NELBHOY

Looking to hire a car in Brisbane for a few weeks. Getting a bit confused regarding the whole excess side of things. I understand the excess can be up to $5500. Do the companies take a downpayment prior to hiring the car for this. Hope they're not looking for the full amount

nic75

it's worth thinking about an excess waiver policy with the likes of Questor. They usually cost about a couple of pounds per day and cover most damages.

Bermudashorts

Mr BS took out. A policy with Virgin last time we hired a car instead of taking the hire car companies own insurance with a big excess. But to the question, it is an excess, it is not a deposit..

Pootle

We have car hire excess covered by travel insurance when needed. Last year in Sydney I managed to get pranged by a taxi in a car park. I had to pay the excess up front to the car hire people (I think about $3000 or so!). I then claimed this back through the travel insurers who refunded it to me. The taxi driver tried to claim his damage back through the car hire company but it was rejected, apparently the taxi drivers are known for this and put in extortionate claims. We use tid (travel insurance direct), they always say you don't know how good an insurer is until you need to claim, well this was my first time putting a claim in and they dealt with it quickly and no issues.

NELBHOY

thanks bs. So they don't take an upfront deposit through your debit card? How can they ensure you pay up if you get a ding?

bcworld

I have an annual policy through them too. It covers upto $4k of rental vehicle excess for domestic and international car hire.

$5.5k sounds very high for an ordinary car rental...is it prestige or something similar?

Swerv-o

I think you will find that they won't accept a debit card for a hire. It will have to be a credit card that they can pre authorise the excess on.

This has come up before - People with debit cards (and cash) being declined hire services.


S

Dreamy

I only have a debit card - I've never had a problem hiring cars. There may be an issue with eftpos cards though.

Swerv-o

When was the last time you tried? I will refer you to this thread for your delectation...


S

Dreamy

Last time was probably a couple of years ago.

That thread was 2008 - at around the same time I was merrily hiring cars on my debit card. I haven't had a credit card since 2007.

Swerv-o

I've heard many reports of debit cards being declined for car hire - there are many more threads than that, so you should at least be aware of the possibility for the future.


S

Dreamy

Ay thank you for your concern

Swerv-o

Well, I'd hate for you to be stranded somewhere having planned to hire a car, particularly overseas.


S

Dreamy

Overseas, we've always found the debit card to go through the mastercard system (or visa, as we had a visa debit card in the UK) so it's never been an issue no matter where we've been. Perhaps we've just been lucky.

(It'd be a relief to go somewhere and have a legitimate reason not to drive, she says, as the permanent bleeding driver in the household!)

The biggest issues we had were when we first arrived in Australia and debit cards weren't regularly used - some systems would accept our UK one, others pitched a fit. Ironically, Hertz had no issue letting us have a three week hire on it.

NELBHOY

So by pre authorising do you mean that if I have a credit card with a limit less than what the excess amount is, they won't hire to me?