National - When is CC actually charged?

I apologize in advance for the dopey questions. When does National actually charge your credit card? Upon return of the car or at pickup? When I've rented with Alamo, I always got charged right at pickup. When I've used Avis or Hertz, the charge doesn't get done until the car is returned. I've never used National, but have just joined the Emerald Club, and found some good rates for my needs. But, I can't seem to find anything that tells me when I'm actually charged.

Can someone enlighten me on this issue, please? I did search for about 20 minutes, but couldn't get the right combo of words to find the answer.

Thanks!!

I believe they put a hold on the anticipated charges and some percentage over that when you pick up the car and actually charge the amount (and release the hold) when they have the final amount at the end of the rental.

So the actual charge is on the return, but the funds have to be there when you pick up and will not be available to you during the rental.

Thanks. So, it works pretty much the same way as Hertz and Avis, right? I know they put the "hold" on the card, but the charge is posted at the end of the rental. My frustration with Alamo (and so my question with National, since they're affiliated) is the issue of actually pre-charging my card on a rental that wasn't agreed to as pre-paid. If the car is returned early (and not on a weekly rate, etc), then there has to be an adjustment to the credit card for the difference, etc.

In my experience, National authorizes a hold equal to the estimated charges. So if your total is $77.13, you'll have $77.13 of your available credit on the card frozen until the car is returned. If the car is returned on time and the final is in fact $77.13, then the authorization becomes a payment, and that's what you see on your statement.

Say you return the car early and the total is $48.97. Then the $48.97 is put through as a payment and the remaining $29 or so is just released back onto the card.

But, if you incur additional charges beyond the estimate it works a bit differently. Say you returned the car on-time as in the first example but incurred a refueling charge of $20.40. You'd then have two charges on your CC. The original authorization of $77.13 is put through as a payment, and a SECOND payment fo $20.40 is taken to cover the additional charges. This is different as compared to Hertz, who take an authorization of about $200 over the estimated total. Avis, in my experience, works the same as National.

I've never rented on the Alamo side so I'm not sure why they charge you upfront if it's not on a prepaid rate. It would be worth discussing with a manager to find out why if it's becoming a problem. So far, I've never had this happen in 80+ rentals with National.

Thank you so much for the very thorough reply. That's exactly how I was hoping it would work. And, with Alamo, I've always had that charge-on-pickup issue, regardless of where the car was rented. It's one of the reasons I started to look elsewhere for rentals (usually with Avis), unless the Alamo rate was significantly lower than other companies. Thanks again.:)