I have a current rental from Deluxe Rent-a-Car in Los Angeles who is charging me $4.99 per day becau

Some friends and I were recently discussing rental car strategies, one of them was planning a vacation to Hawaii, when the subject of debit cards came up. None of us had ever rented a car with a debit card before (we did begin our personal finance development in the era of free and cheap credit after all!) and that was the only card my friend had! To be honest, I didn t think it mattered national car rental canada if the card was a credit card or a debit card (and I erroneously national car rental canada said so!), but I was wrong.
I usually national car rental canada advise against the use of debit cards because the card is linked directly to your bank account. One erroneous or fraudulent charge can have a cascading effect that generates an avalanche of fees and penalties. I ve read and heard many a story of a dozen insufficient fund fees and low balance fees following some key-in error, it s terrible.
Anyway, national car rental canada it turns out that renting a car with a debit card is a big pain in the ass. The reason is because your credit limit is really the funds within your account, unlike with a typical credit card. The end result is that many companies will tack on a reasonable premium to cover the rental period and potential overages such as fuel and damage to the vehicle.
Hertz : You can reserve a car with a VISA/MC debit card and a hold will be placed for an estimated amount of the rental charges plus a reasonable amount to cover any incidental charge. No mention of what reasonable amount means though.
Budget : Again, like Enterprise, some locations accept them and some don t. Under 25 can t use a debit card though. The ones allow debit cards require a hold for the estimated charges plus the greater of 25% or $300 (or $500 in the Northeast and North Central regions).
Dollar : They allow debit cards and will put a hold for the estimated amount of the rental plus 15% or a minimum amount, which isn t specified. In that General Policies page, it s section F. Credit Qualifications/requirement.
Thrifty national car rental canada : Some locations will allow debit cards and may require a debit card check and credit inquiry screening, whatever national car rental canada that means. The debit card must also be a VISA/MC debit card, anything else isn t accepted.
My advice? Get a credit card with auto rental liability insurance and use it to rent your car. The card provides some supplemental insurance, you don t have to deal with debit card hassles, and maybe you earn a few points along the way.
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None of these responses refer to a prepaid debit card through Netspend. I no longer have a checking account or credit cards because national car rental canada of 2 really very bad identity theft scares over the last 5 years. I either pay with cash, m.o. cashiers check or use the prepaid card. I plan to rent a car on a trip and the card will be top heavy loaded for any charges that might occur for the car, airfare etc.
What did you find out about the prepaid Netspend card. That s what I use now and I m trying to find a car rental company that will accept those. I ve been told that their system does not recognize those cards.
I know from experience that as of last year the policy for Alamo, Hertz, and Avis is that they will only allow you to rent with a debit card if you are flying into that location to pick it up. Be careful of online travel national car rental canada websites. They will allow you to reserve national car rental canada a car, even confirm it, with a debit card. But if you are local and stop in to pick up you must have a credit card to leave the lot with the car. I almost had a problem on our last vacation national car rental canada because of this. Alamo blamed the website, website blamed Alamo. Both told me that I would be on the hook for the cancellations thankfully I inquired before my vacation started. national car rental canada I have a credit card now and I REFUSE national car rental canada to use Alamo because of poor customer service.
Enterprise is the only local company that I know of that allows a Debit card. They hold $600, they are slightly more expensive then other brands, and you are limited geographically but they accept the debit card provided you have proof of address (current utility bill etc.)
Hotels are also now instituting similar policies of holding an amount in excess of the room charges. The policy seems to vary from hotel to hotel, national car rental canada even within the same chain (i.e. Marriott to Marriott), but most places I have seen with this policy will post something clearly at the front desk others go so far as to say something when you offer a debit card for payment.
I ve rented a car with a debit card and didn t have any problems. I think it was with Enterprise, but to be honest it was almost national car rental canada 3 years ago so I don t remember the details and policies may have changed since then.
I think the important distinction is actually having money in your checking account! If you are cutting it close with bills every month or living paycheck to paycheck you really should use a credit card instead. If you have a float of $1,000 $2,000 in your checking account you can easily handle rental cars and hotels.
