Prepaid Credit Card -- Can they find out?

David_Mickovsky

Hi,

I'll be going to Europe soon and I am planning to use my prepaid MasterCard to rent a car. The card itself looks just like an ordinary MasterCard ("prepaid" or "debit" isn't written on it anywhere).

I was wondering can the rental company find out that the card is prepaid (when they "run" it)?

Of course, I will load it with enough funds to cover both the rental and the deposit.

Thanks!

spaceman5

i dont know the answer, but i would have thought that they would have some way of knowing, you will probably find that for pre paid cards, part of the 16 digit number will be a generic number that is used by all pre paid cards so that the retailer will know by seeing the numbers, or something similar to this

vikingaero

A lot of prepaid cards don't work with Pay at Pump or car hire where pre-authorisation is required. Some like Cashplus allow both if you call them up and activate the service. So your best bet would be to call your issuer.

YorkshireBoy

I would imagine they'd know it wasn't a 'credit' card, especially if they processed a pre-authorisation (which I'd expect them to do) prior to releasing the car...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bank_Identification_Numbers

Recognise your BIN on that list?

David_Mickovsky

There will be enough funds on the card and they will be able to preauthorize a certain amount that's in their guidelines. That is not the problem. I am just worried that when they enter my credit card number in their system, it will show as prepaid.

YorkshireBoy: I don't recognize my BIN on that list... It's missing.

YorkshireBoy

Who's the card provider?

David_Mickovsky

Does it really matter? The number isn't on the list.

I'm just not sure whether car rental companies have prepaid/debit cards detection within their software. I never had any problems when using the card (normal holds, paid for various stuff, etc).

YorkshireBoy

David_Mickovsky wrote: »

Does it really matter? The number isn't on the list.

I wasn't questioning whether you'd missed it!

I was going to do some googling and other research to try and find you an official answer, because I'm sure (although I can't yet prove it) that they, or more accurately their merchant acquirers, will know it's pre-paid and will decline the transaction.

YorkshireBoy

You may be blocked from two points. Even if the car rental firm, or their merchant acquirer, don't detect it's a pre-paid card, your provider may still stop the transaction once pre-authorisation is submitted.

The first hit from a google search looking for "car hire pre-paid card" returns...

So, based on the above, prepaid issuers generally restrict and do not allow a card to be used for car hire.

At the point of writing this article, only two known prepaid card issuer allows their card to be used for car hire. The Cashplus MasterCard and Sterling Card. However, it’s initially disabled, and customers must contact the Cashplus or Sterling card Customer Services department to request that the car hire block be removed.

Even then, the request to remove the block may be declined, as a period of “good account behaviour” must have been demonstrated before they will allow their customer to make car hire transactions.

http://www.what-prepaid-card.co.uk/car-hire/Using-prepaid-card-hire-a-car.html

David_Mickovsky

The issuer of my card ALLOWS preauthorizations (holds) and is okay with me renting a car with their card. I am only worried about whether Avis, Sixt, Hertz or whichever company can detect that it's a prepaid card.

vikingaero

David_Mickovsky wrote: »

The issuer of my card ALLOWS preauthorizations (holds) and is okay with me renting a car with their card. I am only worried about whether Avis, Sixt, Hertz or whichever company can detect that it's a prepaid card.

Then call up the car hire company. Some car hire firms will allow the use of debit cards (not a prepaid card I know) if you call them and maybe bring additional ID.