Is there a way to rent a car without a credit card?

Alamo has http://www.alamo.com/itemDetails.do?HelpItemID=DEB with a debit card if you have an airline ticket. I've actually done this with no problem. Also a lot of local rental places will allow it if you give them a deposit.

My experience is that policy is different from company to company, and that if you try to do something out of the norm but even within policy, there's no way to ensure that the person at the counter knows how to deal with it (toss in Christmas and they may even just pretend not to know). I think your best bet is to call a few companies that have counters at the airport and ask them to help you spend your money with them. Once you've figured something out, get them to fax you the details and somebody's name and number so that if you have problems there's someone internal for the person at the counter to call. Oh, another thing you may have to provide is proof of insurance. I did what you're trying to do (in PA) and they finally let me pay by cash in advance but then they wanted information on my home insurance policy (I don't know what they would have done if I didn't have one). Anyway, of course I didn't have it on me, but the name and number of the insurance agent seemed to be enough. Good luck.

http://www.prepaidcardguide.com/ credit card? They're more like gift cards, in that you prepay, and it isn't linked to you in any way.

I've rented locally from Enterprise with a debit card.

I've rented cars from two separate Budget locations and haven't had any problem with them just taking a Visa debit card. They put a $300 hold on the card, though.

Yeah, I've been able to walk up to a counter and drive away with just a debit card, it just seems that trying to make a remote reservation is harder. But I will certainly try just calling everybody up there to see if they'll do it for me. Thanks!

If you are able to go the route of using your debit card, be SURE to bring a copy of a utility bill. I recently rented a car from Budget out of town. Before they would even think about taking my debit card, they wanted a utility bill to verify the address. Shockingly, I don’t carry around a utility bill. I was, however, able to pressure them into taking it by showing a drivers license, voter registration card, library card, and a government photo ID. Even then they were hesitant on accepting it. It could have been that location, so YMMV.

Debit card. I know that Enterprise allows rentals with debit cards ... and a foreign drivers license, too. Leastways, that's what I saw happen last week.

I used to work for Enterprise a long time ago -- bring a copy of a utility bill like enobeet said and they will take cash/debit card/etc, although there will be limitations on how nice/big a car you can take. Really, it's completely at the manager's discretion, as I've seen people rent with straight cash and no proof of residence if they'd been there before or we needed to get a car off the lot badly. The best part of my job is when we'd rent to an especially fishy cash customer (I would estimate 90% of our cash customers were using cars to run drugs up and down the California coast) and they wouldn't come back with the car...so then it turned into a detective game with whatever information we had acquired before they took the vehicle (i.e. knocking on doors, determining whether the mother was lying when she said she hadn't seen her son, peering over fences into garages). Why this was our job and not the police I'll never understand but it was a lot of fun. So, um, yeah - you can do it.