Other Car Rental Programs (ie. Alamo, Enterprise) - no pre-authorize for alamo?

hello
so first time renting a car from alamo, and I just find out that they don't pre-authorize any amount. is this true? I usually rent it from enterprise, and they always pre-authorize $300 everytime i rent a car from them.

They only authorize the amount of rental.

They only authorize the amount of rental.

that's awesome~ I wonder why other rental company doesn't do it.

that's awesome~ I wonder why other rental company doesn't do it.

Because that's insanely risky for a rental car operator to do?

They really don't want to have to send someone to collections because their card took $25 for the one-day rental but wouldn't take a $10 gas charge to them after they returned.

I've seen people's credit cards decline for less than $5 before...

Frankly, I don't know how Alamo does it.

Because that's insanely risky for a rental car operator to do?

They really don't want to have to send someone to collections because their card took $25 for the one-day rental but wouldn't take a $10 gas charge to them after they returned.

I've seen people's credit cards decline for less than $5 before...

Frankly, I don't know how Alamo does it.

In Australia, Avis and Budget only authorise the rental amount, Hertz authorise rental + $80 (recently reduced from $200), Thrifty genrally charge rental amount upfront and Europcar auth rental + up to $350.

Also, most banks will let you overdraw your credit card limit by around 10%.

National also only authorizes the amount of the rental. Nothing more.

National used to authorize the rental + $x, and now I only see the rental cost after I enrolled in Emerald Club; but that may be a coincidence.

Enterprise is all over the map, YYZ is rental cost, the local franchise is rental + $100, and in the US I typically see $300.

Enterprise is all over the map, YYZ is rental cost, the local franchise is rental + $100, and in the US I typically see $300.

Enterprise doesn't franchise, so the suburban office you rent from is still corporate.

That said, the reason you see differences is that many of these policies are set on a regional level. In the Pacific Northwest (the group that covered Spokane and Alaska, at least), it was (as of a year ago or so) set at rental + $200.

However, there's now a bit of confusion added because most (all?) airport Enterprise offices have switched from the in-house Enterprise ECARS GUI software to the Alamo National-owned Odyssey text-based software. (ECARS is more flexible to deal with things like insurance split-billing rentals but takes forever to navigate through, while Odyssey is massively more efficient for basic, straightforward retail/corporate rentals.) As part of this switchover, though, airport Enterprise locations had to adapt to Odyssey's hard-programmed rules with regard to credit card authorizations, which apparently don't allow for a flat charge to be added, only a percentage increment. The group's management decided that 15% was the best compromise, and so airport rentals in at least the Spokane and Alaska group (and possibly the entire region, which covers most of the Pacific Northwest) add 15% to the estimated rental for the purpose of credit card authorizations. Neighborhood branches in that group using ECARS still add a flat $200, unless something has changed in the last year.