Renting car with debit card AND Anabella Hotel parking fees

m-tinkerbelle

Mouseketeer
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
313
Hi!
Someone in a Travel forum told me I could be able to rent a car with a debit VISA card (mine has the logo)
So, just to keep my options open i'd like to know...

Has any of you rented a car with a debit card recently? I know they'll do a credit check and they'll hold an amount. Also that i'll have to give proof of my return flight ticket. I intend to leave the rent prepaid.was your experience good? Did they allow you to do it easily?

Also, i'd like to know if any of you know the Anabella hotel parking fees per night or whatever applies. I tried contacting them but i didn't get a reply from thhem in like 3 days.

Also if you could tell me which car renting company is reliable in the area?i found a budget and an avis near anabella hotel that we can use

Thanks a lot!
 
If possible I would recommend not using debit. Depending on the company, the hold they put on your card is pretty massive. At least $100 on top of your rental cost that you wont get back for several days depending on your bank. Also, you might be required to show another form of identification, not sure on all the requirements. But, if it's your only option make sure you can cover the deposit charge because you aren't going to want to deal with overdraft fees during your vacation.

Not sure about parking fees.
 
Anabella parking fees are $12/night. We are staying there next week.

As far as renting with a debit, my mom has done it because she doesn't own a credit card, her debit is a Visa as well. I believe they just held extra funds until the car was returned. So i would make sure you have the $ for the rental, their insurance if you are purchasing it, extra driver fees if you need those and a little bit extra.
 
I can't really help with using the debit card to rent a car, basically it depends on the company for what thier specific policies are.

For the Annabella parking is $14 per night.

For rental cars, many major companies are in the area and should not be a problem to use other than the problems with using a debit card.

Along with Avis, there is also Dollar, Alamo, Hertz, and Enterprise all within walking distance. The Budget is a long, long walk away.


I would consider one thing before you rent. Why do you need the car and for how long. Sometimes you can get great short term or long term rates. Also will you save by using a rental to get to or from the airport. You con't need it to get to the Disney parks, so you may be able to use one for just part of the trip.
 

Were a cash/debit card family don't have any credit cards and we use Alamo to rent cars I think they put $150 or $175 hold on it. Never had any problems renting from them and I think last time in December there was no hold placed.
 
This is from my confirmation email:

All vehicles parking on property will be charged a fee of $12.00 plus tax per night. The parking fee for a second vehicle is an additional $15.00 plus tax per night. RV's, Motor Homes and Trailers are not permitted on hotel property, please call ahead for alternate parking locations.

So it will be a little over $12 with the tax, I forgot about that in my previous post.
 
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Thanks a lot everyone!
I just don't know why anabella hotel doesn't reply to my emails...

Yes, i'd have extra funds to cover all costs and the additional i'ds they ask to international travellerd or those with debit cards.

We still don't know if we'll be renting or not.

Until today i was told it was impossible to rent a car with a visa debit card so i didn't consider renting.
But, someone in a travel forum told me that it was indeed possible, for as long as they put a hold on an amount on the card and did the credit check, it was easier if the rental was prepaid.

We would want the car to get to and from universal studios, maybe for a quick visit to LA and Santa Monica (we wouldn't hire a tour in that case), and to get to malls and do grocery shopping. Since we're just the two of us, i don't think renting the car to get to the hotel would be the best and cheapest option. We'll be living zombies when we arrive, we won't be able to drive in a foreign country at that particular moment XD

Of course, i have to consider all the options, it'll probably be no use to rent a car, or it will be too expensive. I have to calculate all the amounts and compare.

But, i'll have to run tomorrow to the traffic authority to get my international drivers permit if i want to even consider it. My spanish license is not good there or it's better to have the international permit just to be on the safe side.

I just dont want to be there, need a rental car and not have the option for noth aving the permit.

So, i have a lot of reserch left to do before monday!
I'll also need to know details about driving in the US and California in particular.

Still, i think we won't end up renting a car, but i dont want to ditch the option just now
:)

Thank you all for the replies!
 
I rent with VISA debit all the time and have not had an issue.

Jack
 
I rent with VISA debit all the time and have not had an issue.

Jack

Thanks to you and the rest of DISers for the info!

