I’m going to be in Edmonton tomorrow, and it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get out of the airport. I goofed. I didn’t realize until late that most car companies have a non-negotiable policy which requires that you have a credit card.
I have a debit card, with thousands of dollars, and I could plop down enough cash to make a deposit large enough to cover the cost of the car I’m renting, but without a token credit card, I appear to be screwed.
I have a visa debit card, with a few thousand dollars on it. Is there anywhere, or any way, that I can rent a car in my current situation? Hell, I may end up having to buy a car, but that’d be hard to do on short notice, and buying a car for a week is pretty nuts.
In any case, I’m running out of options. Can any of you think up some sort of creative way to get around this? Or maybe know of a car company that will work with me without a credit card?
In August of this year, I rented a car through Budget with a Visa debit card. They said I’d have to have a certain amount of money on the card in excess of the rental charge, as a deposit, to (IIRC) be released when I turned the card in. This was at Logan International Airport in Boston, MA.
I don’t know if policies change in Canada, but give them a try at least.
If your debit card has a Visa logo on it, it should work exactly the same as a credit card for all intents and purposes. I have a Visa-backed debit card as well, and have used it to rent cars, book airline tickets, reserve hotel rooms, etc. Are you sure the rental company won’t accept it?
Hertz appears that they may have the same policy, so I need to look into that, but they want about $750 from me to rent a car for 9 days… a regular mid size sedan, which is nuts. But I may have to go that route.
I forgot to mention that I’m 23, so I need a rental company who will accept (and charge for) under 25 drivers. Budget, I believe, has no such provision.
I have asked two salespersons about using my debit card to rent the card, explaining to them that it was indeed a visa debit card. They both told me that wasn’t acceptable and that a credit card would have to be used.
However…
They use a different debit card system in canada, don’t they? They don’t have visa debit cards. So maybe they only know that canadian debit cards aren’t acceptable.
Oh, and in regard to what Ferret Herder said (simulpost!), the standard merchant reserve amount for debit is 20% in my experience, meaning that the system will confirm that your account has the amount of the purchase plus 20%. You will not be charged the 20%, but it will be placed on “hold” until the transaction clears. I am not positive that the 20% is a universal standard, but I have encountered it many times, and have never seen a different amount used.
As regards under-25 drivers, I have rented from Enterprise despite this policy (I’m 20), but then I have a friend who works for the company, so I do not recommend that you try to do this. I have rented a moving truck from Budget before with no problems, so I think you’re on target there.
Hmm. I forgot we were dealing with Canada. I’ve never tried to rent a car there, so I can’t really be of much help; sorry. I have had U.S. merchants tell me they don’t accept debit cards, at which point I’ve given them my Visa debit card and told them it was a standard credit card, and they’ve accepted it (and the transaction cleared) with no problems. I can’t exactly recommend that you do this; it’s a bit of a DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME type of thing. But I can see no reason why it wouldn’t work, and it has always worked for me.
YMM most definitely V, though, so I hope somebody with actual knowledge comes along soon to answer your question. Best of luck.
My understanding is that some debit cards process like a credit card – you don’t have to enter a PIN as with typical debit cards, rather the transaction proceeds exactly as it would with a credit card. If this is how yours works, I would present it without raising the issue. Chances are it will be accepted.
My call went something like this… this was with thrifty, but I made a similar call with the same results with, I believe, avis.
Sales: Ok, I have the car reserved for you. You’ll have to show up with a driver’s license and a valid credit card in your name to pick it up.
Me: I have a debit card, is that acceptable?
Sales: No, you need a valid credit card.
Me: It’s a visa debit card, though.
Sales: It has to be a credit card.
Me: Can I make a cash deposit or something instead?
Sales: Nope, valid credit card required.
Were they incorrect? Is it possible that they don’t understand that a visa debit card will function as a valid credit card? The problem is that the sales reps are telling me I can’t… and I’m not sure I want to just show up and try to have them swipe the card and find out then if it works or not.
My debit card does indeed function like a credit card when I choose that option. If I swipe it at one of those swiper pads at a grocery store, I can pick “credit” or “debit” and if I pick credit it processes, approves, and prints out a paper for me to sign just like a credit card.
