Car rental security deposit?
 

I reserved a car via AutoEurope and paid in advance for a week in Italy. The car was booked Europcar. What kind of security deposit/hold should I expect to be placed on my credit card when I pick up the car? Thanks in advance for your help.

None that I know of - you've paid in full. You'll have to pay for the fuel and there may be a small sum for road tax, but that's it.

Thank you!

Actually they might place some type of hold on your card in case any damage occurs to the car. I don't know if that applies with all rental agencies, but I do recall a poster to this board having problem using his/her credit card because the rental agency had placed a hold on it. I suggest you go to the source and ask Europcar.

Well, of course, if there's damage, you'll see the result on your CC statement.

I strongly recommend that you get your papers stamped and finalized when you return the car - don't just leave the keys in a drop box.

I've had up to $5,000 hold put on an AutoEurope car on a couple of occasions. Nine times out of 10, though, I just prepay for the car and that's it. They've got my cc info on record, anyway, so it's not as though they wouldn't know how to add on charges if I totaled the car.

Tuck, I wasn't talking about damage to the car, I was referring to a hold that was placed while the poster was using the car. That person was having trouble using their credit card so they called the credit card company to see what was wrong. That's when they found out the hold had been placed and would be lifted when the car was returned. Once again, I'm not saying this is across the board, but it's certainly worth asking about.

Wow! That's news to me.

They'd have to reveal that to you up front, don't you think?

If you prepay for the car the only "hold" should be a small amount for fuel - and the insurance deductible if your insurance has one.

If you don;t prepay they will put a hold on the anticipated full amount plus the above.

OK, maybe the poster I am thinking of didn't fully pre-pay. Yes, it does seem like they should reveal that in advance.

I used AutoEurope to book a car from Hertz in France. I declined Hertz' insurance preferring my free insurance through my credit card. Hertz did inform me at the point of checkout that they were putting a 'hold' on my credit card equivalent to US$ 5,000.

No biggie for me at the time, but maybe of concern to some.

That would definitely be the LAST time I'd use HERTZ.

Actually, this is not an uncommon practice with rental car companies, even in the US. If there is a limit on your card that could be a problem, suggest you check with the car rental agency to see if they do this and for how much. If it would leave you in a pinch you can ask your bank for a temporary increase in your credit limit.

UPDATE Summer 2013
We reserved a VW Golf with EuropCar in France and were provided with a nice Alfa Romeo Guillieta instead. When we declined Europcar's insurance because we use our MasterCard insurance, we were forced to pay a 20,330 euro deposit!!!! That's over CAD$28,000 !!! To avoid having our M/C blocked for the rest of our vacation, we gave them our Costco AmEx card and much to our amazement, it went through. So BEWARE. We will never use EuropCar again.

When we picked up our little car from Europcar in Angoulême in April, they put a hold of €850 on our Amex card we used for the rental. Since we are signed up with Amex for the $24.95 per rental primary insurance coverage, this was not a problem. We had prepaid the rental with AutoEurope except for the additional driver charge.

The same thing can happen at hotels; a hold is put on your credit card for the number of nights reserved at the time of check-in.

RS also warns about possible enormous hold on CC if you decline the rental car's insurance. If you have an accident, they hold is probably kept beyond your trip, so he recommends having a different CC to continue the trip. The hotel holds are probably miniscule compared to rental the car hold.

YVRenvoyage75,

I gather you rented directly from Europcar. That type of levy is not likely to occur if going through a broker like Autoeurope or Kemwel. We carried the CDW on our visa card and a potential charge of 800€ was levied against our credit card for the Audi A3 that we rented. But the counter person sometimes tries to scare me by saying that if the car is totaled I will be fully responsible for the replacement cost.