Chip & Pin - car rental problem

Does anyone know of a UK car rental company that allows deposits to be taken from a non-chip & pin card?  When our U.S. guests rent cars here in Birmingham at various places they've been told the deposit has to taken from a chip & pin card - which then ties up 500 pounds on our debit card, until they return the car.  I'm worried that if we continue to use our card for their deposits there will eventually be a time when something happens to the car and we don't get our full deposit back. 

So far our friends/family have rented from Budget, Hertz and Alamo (all in Birmingham) and all have required chip & pins cards...apparently these companies could care less about their international customers.  The worse part is that nowhere in the booking information does it say that the deposit must be taken from a chip & pin card, so my father-in-law called us frantically from the airport when they arrived because he had no idea how to pay the deposit (they also won't take cash!). 

That's so odd as my parents are coming over here tomorrow. Hertz told me it had to be a major cc and NOT a debit card. They ended up going with Avis as my father has always had good experiences with them and they also take major cc as well that are international based not just UK based. Could you try them?

This is something that has the potential to become a huge issue. I'm starting to get worried that once people get out of London, the old swipe cards won't be allowed anywhere. As far as I'm aware, the US has no plans for a chip and pin type system. What's the story with other countries the UK gets a lot of tourists from such as Canada, Australia and Japan? Is there chips and pin on the continent (and is it compatible with the UK)?

I live in a tourist city (Exeter) and I already have a mental list of places that won't take swipe cards. And even some places that supposedly do (like Boots), you either get a clueless person at the till, or the machine gets really unhappy. Actually, the latter has happened to me a lot.

I wonder what the tourism associations have to say?

KK, have you spoken to the rental car companies on the phone to book a rental instead of doing it online? I wonder if they can take a normal cc that way instead?

We had this happen when we flew up to Edinburgh. We had booked and paid for the car online and then they wanted a card with chip and pin for a deposit. No where on our booking information or fine print did it say that.  We had left a few of our cards at home because we weren't going to need them.  The woman behind the desk said "well, I am afraid it's going to be like that all over".  I think she thought I was a visiting tourist.  But I said to her " I work in a shop for a bigger company outside of London and I know for a fact that it isn't.  If a person doesn't have a chip and pin card, we simply swipe it which tells us the card needs to be signed for. And we do it for tourists all the time."  She didn't say anything after that.  She phoned someone and when she got off the phone she said, "well on this instance you're lucky because the chip and pin machine isn't working. But I will need details from your card."  I just had some new cards issued to me from my american card company and they still don't have chip and pin on it.   I think companies are trying to force other countries to follow suit. The thing is, over this past christmas season there were some financial reports out about how chip and pin fraud has actually gone up since it has been strictly instituted last year.  They found more people were actually paying with cash then using their card.

She phoned someone and when she got off the phone she said, "well on this instance you're lucky because the chip and pin machine isn't working. But I will need details from your card." 

Surely, it would make sense for companies to keep the swiping facility anyway in case the chip and pin machine breaks. The store I work in (not in London) allows both swipe cards and chip and pin so that if the card reader isn't working, the chip is damaged or if the card doesn't have a chip, the customer can still pay with little hassle. Also, most supermarkets swipe the cards before you enter your pin number, so I'd imagine they can still swipe non-chip cards too.

KK, have you spoken to the rental car companies on the phone to book a rental instead of doing it online? I wonder if they can take a normal cc that way instead?

I hadn't thought about that, I will definitely check into it.  Thanks for the suggestion.

I thought there was a rule that they HAD to take non chip and pin cards.

I thought there was a rule that they HAD to take non chip and pin cards.

There is but, unfortunately, I've not got the link handy though I have posted it previously on a similar thread.

It's something to do with the elderly and/or infirm though we never had a problem when we were using our US cards at all just after the chip and pin came into use.
I would make a point of informing the cashier each time that our cards were just fine to swipe and sign and never met any resistance at all.

As this was down in deepest, darkest Cornwall I don't see why it should be a problem anywhere else in the country.

From what I see, some shops have machines that don't swipe any more. And some managers of little independent shops just decide not to take the old fashioned cards anymore. I got in a real snit with one place about it.

On top of that, our corner shop has the kind of machine that will swipe or take a chip, but for some reason my US cards never work there. But if I take them down the street to another shop, they work. So the corner shop guy thinks that some bank systems automatically reject them.

Thank you for reminding me.
When we arrived last time at Heathrow we ran into a problem and the customer in front of me did also. The rental car company wanted a deposit which would soak up most of our spending money. To get get on our way we coughed up. We then went to Bristol Airport and changed to an automatic and also got our deposit back. The manager there spends a lot of time in the states so he understood to ways things can be done.
I think we have had good experience with Budget at Heathrow or have we been lucky in getting a new car with no mileage recorded.