Do they really charge your debit card $500?

Old Aug 12, 2008, 2:54 pm
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Do they really charge your debit card $500?

I was reading some fine print in the avis website in regards to using a debit card for renting a car and it says that they may charge your account for a deposit of $500, and keep it tied up for as long as a week.. Do they actually do this?

Typically when I rent a car it is with an airline employee agreement, and in addition to a discounted rate, they usually waive things like the underage fee, as well as such limitations with renting the car with a debit card. Except in a couple of weeks I'm going to be renting with some freebie coupons and since there's a chance they wont let me use my AWD along with my coupons (the jury's still out on this), I'm concerned with this hefty deposit I'll need to make since I DO rent my cars with my ordinary bank visa logo'd debit card..

Any input on this will be appreciated..
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Old Aug 12, 2008, 5:54 pm
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Do you have a credit card? You can leave it on a credit card when you pick up the car, then when you turn the car in you can have it actually charged to your debit card.

If you don't have $500 in your checking account or don't want to risk bouncing other transactions I would not use a debit card.
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Old Aug 12, 2008, 8:29 pm
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Originally Posted by gj83
Do you have a credit card? You can leave it on a credit card when you pick up the car, then when you turn the car in you can have it actually charged to your debit card.

If you don't have $500 in your checking account or don't want to risk bouncing other transactions I would not use a debit card.

Nope, no credit card.. Don't like 'em. Otherwise, of course I would use the credit card..
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Old Aug 13, 2008, 12:22 pm
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it has to do with how debit and credit cards work with preauthorizations. debit cards do not set aside the $$ on preauths because its just a conduit to your checking account. Credit cards will reduce your spending limit by a specific amount, guaranteeing the money. In debit cards, preauths expire within hours making the $$ available to you once again. So the only way to guarantee (secure) the money is to actually withdraw it. This is one of the reasons why hotels and car rentals didnt accept debit cards for such a long time. As they got more popular, they had to come up with something.

if you prepay for your trip via hotwire or priceline or any other "must pay for in advance" system, they will only hold 100$ on your debit card. I know this as fact as I have personally done it and As a manager (now former) with avis I have seen it done thousands of times.


Thats what I have always suggested to people, esp those just renting for a day or two. Getting a 500 (and in some cases 750) dollar hold in your checking account is just plain nasty.
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Old Aug 15, 2008, 12:41 pm
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Originally Posted by num1bearsfan
Nope, no credit card.. Don't like 'em. Otherwise, of course I would use the credit card..
Suggestion: get a "secured" credit card from a credit union. Whatever amount of cash you put in a savings account will be your credit limit, so you're in effect borrowing against your own money and avoiding a debt trap. Fees and interest are generally much lower than traditional credit cards, too (mine is 9.9%).

I don't like credit cards either, but they're practically a necessity for renting cars. And since 2004, any Visa credit card (but not debit cards), even secured ones, also include free secondary collision insurance for rental cars.
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Old Aug 15, 2008, 2:56 pm
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Originally Posted by ezmonee
it has to do with how debit and credit cards work with preauthorizations. debit cards do not set aside the $$ on preauths because its just a conduit to your checking account. Credit cards will reduce your spending limit by a specific amount, guaranteeing the money. In debit cards, preauths expire within hours making the $$ available to you once again.
Interesting, that explains a lot about prejudice in US concerning debit cards. With regards to authorization, both of my debit cards works exactly the same as credit cards, with auth only expiring after a month. As a matter of fact, one of my debit cards is Visa Classic, and there is no way for anybody to find out that this is debit card.
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Old Aug 16, 2008, 12:36 am
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Whatever you do...don't go get a Pre-paid Visa/Mastercard...Rental Car Companies don't accept them.

A Secured Visa/Mastercard is a totally different animal...If you get one of these though...pay off the charge Immediately as the interest is usually very high, even though you are essentially paying for your Own money.

