Renting a car with debit card

[Tom _M]

Bit of a tedious topic I know... Was looking to rent a car in Italy, but I don't have a credit card. It seems Sixt will rent them out with a 300Euro deposit that you can pay on a debit card, which is refunded at the end of the hire period providing all okay. My understanding was that with credit cards they usually put on a hold payment of £1000 or whatever to cover any potential damage. Anyway, was more wondering how they would try and recoup payment for the car if any damage did exceed the 300 Euros?

Will be doing collision damage waiver cover, and taking out some separate excess insurance to cover that bit anyway, but just a bit curious as to how they could try and claw back more than the deposit should something happen?

[martinbiz]

They would just charge your card again which you will have allowed them to do when you signed the t&c’s
A bit like when they apply an admin charge for a parking or speeding ticket

[ridds]

Get yourself a Credit Card for car hire. The CC company will help you fight any dodgy charges.

Your debit account bank are less likely.

[martinbiz]

ridds said:

Get yourself a Credit Card for car hire. The CC company will help you fight any dodgy charges.

Your debit account bank are less likely.

They won’t if they’re bona Fide charges you have agreed to

[Dave Hedgehog]

ridds said:

Get yourself a Credit Card for car hire. The CC company will help you fight any dodgy charges.

Your debit account bank are less likely.

everyone should buy anything over £100 on a credit card, and make sure you put a deposit on a new car on it or at least part on it for section 75 protection

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation...

[ridds]

martinbiz said:

They won’t if they’re bona Fide charges you have agreed to

Hence why I said dodgy....

[Tom _M]

Getting a credit card would seem the easier solution, but as I'm currently in an IVA then that's not really an option unfortunately.

[surveyor]

Some of the companies insist you take their CDW or increase the deposit significantly if paying by debit card. Hertz did not seem to care, provided it was a 'proper' debit card and not a prepaid thing.

Their websites all seem to state something different to what they do.

[Steviesam]

Not sure if it helps in Italy, but I regularly rent from Avis in Geneva airport (Swiss side).

I always use my debit card and they never say anything!

As for a holding deposit, if I book their full insurance (that means no excess at all), they dont hold anything on my card. Its not cheap, but I always pay the extra as there is no discussion at the end of rental, even when I have damaged it. I reversed into another car once last year (in a brand new Merc e class estate they gave me instead of the Fiat 500 I booked), and when I pointed out the dent in the rear bumper, he looked at my contract, pointed to the full insurance section and shrugged, and said "no problem".

[hutchst]

I don't know about the implications of an IVA, but I keep a pre-paid cerdit card (VISA) on one of my accounts, that I use only for online purchases. It limits my exposure to online fraudery to the amount that I load onto the card. I can load it up instantly with online banking.

I used it last week to rent a car at Glasgow airport (AVIS), but I did take all the top-up insurances so that might have made a difference.

[Tom _M]

Their website does say can use credit or debit, but not pre-pay. Just don't fancy turning up and finding them claiming they don't after all!

Can hire a Polo (or similar) for £20/day, with their CDW (1000 Euro excess) at £1.26/day. Can then get separate excess insurance for £28 for the week to cover this. That's the plan anyway.

[Ed.]

Tom _M said:

Their website does say can use credit or debit, but not pre-pay. Just don't fancy turning up and finding them claiming they don't after all!

Can hire a Polo (or similar) for £20/day, with their CDW (1000 Euro excess) at £1.26/day. Can then get separate excess insurance for £28 for the week to cover this. That's the plan anyway.

You can get annual euro excess cover for £45

[martinbiz]

I have a yearly policy. Just renewed it £49 collision excess cover up to 5k. Italy is a rip off especially in the summer, europcar wanted 250 euros for 2 weeks. It’s a no brainer.