Open Credit Card Voucher

joycie983

Hi all

First time post- I hope it's in the right area.

Husband and & are hiring out a classic car tomorrow. I have been told I will have to leave an "open credit card voucher" with them. I think this is fairly standard but I don't quite know what it means. Is it simply a paper form I sign without an amount on it? This would let them charge for any damage etc?

What worries me is that I would like to use some money on my credit card over the weekend. I wouldn't want them to try to authorise and "hold" a large amount from my card in case of damage. Is this the way open vouchers work or do they simply not process it until the car is examined?

Anyone experienced an open credit card voucher before?

glider3560

Why not ask them what it means?

Some smaller car/van hire companies do use credit card vouchers for authorising deposits/damage recovery, however each company will have their own policy.

chattychappy

I've certainly known hotels to authorise something.

On principle, I don't like signing blank vouchers and don't see why I should have to - particularly if a hotel has my passport etc. I try to avoid such places, but agree it's not always possible. The last time this happened to me I just wrote on it "not to exceed XXX" where XXX was a couple of nights stay. The hotel staff were too lame to argue. When I checked out they were very keen to tear it up in front of me to prove they weren't going to use it.

So two reasons for it: 1) to check you are "good for the money", and 2) so they can put something through after the event if they feel you owe them something... which is where you're really exposed.

The very first time it happened was late at night at a posh hotel in Hong Kong. Everything was pre-paid, but they still wanted the signed blank voucher thing. I was so concerned that I called up my CC company. They said it was OK to sign a blank voucher because that would mean I hadn't authorised anything. If the hotel put the digits in, quite how I could establish that this was after I signed I don't know. I asked my CC company to note the conversation. In the event there wasn't a problem.