I'd like to know about the insurance options i should choose. What do you recommend? I want to feel at ease while driving and not have to worry about a bird dropping "a gift"and damaging the car's paint or something

Here insurance options are different could any of you pour some light on me?

Thanks!
 
We actually just returned from Disneyland less than a week ago. We had a very easy rental car experience. I called Enterprise about using my debit card. I was told that because I was not a local and if I had a return flight ticket, I could use my debit card. I was told they would take out a deposit of $350 or the price of the rental if it was more. The difference would be returned when we returned the car. We got an AWESOME deal on an economy car for $105 total (taxes and everything!) for the week. The lady at Enterprise said I would be refunded $245 when I returned the car. She also said it was pretty instantaneously and there would be no "waiting a month" type thing for the refund.

We flew into LAX fully expecting to pay the $350 deposit. When we got to the Enterprise facility, I got a great surprise! I got up to the counter, handed the nice woman my reservations, and explained that I would be using my debit card. My reservations had the debit card policy on it, so I made sure she knew what I was hoping to do. She said that was the normal policy but there at the LAX Enterprise pick up, they don't do the $350 deposit. They do the price of the car plus 20%. You then get the 20% back at the end of your trip. So instead of paying $350, I only had to pay $126! I was so happy I had more money to spend in the parks.

Overall, I had a GREAT experience with Enterprise. The drivers to and from the airport were extremely professional and nice. I'm not a little guy and can handle my own luggage. The drivers refused to let me even lift a bag to and from the bus. When I went outside to pick up the car, the nice gentleman walked me through a few options and then let me decide what car I wanted. We ended up getting a Nissan Sentra which drove very well.

Sure enough at the end of our trip, I was refunded the 20% within 24 hours.

I hope this helps anyone who wants to use their Debit Card!

p.s. I did not use their insurance as my own personal insurance covered a rental car. Call your agent and ask them if your policy covers that.
 
Hi!
Someone in a Travel forum told me I could be able to rent a car with a debit VISA card (mine has the logo)
So, just to keep my options open i'd like to know...

Has any of you rented a car with a debit card recently? I know they'll do a credit check and they'll hold an amount. Also that i'll have to give proof of my return flight ticket. I intend to leave the rent prepaid.was your experience good? Did they allow you to do it easily?

Also, i'd like to know if any of you know the Anabella hotel parking fees per night or whatever applies. I tried contacting them but i didn't get a reply from thhem in like 3 days.

Also if you could tell me which car renting company is reliable in the area?i found a budget and an avis near anabella hotel that we can use

Thanks a lot!

You need to call the loacation you will be renting from. Last July we rented a car from our local Enterprise. No problem using debit(we don't have credit cards). They asked for a copy of our pay stubs and electric bill. Then when we went to Illinois(St Louis) last October NO ONE would rent a car to us without a credit card. So, we ended up having my sister get the car on her debit card up where she lived and drive it down. That was Alamo and they asked for nothing. So, as you can see it depends on the company(and the individual franchise.)
BTW they only charged us like $100 deposit for the week at Enterprise and nothing at Alamo.
Sorry no info on the hotel. Good luck on your trip.
 
Thank you all!
I checked the avis site and it said something along the lines of "check your desired office webpage, it'll list all the exceptions and payment policies under -locations exceptions-"
The anaheim office site seemed to accept debit cards. I'll call them when we get to anaheim and we'll see if we rent it or not :) or we'll see if the airport office can make the reservation for the following day. Unfortunately since i'm a foreign visitor, i don't get as many good rates a you all do. For 3 days i get something near 300usd for the most basic car, with all the insurance options added.

What worries me is that in my country we have insurance by law against collission damage to third parties (be it people or private or public property, cars, etc)inside Spain and the UE. I don't see that included in any insurance option in avis or any rental car company. That kind of insurance option doesn't exist in the US? Or is it that it doesn't appear because by law it has to be included? I dont know, i don't understand much to say the truth...

I don't know if my question is clear... My English is failing me :p
 
You need to call the loacation you will be renting from. So, as you can see it depends on the company(and the individual franchise.)

It really does vary. When this policy started to pop up I was working at a bank and a customer came in looking upset. He sat right down at my desk and said his debit card didn't work. Long story short I called the rental company and they said it would cost the rental fee + $1500 to hold as a deposit. Customer did not have $1500 and that was beyong the daily spending limit anyway. This rental car company fixed their policy, after I told them that nobody is likely to come in with a debit card that can be charged $1,500 but it took a few months, and a few of my banks customers and presumably customers from several other banks.
 
