Car rental deposit woes

lordrobs said:
Yeah its a PITA with Monzo cards. I got caught in Oman with a massive deposit fee for the whole crews hotel rooms not leaving enough available balance to actually pay the hotel bill.

It wasn't like I'd just played the "it'll be fine boys, we've got loads of time to get to the airport" card and left it a little tight with our return flight... oh wait. I did.

Still, not like we finally got the other side of the airport to the final security check then realised the hire car key was still in my pocket... oh no, that's right... I did that as well :o
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Thank you, that's exactly what I didn't want to hear but kind of expected, so it's more than likely Monzo who are the numpties in this scenario

Siliconslave said:
I don't use monzo, but does the fact that its grey'd not mean its a hold? If you go into it does it provide any more detail?
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Nah that's the same colour for all payments, otherwise my expensive meal at the bottom would have been on hold too :p
 
Will Gill said:
Nah that's the same colour for all payments, otherwise my expensive meal at the bottom would have been on hold too :p
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Looks a different colour to me as well, similar to the daily totals, whereas all the other individual charges are a darker shade.

A quick google suggests this is often (but not only) related to 'non-finalised' transactions, such as pre-authorisation charges, which may have up to 30 days for the merchant to finalise the amount
 
Yeah I do agree with what you are saying and I've heard a few stories myself, but usually for matched betting and foreign payments etc.. like I said if they do they do, I'd have 60 days to move to wherever I like, would be a shame I quite like the max benefits, but hey ho.
 
MrRockliffe said:
For future rentals check out Zest



Their pricing has 0 excess on most things built into the price, and it’s £40 to increase the coverage.


Has been quite a breath of fresh air using them this time around. Everything clearly laid out ahead of the rental.
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This won't have made any difference as it's not an actual car hire firm, but a broker selling rentals with the major car hire firms but including their own excess insurance. You'd still be charged initially by the supplier as was the case in this situation.

Picking France at random because that is where he went and every result still has a refundable security deposit?
 
[TW]Fox said:
This won't have made any difference as it's not an actual car hire firm, but a broker selling rentals with the major car hire firms but including their own excess insurance. You'd still be charged initially by the supplier as was the case in this situation.

Picking France at random because that is where he went and every result still has a refundable security deposit?
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With Zest it was a 0 value preauthorisation when I was looking and ultimately booked.

I got to the rental desk the other day and it was indeed 0.


Edit looks like it's company and location specific.
 
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MrRockliffe said:
With Zest it was a 0 value preauthorisation when I was looking and ultimately booked.

I got to the rental desk the other day and it was indeed 0.
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Then that is down to the individual firm you hired from. You're not hiring the car from them, you're hiring it from whichever firm it's ultimately booked with and it's they who will charge you or otherwise at the desk.

Try it yourself - put in a 7 day rental at, say, Paris and you'll find a refundable security deposit is listed on all of the results...

Their own site even explains that the insurance coverage they provide doesn't reduce the excess to 0 with the car hire company itself, but pays you back when you have to pay that, which is standard for excess insurance products.
 
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[TW]Fox said:
Then that is down to the individual firm you hired from. You're not hiring the car from them, you're hiring it from whichever firm it's ultimately booked with and it's they who will charge you or otherwise at the desk.

Try it yourself - put in a 7 day rental at, say, Paris and you'll find a refundable security deposit is listed on all of the results...
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Yes I do know that. My response wasn't to the fact that Zest would negate an upfront deposit, it was that they're generally much easier to work with as an interim broker.

At no point did I say it would be 0 security deposit just because it's through a broker :-)
 
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[TW]Fox said:
So how does it help him, the problem is the security deposit :D
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I was just suggesting them because they've been great, and because it sounds like OP values a hassle free experience.


Having hired a lot of cars, my stress levels are always elevated from the point at which I pick the car up to when I get all of my money cleared/back.



I liked the fact that Zest build in 0 excess into the cost for many things and, as OP mentioned that
Will Gill said:
there was nowhere to pay a bit extra to reduce this excess
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I gave the example that Zest provide the ability to add increased protection with a check box when booking. I.e. it's hire car company agnostic.
 
dlockers said:
Not sure why a deposit is such an issue. Pay on a CC and get carehireexcess.com.
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Hindsight is always 20/20 'aint it :-P

Of course if I'd planned to rent a car, I'd have done it all very differently, for a start I'd have rented something decent and done it all through one of many credit cards, got zero excess and ensured a free packet of haribo...

However

In this case, the deposit was absolutely an issue, the RR I was using, true to JL form; just died, luggage spread across two properties and time against us, so we had to rent a car in a hurry, in the middle of basically nowhere (periguex), the only company with anything available that day were ADA so I booked an old school taxi (uber quoted 118 minutes!), I only had my phone on me which has my physical amex in it and my debit cards on it for backup. They don't accept amex so I had to use my debit card on my phone. Oddly I'd tried to add two of my credit cards to my phone and they didn't work, sucks to be with Coutts, they really went downhill when they stopped being the 'Queens bank'.....:
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So yeah, it was a full on western (super mare)
 
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