Seaworld this year and used someone elses credit card for our hotel reservations and there was issues with doing it that way.. We don't want to get far away and have the same issues, so how does one go about reserving a room without a credit card??? We do have one of those Walmart Moneycards that we use for our bills but I was told that they take extra money off and put a hold on it for a month if you don't have an actual credit card. We can't afford that.. Any suggestions??
does your bank account allow debit cards? I don't use credit cards either, but I have a Visa debit card on my bank account. It swipes like a credit card anywhere Visa is accepted, but it takes the money straight from my bank account instantly vs paying it later on a credit card statement.
We don't have a credit card per say but we do have the bank issued visa debit/credit card. We have used it all over for multiple hotel stays and vacations. Some of the small non chain hotels will take cash and not require a cc to hold the room. I think that you can also just walk in and pay cash without having a cc to hold the room, but you will not have reservations.
We don't have a bank account either. We have no need for one. We pay cash for most of everything that we purchase and if we need a credit card we use the prepaid walmart card.. We were going to use it to book our hotel room this past summer and was told that they have to have an extra $300 dollars on it that they would place a hold on for at least a month in case we have damages. They considered it a debit card. Same rules apply to bank debit cards. "real" credit cards aren't charged like that so we opted to allow a relative to place it on their card and we payed them the cash. But almost didn't get the room since we didn't physically have the credit card on us when we checked in. I hate to travel for extended stay and not have a confirmed place to stay. Especially with it being so far from home.
I can't think of any way to do it without an actual credit card, is there any way you could get a credit card just for this purpose? Then you can freeze it in a block of ice when you aren't using it, and thaw it out specifically to take on vacation with you?
gosh, $300 hold for one full month? ouch. While I see the hotel's point (darn un-truthful people that ruin it for the honest ones!), it sure makes your situation difficult. what if you went through a travel agency? Had the travel agency book everything for you and then you pay through them, allowing you to pay in cash. I'm sure that would increase the cost some, but not near a $300 increase.
WOW!!! I would also get a credit card to use just for situations like this. Use the card to hold it, and then pay with cash.
We did Disney on one of those timeshare-type presentations and used a debit-as-credit. I did have issues renting a car, but they just placed a bigger hold. I didn't think to tell them to run it as a credit card.
We don't have credit cards, either. We've had trouble renting cars with our debit/credit card. We had trouble one time renting a room. They wanted $150 as deposit and gave it back in cash when we checked out. Other than that, we've had no issues using our debit/credit cards for hotels. We even used our debit/credit cards on our cruise. No problems. Maybe you can try calling different hotels to see what their policy is regarding the cash deposit and hold times. They should all be different.
Wow -- someone else like us! We have actually gotten laughed at by friends who can't believe we are cash only people. I will say, have you tried Greendot? We got a greendot card when we went to a homeschool convention a few years ago in Atlanta. I made reservations using Travelocity with our greendot -- you have to be careful, some of the hotels do take it off right then and some don't. I've also used our greendot on Orbit and a couple of other travel sites. Then when we get there, we just say cash. We have never once had a problem and we've done this now many many times. I don't put much on the card either -- usually a hundred. And we don't leave it on there.