I hope then that the reservation people may be incorrect, because they’re thinking I have a non-credit canadian debit card rather than a visa debit card. So I guess I should just show up there, and try to rent my car… but it’s kinda shitty to not know whether you have a car or not until you get your card swiped when you’re already at the airport…
Although you may use a debit card, pre-paid card, or
another form of payment to pay for the final charges
on the vehicle, if you reserve a vehicle through this
website, you will need to provide a major credit card
at the time of the rental to secure the rental
transaction. A major credit card is a card that is
supported by a pre-determined line of credit, and not
a bank account, or a pre-paid balance.
Local Enterprise Rent-A-Car Offices may accept
debit cards, pre-paid cards, or other forms of
payment to secure the rental transaction. To reserve
a vehicle without a major credit card, please contact
the local office directly.
Just because a debit card is processed like a credit card doesn’t mean it is a credit card.
I can’t speak for all rental companies but some years back both Avis and Hertz stopped accepting debit cards. Maybe they have changed since then. Whenever I’ve rented cards in the past 5 years, I have always been specifically asked, “Is this a credit card or a debit card?”
I think there are in fact some companies that will rent on a debit card but they know it’s a debit card. The rules or deposit limits are different.
I think the reservation people are correct. If you doubt them, call the national number or call several different local branches and ask. If they all say no to debit cards, it’s likely they are right.
I’ve got to wonder what the deal is if they have to ask which type of card it is. I’m thinking that if you can call it a credit card at the grocery store, you can call it a credit card at the rental counter. That’s what I would do. If for some reason it isn’t accepted, you might be able to negotiate a deal with a livery service. It would probably cost more than a rental, but less than a taxicab or buying a car.
Just to muddy the waters, I’ve rented from both Avis and Thrifty at airport locations. When they asked for a credit card, I gave them my MasterCard debit card, and nary a peep. They swiped it just like a credit card, had me sign the papers, and I was on my way. And this was for the advertised price, no cash deposit.
Which kind of makes sense . . . aren’t they immediately withdrawing the money from by checking account?
At the risk of asking a stupid question – is it absolutely essential you have a car? You can sometimes get surprisingly good deals from taxi and limo companies, even for long trips.
It would make things enourmously easier to have a car.
I could get by with a cab, but I’d have to reduce the stuff I want to do, and it’d be an option of last resort.
What is a livery service?
I guess if I can’t do anything conclusive, I will walk around the airport tomorrow, requesting a car, and handing out my debit card until ideally one of them swipes it with no problem.
That’s what I was saying in my post above. Whenever I’ve encountered “we don’t accept debit”, I hand over my debit card (which looks like a credit card; it has the Visa logo on the front) and don’t say a word. They swipe it, it clears, all is well. If I mention that the card is a debit card, however, they will refuse to take it. I have tried that three times – not much of a sample size, I know, but still – by way of experiment, at locations where I’ve used the card in the past and know full well that it works, and they’ve refused to take it every time (so I paid cash instead).
It’s difficult to differentiate between the people who, for whatever reason, cannot accept Visa debit cards, and the people who just don’t know what they’re talking about. I can safely say that I’ve never encountered an example of the former. But if they do exist, then you’d be playing a dangerous game by trying what I, and others here, have suggested. In your situation, it’s what I personally would do. Just the same, I can’t in good conscience recommend it to you.
Well, my card has “check card” and “debit” on the front of it, unfortunately.
Still, what I may try is calling them up and asking if they can run my card over the phone to make the reservation. Maybe I can find out now if it works…
They can see whether it’s a debit card or a credit card when they run the transaction. I know because I’ve tried. They asked for my credit card, I handed my debit card without saying anything (and it didn’t say anywhere on it that it was a debit card - believe me I looked) and they ran it, then said “We’re sorry, this is a debit card, we need a credit card.” Eventually, I convinced them to take about 300 bucks in cash as a deposit over what I charged to my card. Then again, they said they were only able to do it because I was a resident of the town (and therefore easier for them to track down, I suppose.)
That was with Enterprise. When I went out of country and rented a car, it took a lot of calling around to find a place that would accept a debit card.
Now, both Mastercard and Visa have rules that say that if a merchant accepts their credit cards for payment, they are required to accept their debit cards as well. However, that doesn’t mean that they have to treat the two the same. Just about any major rental agency will take your debit card for payment - because they’re obligated to by the CC companies rules - but can still require an additional form of security in order to protect their interests.
I called enterprise and spoke to a different representative. I told them I have a visa check card. He said as long as I have a visa logo on it then they can work with it.
Not only that, but enterprise doesn’t have the extra underage fees, and they’re cheap to begin with. I’m getting the whole thing at $220 where hertz would’ve cost me over $700.
