US Car Hire Company putting 'hold' on my credit card

kalbrau

Hi guys,

I'm off to the States next week and am hiring a car for part of my trip.

After reading the various threads and reviews on here, I have picked up a prepaid Mastercard with Caxton FX so that I know what exchange rate I'm getting and don't incur ATM charges. So far so good.

However... they say in their FAQ that I should not use this card when picking the car up as the car hire company will put a 'hold' on my card which will stop me accessing that amount for up to 30 days afterwards. Checking through the small print of my hire agreement, this could be $200-500, to be determined when I pick the car up.

I have a Mastercard with Capital One, but I don't have enough available balance on it to cover up to $500 (notwithstanding their exchange rate fluctuations). I've checked with Capital One and they say the hold will be refused if it is more than my available balance. My understanding was that it was just provisional and wouldn't be used unless I fail to return the car.

I don't want to pay off a few hundred quid on my Capital One card just to cover the hold, as it would defeat the object of having the prepaid card. I may be able to use my Visa debit card but if I do the hold will be applied to my current account (which I will have raided significantly) and I'm worried it would leave me unable to access the funds in there (for up to 30 days according to the car hire small print).

Anyone had any experience of this before and can shed some light on it?

Thanks

Andy

Typhoon2000

Thats pretty much spot on, you have summed it up well. They will put a hold on your card, same with hotel rooms and such. You will need to have available credit or the card will be turned down when they attempt to put a hold. You wont have access to the held line of credit till hold is removed. Its normally less than 30 days though.

bigstevex

yup totally normal, they normally release it when u return the car and finalise any payments owed, but it can take a few days to 'release' itself! Exactly the same as a lot of hotels! You'll need to put more money on your card to cover it just in case, or you wont be allowed to take your car!

TrickyDicky

Not just the US. I think it's standard on all hire car companies. I was in Austria and my card was refused because although it had enough to cover the expected bill, it didnt have enough for the rest. I just used another card in the end.

Degenerate

Look at it this way - before CC authorizations became the standard, you would have actually had to produce the cash for a deposit.

mancini601

Went to Dubai on holiday this year. Everything had been paid in advance through the holiday company (Virgin Holidays).

Got to the hotel and they demanded a credit card to place a 'holding amount' on for 'incidentals'...they wanted 10,500 dirhams (at the time it was about £2,100!!!)

I argued and eventually agreed on a reduced amount of 4,000 dirhams as a holding amount.

My question is, what the hell do people do if they either don't have a credit card, or a limit big enough to cope with hotel demands? I mean you've already paid for the rooms etc up front before you even left the UK?

All this said though, still had a fantastic holiday, but just as we were checking out another couple were checking in and having the same argument we had...........

TFD_2

£2100 is unusually high for a hotel authorisation... it's a couple of hundred quid tops usually!

Regarding the OP and car hire, they want to know they'll get their excess if you crash the car etc. If you haven't got a card with sufficient limit, then you can't rent a car from them. It really is as simple as that usually.