What worries me is that in my country we have insurance by law against collission damage to third parties (be it people or private or public property, cars, etc)inside Spain and the UE. I don't see that included in any insurance option in avis or any rental car company. That kind of insurance option doesn't exist in the US? Or is it that it doesn't appear because by law it has to be included? I dont know, i don't understand much to say the truth...

In some states it's different, but in most you need collision as well.

They will ask you when you are renting it if you want insurance. It's a trick they use to charge you more. Because most people are renting with a credit card that includes insurance, and or have a personal vehicle insurance policy that covers thier rentals.



I think you could rent for only 1 or 2 days. To universal use Grayline, which costs about $30 for transportation and the cost of the USH ticket. $60 is less than a day of renting. You could also take ART to the train station and a train to LA, and the subway to Universal. Less money, but a longer trip.

For Santa Monica/LA you almost surely need a rental. For shopping maybe, maybe not.
 
We are from Mexico and have always used our mexican drivers licenses to rent cars in the US, so your spanish one should be enough.

The insurance that you want is the one that costs about $ 25 a day (at least that is the price in Texas). Sadly that increases the cost a LOT.
 
I used my debit card to rent from alamo last month. They didn't charge a deposit when I picked up the car. They authorized the amount of the rental to my debit card, but the didn't charge it. It wasn't charged until I returned the car. The best information will come from the rental desk you rent from. Perhaps you can find a direct phone number?

Also, a lot of the time it's cheaper not to rent at the airport but offsite. I'm renting my car for next week's trip from the Alamo across the street from the Anabella and returning it to SNA. They aren't charging me extra to return it to that location.
 
Anabella charges a resort fee of something like $2. That and the $12 parking fee plus a tiny amount of tax that barely even makes sense brought our charge to $14.04 when we checked out of the Anabella Feb 10.

And even though their website says (or said, before our stay and before I told the front desk person what their website said) parking is charged *per day*, it's actually per night. I was anticipating having to pay $28 in parking b/c we weren't returning the car until 9am on the next day, but it's per night.

This rental car company fixed their policy, after I told them that nobody is likely to come in with a debit card that can be charged $1,500 but it took a few months, and a few of my banks customers and presumably customers from several other banks.

That was really nice of you to follow up like that.

I used my debit card to rent from alamo last month. They didn't charge a deposit when I picked up the car. They authorized the amount of the rental to my debit card, but the didn't charge it. It wasn't charged until I returned the car. The best information will come from the rental desk you rent from. Perhaps you can find a direct phone number?

Also, a lot of the time it's cheaper not to rent at the airport but offsite. I'm renting my car for next week's trip from the Alamo across the street from the Anabella and returning it to SNA. They aren't charging me extra to return it to that location.

So the Alamo next to Alpine Inn takes debit cards? That might be really good for the OP to know. It's also a National location; I wonder if it's the same there.

FYI it's not so much across the street, but across and down a very very long block or two. But they seem to have a shuttle service (they brought DH back to the PPH when he returned it while I was checking us into our second hotel of the trip), so that's good. We did the reverse; picking it up at SNA (so we could go grocery shopping etc instead of hoping our room was ready) and dropping it off at the Alpine Inn location on Katella and got a decent rate (with National).
 
So the Alamo next to Alpine Inn takes debit cards? That might be really good for the OP to know. It's also a National location; I wonder if it's the same there.

FYI it's not so much across the street, but across and down a very very long block or two. But they seem to have a shuttle service (they brought DH back to the PPH when he returned it while I was checking us into our second hotel of the trip), so that's good. We did the reverse; picking it up at SNA (so we could go grocery shopping etc instead of hoping our room was ready) and dropping it off at the Alpine Inn location on Katella and got a decent rate (with National).

As long as you can show them you have a return flight booked, they'll accept your debit card. It's the same at the alamo at SNA and ONT.

I REALLY wanted to just rent from the airport and return there, but it was $100 more! :eek: I think because of the cheerleading competition next weekend? If the OP needs rental discount codes let me know!
 
We'll be staying at Anabella from June 2-9th. When will you be there, if it's the same time maybe we'll run into you. I'm getting excited.:banana:
 

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