Just booked a car with Europcar for 11 days in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

I thought it was unusual that they requested all credit card info for what is a cancel-able reservation.

I started checking online reviews here on Fodors and apparently they have a lot of complaints.

Would it be a mistake to rent with Europcar? The other car rental companies seem to be almost 30-50% higher.

I always start with AutoEurope -- not always but usually they will get you the best rates and their customer service is amazing. They are not a rental agency but a broker and work with all the majors -- including EuropCar. But they have your back if anything goes pear shaped.

I've never had a problem with EuropCar myself (maybe 4 rentals over the years - never in Ireland) -- But most issues with any company will be rental agency location-specific.

Can't speak to Ireland, but for decades I did all my rentals through AutoEurope (which partners with EuropeCar, among others), and had zero complaints.

I had an issue with EuropeCar once when I rented on the Ile d'Oléron through AutoEurope, but AutoEurope handled it swiftly and efficiently and at no cost to me.

The reason for the credit card info is so they can put a hold on the card for the rental charge. If you cancel they release the hold, if you fail to turn up without cancelling they impose the charge. It is quite normal in my experience, same with cancelable hotel bookings. It also proves your card isn't maxed out, and won't be by the time you come to pay.

For many years now on Fodor's Europe Forum AutoEurope in any country it seems is highly recommended by Fodorites.

Europcar is a huge rental company, someone is going to complain about every company, I don't recall there being many complaints about them on here at all.

If you don't like giving your credit card, you really aren't going to like Autoeurope as I think they require prepayment, even if it is refundable if you cancel within a certain time frame. But it's not like booking directly where you can cancel up until departure usually. I know becuase I wanted to cancel a Hertz reservation in France once, change of plans, and I did it a few hours before pickup, which cost me nothing. If I had rented through Autoeurope, I couldn't have done that, and they had a higher rental fee, also for the same place and car.

But if you don't have any intention of cancelling, I think Autoeurope is a good idea. But no, it's not a mistake to book through Europcar.

Done. I rebooked the reservation via AutoEurope and saved another $120.
11 day automatic intermediate car without insurance - $528 +$60 local fees with Avis.
An excellent deal.
Had to prepay though. Can cancel 24 hrs ahead.

It is not unusual to be asked for a credit card when making a car rental reservation, whether it is direct with the rental company or whether it is thru a broker such as Autoeurope. When booking direct, you have the choice of prepaying or paying when picking up the rental car, whichever way you choose, you need to provide a credit card. I wouldn't worry about reviews on here or anywhere about EP, they are a good rental company no matter the complaints.

In the past you could cancel rental reservations just before the rental was due to start, but nowadays, you normally have to give 48hours notice of cancellation in the case of prepaid rates, in order to get a refund, direct Europcar bookings & those made thru Autoeurope included. Pay Later rates might also incur a fee for late cancellation, I would study the small print rather than assume you can cancel late or noshow to a rental reservation without penalty.

I regularly rent cars in Europe and generally stick to Avis and Europcar. I have rented maybe a dozen times with Europcar in the last couple of years and not had a problem.

I find the cheapest way to book with Europcar is via the Easyjet website where the rate on my last few hires have been 20-40% cheaper than booking direct with Europcar (you don’t need to fly with easyjet to do this). It has also been cheaper than anything I could find using AutoEurop.

Just checked Easyjet.com and they do not rent out of Dublin.
Does this sound correct?

I just checked using my Easyjet iPad app and had no problem renting out of Dublin. I then checked on the normal website and they didn’t! Bizarre, maybe a glitch in their systems.