Avis Payment on Arrival
 

hey!

I have a reservation in SFO, I was wondering I have chosen the “pay on collection” option.

Is it possible before collecting the car to clear the total of the rental then just pre-auth the rental excess?

hope someone can answer

No, this is not possible. The counter systems automatically pre-auth your credit card based upon whatever policies are in place by the rental company. For most, that means a pre-auth amount equivalent to the total cost of the rental plus a deposit (usually $150-$200), but some companies will not take an additional deposit and just auth the rental amount. The counter reps have zero control over this. It's all handled automatically by the computer system. You will need to ensure you have enough credit on your card for the pre-auth or you may not be able to rent at all.

I seem to remember being charged the entire amount of the rental as soon as I picked up my last personal Avis rental. I could be remembering incorrectly, though, and even if not it could be a function of using a US credit card and/or being part of Avis Preferred. I'll have to pay attention next time and see if that still happens.

Suspect that what you saw was a pending amount of at least the rental if not the rental + $X. When you return the car, the total amount of the rental will show up as the actual charge against your account.

That very well might have been the case. Regardless, pending makes the money/portion of the credit line unavailable, which seems like it's close to what OP wants.

Hi tmiw,

That is right, Sounds right in what I was wanting, same happened in MUC for me!

R

For franchises in Europe, they don't pre-authorise the card but you actually pay the full amount when collecting the car.
Happened to me in France, Italy and Spain