Just been scammed by Budget in Belfast

sjdevlin · 2 October 2017 at 10:24AM

I'm used to the hard sell for extra insurance from rental car agencies. I wasn't prepared for the latest scam and advise members to watch out for this.

I refused extra insurance yesterday at Belfast City Airport. The counter staff asked for my credit card to put on the usual £1000 pre-auth. They put my card into the machine, quickly withdrew it and said that the chip wasn't working. I found that hard to believe as it is only a few months old and is only used for the purpose of renting cars. The guy went through the routine of "trying" it a few times and wiping it on his shirt before declaring that it was no good and my only alternative was take out the extra insurance so that my excess was reduced to zero.

I asked if they could swipe it or could I give them £1000 in cash - but they said no. The car was prepaid through Aer lingus so I was trapped. If I had turned down the extra insurance I'd have lost the rental fee and the Budget staff would merely say that I had failed to provide a working credit card as per the terms and conditions.

I had to pay up. I tried the same credit card a few hours later in a pub and it worked flawlessly.
Clearly a fraudulent way for counter staff to get their commission (or meet targets). I plan to report to Budget, Aer LIngus and the airport and I would be grateful to hear if any of you have been victims of the same scam.

I advise other travellers to take a second credit card to make this more difficult for them to do this - and also ask to see the message on the machine. I did not do this since I was so flustered - but in retrospect I think that if I had asked to record the card messages on my phone it would have miraculously worked.