Originally Posted by
Often1
Wonder how OP got Hertz to issue him a rental contract which didn't expressly authorize Hertz to debt his CC for damages. If OP missed that in his hyperbole, he's going to have a rude awakening when Hertz provides the contract to the CC issuer and the chargeback attempt is denied.
Interesting note: the
Visa acceptance guide for the car rental industry states the following:
After a car is returned, you may find there are additional charges (e.g., fuel or
mileage, traffic violations, or parking tickets/other fines) or calculation errors.
These charges may be billed if your car rental sales agreement states that a
final audit will be used to identify any additional charges and your customer has
consented to this by signing the agreement.
Car rental agencies may not use a Visa product to process delayed or amended
charges related to car loss, and/or theft, damages.
Now, that document isn't a legal contract, and it's possible that the merchant agreements that major car rental companies have with their credit card processors could supersede the above information, but it's been my experience that regardless of the verbiage in the contract (which inevitably does include the ability to charge for damages), banks will indeed substantiate a chargeback against a delayed charge for damage. (This may be one reason why Enterprise always immediately charges the customer's deductible for damage at return--that way, it's not a delayed charge.)
There are other things in that document that major rental car agencies do violate...