Car hire and credit card without PIN

RomiStella

Hi everybody and happy new year
This will sound a very silly question but I am a very silly person at times unfortunately.
I booked a car hire in December this year for a trip in Italy, i had my credit card with me but forgot the PIN. I had the impression that for the deposit they only needed my credit card details, a bit like the system hotels use. I was asked to pay an additional £120 because I didn't have the PIN with me, could i argue that they did not need my PIN and could I ask for a refund?
Many thanks for your help.

Westin

I think it strange that the rental firm would ask you to pay £120 because you did not have your PIN number. Have you looked at your rental agreement to see what exactly this € equivalent of £120 has been allocated to?

RomiStella

It's an additional insurance to cover for the excess, with that you can pay the deposit by debit card.

Westin

Which car rental firm and with whom was it booked through? Also which pick up location?

NSG666

It sounds like they were trying to 'block' your credit card with the value of the excess as you weren't going to take out their full insurance. I've done this on numerous occasions and had to input the pin. I guess without the pin you could argue that you had never approved the transaction should they need to claim the excess from you.

Westin

A very plausible explanation @NSG666.  The £120 charge being for an extra excess waiver type insurance perhaps.

onashoestring

OP , if you agreed to pay for additional insurance rather than a higher deposit- then you won’t be able to get a refund on this charge. ( The T& Cs of your original booking should have explained  this )

However if the charge was for a higher deposit ( because you declined the extra insurance) then you do not need to request a refund, providing there is no damage to the car when you return it, the money will be refunded to your account.

The deposit is not taken out of your account but simply blocked, meaning your card is not charged. Rather, the money is fenced off so you won't be able to spend it and the supplier can retrieve it if needed. However, in the circumstance that the hire company accepts debit cards, your deposit will be totally withdrawn from your account and later refunded.

Sandtree

RomiStella said:

Hi everybody and happy new year
This will sound a very silly question but I am a very silly person at times unfortunately.
I booked a car hire in December this year for a trip in Italy, i had my credit card with me but forgot the PIN. I had the impression that for the deposit they only needed my credit card details, a bit like the system hotels use. I was asked to pay an additional £120 because I didn't have the PIN with me, could i argue that they did not need my PIN and could I ask for a refund?
Many thanks for your help.

You were somewhat under the wrong impression... the company will want to authorise an amount on the card to ringfence it, they could do this online at the time of booking and in which case no PIN is required as it goes through 3D Secure and other verification processes. Given how far out you can book most will want to do it at the time of collection instead in which case the PIN is required for a cardholder present authorisation (the same as a hotel) as the card could be cancelled, reported stolen etc between booking and car collection leaving the hire company exposed.

It seems they've said that if you pay for the excess reduction then they are willing to risk not having a way to check that you've given them a legitimate card with a reasonable limit because the excess will be material lower. There are no grounds for a refund.

Most, if not all, my credit cards phone apps allow me to get the PIN for my card (even the terribly outdates Lloyds one) and so surprised you couldnt recover the PIN to just ringfence the full amount via an authorisation.