Personally, I would be extremely national car rental canada nervous renting a car on debit card given how open ended the potential for extra charges is unlike an airline ticket or (under normal circumstances) a hotel room, there are a ton of extra fees that could come into play with a rental car, not to mention the potential for the rental agency to assess (wrongly or rightly) charges for damages. It just seems like its a lot safer to have the consumer protection national car rental canada of a credit card. (I think this is even more true when renting from U-Haul, which is known for some pretty shady practices )
I did have a reasonable amount of financial cushion in the account, which if you are going on vacation, you should probably have anyways because if a plane gets grounded you ve got extra hotel costs, or if a medical emergency happens, etc.
I have a current rental from Deluxe Rent-a-Car in Los Angeles who is charging me $4.99 per day because I m using my Visa sponsored debit card. There are ample funds in my account and the representative could only explain the charge was simply company policy and nothing more kinda insulting. The car is great, but this charge is bugging me. Bank of America had no explanation either.
The amount of money in your checking account has nothing to do with anything. I always have around $2000 in my checking account and it makes no frigging difference. I always national car rental canada have a lot of trouble trying to rent a car with a debit card.
I have rented from enterprise multiple times, they take a hold of whatever the expected total will be plus $200.00. I have called and requested that I keep a car for up to a week longer than the intended length and it was not a problem and I have traveled as far as 4 states away, with thier knowledge and it was not a problem. They do require that you bring a utility bill with your home address and a pay stub with you however.
I have found the policies to vary so much from counter to counter, from franchise to franchise and even from the day manager to the night manager that it s just too unpredictable to count on renting a car with a bank debit card, even with a pretty hefty checking national car rental canada account behind it. Not to mention demeaning to get sent away even after doing the research.
I recently rented a car in Las Vegas using only my debit card with Alamo. It was a breeze. I wasnt subjected to a credit check nor was a large amount held from my bank account. I simply called an hour in advance to reserve the car and showed the rental agent my return flight information. The customer service was efficient and polite. I would definetly use Alamo again.
national car rental canada National does NOT allow debit cards, national car rental canada as I found out today. And now I m stranded here for the next 2 days. Don t bother having them call a manager as National is not interested in customer service. Thanks a lot a-holes!
I rented from National with only a debit card a few weeks ago with no problem whatsoever. I had come prepared national car rental canada with utility bills, etc. but they did not ask for any of it. They did try t o sell me their insurance as well as a bigger car, but gave no lip when I politely national car rental canada refused. I did have a round trip air itinerary, however. Don t know how that would have gone had I not been an airline national car rental canada customer. national car rental canada The car was great, service spectacular and the rental was not a penny more than anticipated. That is the first time that has happened, believe it! I was VERY happy with every facet of my rental experience. Kudos, national. And, oh yeah. . . as far as I could tell, there was no hold on my account, or if there was, it was very short lived and I was never aware of it.
Have had experience using a debit card to rent using National (in Pittsburgh) and Alamo (in Las Vegas) at airport locations all they want to see is a copy of your return itinerary. They do put a hold for the estimated charges but, at least for me, it dropped off my account in 24 hours anyway. National and Alamo are under common ownership and they seem to have the most liberal policies regarding this for visitors. Trying to do this if your a local renter is another story, though!
We tried to rent a car at Budget in Ft. Myers Florida and they allowed us to reserve the car online national car rental canada w/ MC/Debit but once we got there to pick up the car they absolutely refused national car rental canada to accept the debit card, even with a $450 deposit. We had to use a friend s credit national car rental canada card to check out and pay with our debit when we returned national car rental canada the car. Really, really stupid. They should allow us to show proper insurance and enough deposit to cover the deductible and rental charge. Period.
Visa and MasterCard need to step in to stop this discrimination of their card holders. A Visa or MasterCard debit card works exactly the same way as a credit card on the merchants side. The banks need to stop writing DEBIT all over the card and make it impossible for merchants to differentiate between credit and debit cards. It should not be up to the merchant to tell you