Car hire credit holds

[Snrub]

Hello!

I booked a car through usrentacar and will be collecting it on Saturday for the duration of my trip. I am a bit confused on the amount of the credit hold that they will put on my card. I have pre-paid the rental and it is costing around £415 and as far as I can see online it says that the total amount of my rental plus 20% (Dollar is the supplier of the car). So, in total they will put a hold of slightly under £500 on my card?

Just wanting some clarification on this as I have read that prepaying it means they only take your details for any additional costs/fines from tolls etc.

If anybody is able to give me a definitive answer on this it would be much appreciated!

 

[Elise79]

If you give them a swipe of a credit card they just run an authorisation and no money is actually held.

I do believe if you give them either a debit card or pre-paid card then they do hold funds but I have never done it so do not know how much.

 

[orangetiggs]

I gave them a debit card with no money in the account and had no problems

 

[Snrub]

That is great, thank you very much guys! It did't make much sense to me why they would hold that amount but the only thing I could see on the dollar site was about the rental cost + 20% hold. You have taken a weight off!

 

[chmurf]

I gave them a debit card with no money in the account and had no problems

It doesn't matter wether you have money or not in your account

when a hold is put on a card, it's not the actual money that's held, it's the spending limit

if your debit card as a £2000 spending limit (per day or other period like 30 days) if a rental car agency puts a £500 hold on your card, you will only be allowed to spend £1500 on that card, even if you have a £10,000 balance.

You will not see a hold. What it will do is limit how much money you can spend per billing period

A hold can be put on a £0 balance bank account, because the hold is not money that's taken away from you, or locked on the account. A hold just lowers your maximum spending limit.

It's an issue for people with low debit card limit.

if we take the example again
you have £5,000 in your account
your debit card limit is £2000

the rental car agency puts a £1000 hold on your card.
You do some shopping and spend £900, there is now £4,100 in your account

spendings + hold = £900 + £1000 = £1900
your limit is £2000

so if you try to pay £200 at a store, the charge will be denied, because it exceeds your limit. Since your spendings + the hold only leave £100 available for spending, no matter how much money is in your account

as previously said, people with very high spending limits don't really care about holds, since they never will hinder their ability to spend
but those with low limits will find themselves with money in their account, but will not be able to pay with their cards.

 

[orangetiggs]

That's great for your accounts but accounts I hold mean any hold on my money will take away from the balance so if a company place a hold of £1 on my card it shows on my available balance so any hold on my cards need to have a balance

No holds were put on my cards for car hire

Some years I have never put a card down

 

[Woodview]

Note.... You say Dollar is the car hire supplier

Just make sure , by asking , if the Sun Pass is working, .... Dollar

normally have NOT installed them .... THEN REMEMBER to

Drive to the CASH SECTION at Toll Booths ....... THIS will AVOID

Toll fines & charges.

A few seconds at Toll pay Booth ..... Could save you a lot of Money later

 

[2Tiggies]

That's great for your accounts

What does that mean?

A hold on a debit card is not the same as a hold on a credit or pre paid card. They are different types of accounts. A debit card is a debit card. The PP is correct. If a hold is placed on a debit card, it is placed on the spending limit, not the available funds in credit. Your account can be overdrawn and they can place a hold on your card, up to the limit.

 

[orangetiggs]

My natwest account shows any oending amounts on my avaiable balance, so if said car hire company placed hold on my card it would take it off my balance and they didnt as my balance didnt change. The acocunt was empty so hold would have been declined

 

[zippy99]

I used a credit card which had only £100 available and it was fine for us - that was with Avis

 

[2Tiggies]

Debit cards can be overdrawn. A hold can be placed on an overdrawn account provided it does not exceed the allowance set by the bank. I am not disputing that a hold may not have been placed on your account. The reason we are highlighting this is that it is a common oversight and point of confusion on the party of many people trying to grasp the difference between a hold on a debt, credit and pre paid card.