The other bad part about using a debit card to do the rental is, sometimes with some banks the Authorizations fall off, and the money doesn't really come out of the account, and tho you think that money is OUT of your account, it wasn't, you could overspend your account and when you return the car and the actual charge process that would normally happen on return, wouldn't go through ...the money wouldn't be in your account....you spent it! AGAIN...during your trip.
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Old Aug 17, 2008, 3:12 am
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Originally Posted by Xevus
As a matter of fact, one of my debit cards is Visa Classic, and there is no way for anybody to find out that this is debit card.
actually, as part of the approval process, the system determines that the card is a "debit" card and does the proper deduction/authorization. no one really would know unless they looked at the credit card auth report. within the credit card number there is a sequence that indicates that it is tied to a bank account.

The system actually has "denied" foriegn debit cards because they do not follow some international standard.
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Old Aug 17, 2008, 3:27 am
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Originally Posted by ezmonee
actually, as part of the approval process, the system determines that the card is a "debit" card and does the proper deduction/authorization. no one really would know unless they looked at the credit card auth report. within the credit card number there is a sequence that indicates that it is tied to a bank account.
Trust me, for a proper Classic and above cards there is NO way for a billing system to find out if its debit or credit. There is no information about this either in magnetic stripe, or authorization response. I've used this debit card in a lot of places that doesn't accept debits, and never hard a problem. For all intents and purposes this is a credit card.

The system actually has "denied" foriegn debit cards because they do not follow some international standard.
Well, actually this is US debit cards that usually don't follow Visa/MC standards Most (if not all) debit cards issued in US are "semi-local" systems such as Plus or Cirrus.
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Old Aug 18, 2008, 1:59 am
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Originally Posted by Xevus
Trust me, for a proper Classic and above cards there is NO way for a billing system to find out if its debit or credit. There is no information about this either in magnetic stripe, or authorization response. I've used this debit card in a lot of places that doesn't accept debits, and never hard a problem. For all intents and purposes this is a credit card.



Well, actually this is US debit cards that usually don't follow Visa/MC standards Most (if not all) debit cards issued in US are "semi-local" systems such as Plus or Cirrus.
doesnt explain why I denied six german reporters at my location because the system would not accept their card. After three days, our accts dept came back with a result, the result was that their card came back as "debit cards" from germany even though it was properly funded.

Nor does it explain how the system properly identified cards as debit and credit with no input from the agent. Swipe the card, the proper authorization for credit(estimate +10) or the Debit (500 minimum).

if it works for you, fine. Be my guest. But I know for a fact that the Avis system can tell which are debit and which ones are not.
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Old Aug 18, 2008, 2:31 am
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Originally Posted by Xevus
Trust me, for a proper Classic and above cards there is NO way for a billing system to find out if its debit or credit. There is no information about this either in magnetic stripe, or authorization response. I've used this debit card in a lot of places that doesn't accept debits, and never hard a problem. For all intents and purposes this is a credit card.
I've used mine too in places where they don't accept debit, also. The is difference is that with a debit card, a debit transaction is where you enter your PIN number and is instantaneously deducted from your account whereas a Visa transaction is when you sign (in some cases...) and wait a day or two for the transaction to clear. So it all depends on how quickly you want to have the transaction clear your account. BUT, a Visa debit card, such as the one you're describing is NOT a credit card, as no information is reported to a credit bureau. Banks do not view Visa check cards or Visa debit cards as credit cards and a Visa Check Card, when applying for credit in some places, does not suffice as a credit card.

I'd NEVER use a debit card to reserve or pay for a rental car. Why, you ask? Simple. I know of a company who sent out an email to their stores saying that their computers were hack proof and...lo and behold...AN EMPLOYEE, who is a self-professed and self-taught computer hacker, hacked into this major retailers system from his home computer. If an employee of a company decided to challenge himself and hack in, what's to say that someone who's NOT an employee and has malicious intent wouldn't do the same? (Outcome of the story...said employee contacted the IT department for this retailer, said, "Hi. This is so-and-so from such-and-such store. I got the email earlier today about the computer systems and I thought I'd tell you that I'm at home and I just hacked into the computer system," and within a month, the employee was working at company headquarters to work on the computer security for this company)

That and, in my area recently, there's been a rash of credit card numbers getting stolen because the companies didn't properly secure their computer systems, therefore putting consumers at risk.

