I can totally appreciate your frustration Randix, their seems to be no rhyme or reason to their credit/debit card holds and you can't get a straight answer out of anyone from Budget and you certainly can't rely on their website for accurate info. I'm also pretty much an all year long renter and here in STL they used to have even higher holds at least for debit cards for $500. Recently they've relaxed that back down to the standard credit card hold of $200 + the estimated cost of the rental. A couple months ago I dabbled with their prepaid deals to try and save a few bucks which I immediately regretted for several reasons. Anyway, it clearly states on the website that they only hold $100 for prepaid reservations on a debit card. When I went to rent at the STL airport suddenly it was $200. The agent who was actually nice was also essentially clueless as to why that was and was convinced it was supposed to be $200 for some bizarre reason. I did call their CS to ask about it and after being put on hold for 10 minutes while they "investigated" they came back on the line and said that buried in the fine print is a clause that says that each location can basically decide whatever they want for a credit hold. So basically the website is worthless as far as having any reliable information about credit holds and unfortunately your left to just "test it out" each time at each different location. You can never expect it to be a certain amount at any given location with any confidence, you just have to assume it can change at anytime for whatever reason.... that's been my experience. The best strategy is to try and make sure you have extra credit available on your card so hopefully you don't get caught short.