Car hire using non embossed CC

dahabsurfer

Hi all I u derogando that some car hire companies in Italy are insisting that Credit cards have embossed numbers and name on the credit card used for excess. Anyone know if this is true as a lot of banks don’t issue them embossed anymore.

eskbanker

dahabsurfer said:

Hi all I u derogando that some car hire companies in Italy are insisting that Credit cards have embossed numbers and name on the credit card used for excess. Anyone know if this is true as a lot of banks don’t issue them embossed anymore.

Interesting autocorrect going on there!

I think the embossed card issue will likely break down into two variants:

1. An official company policy, documented in their Ts & Cs
2. An unofficial position adopted by front line staff that may not be echoed by the formal policy, but could still cause problems if refusing the hire

Either way round, it won't be a universal issue, so you'd need to research the name of any specific company/ies you're thinking about, although I suspect it's a thing of the past....

DullGreyGuy

dahabsurfer said:

Hi all I u derogando that some car hire companies in Italy are insisting that Credit cards have embossed numbers and name on the credit card used for excess. Anyone know if this is true as a lot of banks don’t issue them embossed anymore.

Have certainly seen some hire companies on comparison sites where its called out that they need an embossed credit card and won't accept other options

Nebulous2

I've seen it discussed on MSE before,  but pretty sure it was in relation to the US. If people are still using the old swipe machines and paper vouchers, even as a back-up then they would need to be embossed.

DullGreyGuy

Nebulous2 said:

I've seen it discussed on MSE before,  but pretty sure it was in relation to the US. If people are still using the old swipe machines and paper vouchers, even as a back-up then they would need to be embossed.

It's been discussed before in connection with bargain basement suppliers in Spain. I think its a lot less about use of a click-clack machine and more a sales tactic... certainly with the ones mentioned here before when the customer doesn't read the requirement, books and then turns up with an unembossed card the car company says its a breach of their T&Cs and the only way they can take the car is if they pay for the hire company's excess waiver product. 

WillPS

Nebulous2 said:

I've seen it discussed on MSE before,  but pretty sure it was in relation to the US. If people are still using the old swipe machines and paper vouchers, even as a back-up then they would need to be embossed.

Not true; the vouchers can be filled in by hand, indeed some sales slips even had pre-printed faint boxes for inked on details. The 'click-clack' machine was just a time saver, like retailers who would print details to a cheque so customers didn't have to fill them out in the days of retail cheque acceptance.

There was a time when retailers were able to proove the card was good for offline transactions by taking an imprint of the numbers, and so their merchant acquiring bank would encourage it, but those days are over - I can't expect there's a merchant bank anywhere now who are encouraging use of these devices in any way shape or form!

Nebulous2

DullGreyGuy said:

Nebulous2 said:

I've seen it discussed on MSE before,  but pretty sure it was in relation to the US. If people are still using the old swipe machines and paper vouchers, even as a back-up then they would need to be embossed.

It's been discussed before in connection with bargain basement suppliers in Spain. I think its a lot less about use of a click-clack machine and more a sales tactic... certainly with the ones mentioned here before when the customer doesn't read the requirement, books and then turns up with an unembossed card the car company says its a breach of their T&Cs and the only way they can take the car is if they pay for the hire company's excess waiver product. 

Here's a thread where it was the US

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6439350/who-still-makes-embossed-credit-cards

I recently hired a car from Europcar, turned up to collect it and their computer was down. They didn't know what to do, but eventually photocopied my card front and back, gave me the car, and processed the payment the following day.