I’m afraid that many of the big hire companies seem to insist on a credit card. About three years ago in Italy I offered a cash deposit and they were on the verge of calling out the carabinieri until I gave in with my sole UK credit card.
Ah well… I’ll make enquiries well in advance… if it turns out a no-go then I might have to “phone a friend”… 
Do you have a debit card? It doesn’t have to be a credit card. They basically register the card’s details and the amount without putting the transaction through. We’ve done that with two different car hire companies recently, one of which was Leclerc.
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Oh yes, phew… thanks for this good news… 
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That’s good to know. All of my recent car rentals have insisted on a credit card as (I believe) they tend to have a higher limit than a debit card.
It’s also very risky from their perspective as you could just give them an account with a zero balance, damage the car and they’ll have to go the court route to get your money. Hotels will often let you use a debit instead of credit card for damages or incidentals at check-in but they will generally just charge the full £500 (or whatever that they’d normally put a hold on for if it’s a credit card) immediately, then refund it when you check out as that’s the only way they can be sure they will actually get their money. Money Saving Expert and other banking forums are full of examples of people saying “I used my debit card for my hotel and now I’ve got 46p in my account for the rest of my holiday, what can I do?” type posts. 
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Strikes me some folk are unlucky and (perhaps) we are very lucky or else we are better at choosing our hotels…
Thinking about it… these days it seems that more than just the card is needed to confirm a debit… pin number etc etc sms or whatever… so should be safe enough against fraud.
That’s what I thought until I was defrauded although I 'd not used the card for over 3 months and it had been lying in a drawer since then!
In France it seems to be different, as not everybody has a credit card, so not as obligatory for hiring a car, but in other countries it’s difficult without a credit card.
It’s not just the big ones, the smaller ones do too. Actually you’re more likely to get away with a debit card with one of the big ones.
I don’t think it matters how many bank accounts or cards one has as long as they are secure. In your case I would be very worried as to how your account was breached and what’s being done about it.
They cancelled the card and sent me a new one with a new pin. I’m still waiting for an explanation.
Generally car hire companies and hotels at check-in want a credit card. They reserve the expected expenditure and a bit more on the credit card as guarantee. That’s just the way it is, worldwide. Trying with debit cards or cash or cheques is really just a waste of time, you might be successful but the hassle 
The real issue for folk in France is that Carte Blu isn’t a real credit card, it’s just a debit card (with a bit of credit based on an annual tiered extortionate fee thrown in). It’s a bloody useless card. I only have one because I need it for French Apple App store purchases. Many UK credit cards have no annual fee, they are the ones to have.
In @Stella car hire case she could secure the rental with her UK credit card and on returning the car pay by cash cheque whatever, you don’t have to pay with the card you have used for security. However, I suspect, though I never bothered to check, that in the past that the amount reserved by the hire company and the amount released could be open to exchange rate fluctuations during the rental period. It’ll probably be buttons but there could be a slight loss or 
gain.
Not to push it, but I wouldn’t wait. Somehow your card number, expiry date and number on the back fell into dodgy hands. That would freak me out if it happened to one of my cards. I’m very big on security. You were lucky the transactions were so small. Generally, I believe, when the bad guys get a card they do an exploritory transaction ot two and then whack it to the limit. I think you had a close escape.
I had a replacement card stolen in the post once. I didn’t notice it was late until I received my statement showing a bunch of items I hadn’t bought, including a reconditioned Toyota engine in Johannesburg. The Bank asked me in discuss the matter, you can imagine how long that conversation took 
From reading this thread, it’s quite clear that folk can and and do have differing experiences…
Personally, we’ve never missed/needed a credit card … our debit card works for us. Mind you we only have personal experiences with hotels and holidays etc… here in France and over there in UK, or Portugal, Corsica, Spain, Holland.
Not got into Car Hire in any country… will be investigating the situation for France and report back…
I made the mistake of offering my French debit card for a car hire deposit some years ago, then when I came to pay for it I found my 'ceiling had been reached, so had to pay with my English credit card. Should have done it the other way round.
Doesn’t the Hire Company tell you how much the Hire is going to cost ???
I’d certainly want to know, before taking on the contract…
Yes, but it wasn’t as much as the deposit, which is why I should have used the credit card which would have been held but not processed, whereas the debit card went straight through, thus causing the ceiling to collapse. 
Oh dear… 
ah well… at least I only have a choice of one card…
OH has just reminded me that we left a “large” cheque as security with a PlantHire Company… a while ago… and they handed it back to us when the Plant was safely delivered back to 'em… and then the account was paid by Debit Card…
(mind you, there has to be enough in the account when one is writing cheque… just in case )
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Things do change, Stella