In reply to Just Another Dave:
> Used to, up to five, maybe ten, years ago. Then it suddenly seemed to be impossible. I got a credit card a few years ago, just for that purpose. That turns out to be a double edged sword: since I never budgeted beyond my means, I never needed credit, but not using it paradoxically gives you a dreadful credit rating (you need to show you can 'handle' or manage debt, apparently) and so I was recently refused a £10/month Phone deal on account of it. Couldn't have made it up. Sorry, think you'll struggle to find a hire company who don't insist on credit cards now.
If you want to build your credit rating with a credit card a good way is to use it to pay for day to day expenses but set up a direct debit for full settlement, and keep a record of what you've spent so that you don't go and spend that money in cash thinking you've still got it. You also gain other benefits of credit cards e.g. the additional consumer protection, as well as protection against fraud (if you notice it, cancel the DD, and you're not out of pocket while it is being resolved).
It's a bit of effort to manage but can pay dividends when you eventually want something like a mortgage.
Regarding credit cards, some companies *might* let you rent without one if you take their full CDW package - this was the (slightly pricey) solution used when we came up against a problem a while ago in that the main driver on the car didn't have a credit card and they would only take one in the main driver's name, not a named driver. (We couldn't just change the main driver, as they were already on another car and they wouldn't allow two). Would have to do some phoning around.
Note in your case - if your partner will be the main or only driver the card will need to be in his name not yours!
In the event it was rather a good thing we took the package as one of the drivers scraped it on a tunnel wall, when we took it back they checked we had bought their insurance and pretty much went "fine, don't worry about it, you've taken the insurance". I don't even know if they ever bothered fixing it.
Post edited at 17:27