Car Hire Deposit Exchange Rate Charges

lelulu17

Hi I have recently hired cars in two different European countries from different car hire companies.  Both times, the companies have taken the deposit from my credit card (rather than just putting a hold on the card as they have done in previous years).  This has meant I have lost money through the exchange rate.  I imagine if I had a credit card in Euros, I wouldn't have lost any money. 

Does anyone have any experience of this or advice? 

Mark_d

I've had money take from a credit card and then refunded.  I did lose a little due to changes in the exchange rate but I doubt this is something you can complain about.

DullGreyGuy

Have also had it but with a fee free credit card in some cases I've made money and in other cases have lost money.

Had exactly the same when buying something from overseas and then having to return it as it was faulty or such... paid €1,000 and got €1,000 back but what hit my account depended on FX movements. 

Ultimately it's simply the risk (negative or positive) of international payments. 

lelulu17

Thanks for reading and replying. 

Last time it worked out at  as a £47 difference in exchange rate from taking money from the card and adding money to the card from a €700 deposit. 

I suppose I'm just wondering what to do next time.  Should I be going with the bigger car rental companies that seem more expensive when you do the price comparisons, but when you figure in extra costs like my £47 then it's not so expensive. 

zagfles

Are you using a fee free card? If not that's probably most of the cost, rather than exchange rate movements.