If someone were to steal my debit card number my bank wouldn't be able to provide the same protection that my credit card company could. People think that because their debit card says Visa or MasterCard, they have a credit card and they have all the protections of a credit card...you don't.
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Old Aug 18, 2008, 2:47 am
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Originally Posted by wsucougarchick05
I've used mine too in places where they don't accept debit, also. The is difference is that with a debit card, a debit transaction is where you enter your PIN number and is instantaneously deducted from your account whereas a Visa transaction is when you sign (in some cases...) and wait a day or two for the transaction to clear.
Maybe this hold true in US, but in Russia and Europe this is different. I certainly can use any card i have in any way - sign or PIN, it doesn't matter if card is debit or credit, the only real difference is merchant preferences/requirements. In some places in Europe they INSIST that you enter the PIN with any card (because this way there are becoming practically immune to chargebacks).
And there is no difference on processing times for sign or PIN methods. Unless of course sign operation was done if off-line mode, which is very rare in Europe and basically only happens aboard of planes or ships.

Last edited by Xevus; Aug 18, 2008 at 3:25 am
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Old Aug 18, 2008, 6:49 am
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Most Debit Cards have a different Number Sequence than a traditional Charge Card does, that's how the rental car companies software systems can tell the difference.
Now if you have a Line of Credit attached to your Debit Card, which some people do, then the Rental Car Companies software will ususally let the card process as normal. At National Alamo the software doesn't give you the option for Chosing Debit Credit...it KNOWS which it is automatically from the number sequence on the card and a pop-up comes up on the screen. Now the agent should have seen on the Card that it said Debit on the card itself...or the word Check Card. Or even if it didn't, like I said the software will dedect it as soon as it's swiped even before the bank is contacted for monies.
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Old Aug 19, 2008, 1:57 am
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Originally Posted by Xevus
Maybe this hold true in US, but in Russia and Europe this is different. I certainly can use any card i have in any way - sign or PIN, it doesn't matter if card is debit or credit, the only real difference is merchant preferences/requirements. In some places in Europe they INSIST that you enter the PIN with any card (because this way there are becoming practically immune to chargebacks).
And there is no difference on processing times for sign or PIN methods. Unless of course sign operation was done if off-line mode, which is very rare in Europe and basically only happens aboard of planes or ships.
not sure how they work outside the U.S. but my debit card immediately shows pin transactions as purchases on my online bank. When I sign for it, my bank shows a transaction, reduces the balance, but doesnt post til 24 hours after the card company sends their batch to the processor (most small merchants, this is a manual process which can happen daily, or weekly in some cases).
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Old Apr 18, 2009, 4:15 pm
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Avis rental via Priceline.com

Originally Posted by ezmonee
it has to do with how debit and credit cards work with preauthorizations. debit cards do not set aside the $$ on preauths because its just a conduit to your checking account. Credit cards will reduce your spending limit by a specific amount, guaranteeing the money. In debit cards, preauths expire within hours making the $$ available to you once again. So the only way to guarantee (secure) the money is to actually withdraw it. This is one of the reasons why hotels and car rentals didnt accept debit cards for such a long time. As they got more popular, they had to come up with something.

if you prepay for your trip via hotwire or priceline or any other "must pay for in advance" system, they will only hold 100$ on your debit card. I know this as fact as I have personally done it and As a manager (now former) with avis I have seen it done thousands of times.


Thats what I have always suggested to people, esp those just renting for a day or two. Getting a 500 (and in some cases 750) dollar hold in your checking account is just plain nasty.

Is this true...they only do $100 deposit if you use Priceline? I hav reserved a car through Priceline, the company is Avis. I called Avis to check their debit card policy they said they'd charge a $400 hold on my debit card. I hope it's not that much because if it is my trip will be on a VERY tight budget
Thanks!
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