Another DP:
Joined Gold rewards a couple of weeks ago when I turned 21. Rented this weekend, no extra $200 hold. Good stuff :D

Assuming your rental was on a Visa?

Yes, my rental was on a Visa (that was saved to my profile). Spoke to the Assistant Manager at the HLE, he said that it is a policy that there's no $200 hold for Visas when you're a Gold member (and I assume the Visa needs to be added to your profile).

Rentals after your first will not have the $200 deposit, assuming your Visa card is in your Gold Profile and you're renting using Gold.

This was exactly my experience this year. Was taken back during my first rental when I saw the pending charge on my card.

Can someone please confirm something to me please.

I've put in a rental for a Hertz vehicle from early August for 1 week. The total price on the website was approx £240 (I will be renting in Canada fyi) and I agreed to pre-pay £200.
This £200 is showing up as a pending transaction on my Visa credit card (and has remained pending for the last 5 days). Am I right in thinking that this will remain as a pending transaction all the way until I pick up the car in August? Or will they charge me in a day or two and hence I can pay off the £200 by say next Monday and have that space freed up on my credit card again. Just concerned as I don't want to accumulate interest on £200 over the next 3 months

Cheers

I don't think you can accumulate interest on a pending charge. And from my experience, Hertz pre-pay rates may take a while to post.

I don't have experience prepaying with Hertz, so I don't know how long it takes charges to post, but I would certainly expect it to eventually post. They would not keep it as a pending authorization for a period of several months. A merchant has 30 days to process a charge against an authorization before it becomes an invalid authorization (taking more than 30 days to post a charge would be grounds for an automatic reversal if you were to charge it back). Also, they want use of the money now--that's the whole reason you prepaid. They don't get the money until they process the charge.

That said, if you were to have someone place an authorization on your card and never process a charge against it: it varies by card-issuing bank, but an unposted authorization will "fall off" of your card (and thus your available credit returned to you) anywhere from a few days to a month after it shows up. Most banks seem to get rid of them after a week (even if technically the merchant can still claim that money for up to 30 days).

How it works. Gold and non gold rentals
 

Not really. This thread is specific to VISA credit cards and as established earlier, there is no deposit for Gold rentals using a VISA from your Gold profile. Otherwise there is a $200 hold and that's it.
Credit vs debit card info is useful, but it's not applicable to all airport locations. And it's off topic..

Is there a hold for an authorized driver with a VISA credit card? If so, how much?

No holds for authorized drivers on any card. Authorized drivers don't even provide their credit card info.

Rented with AMEX at MSP this past weekend, returned Sunday. $200+ rental cost hold is still on the card. Presidents Circle. I don't recall having this happen much before! Anyway, what's the time frame for having it disappear?
thanks

Just for the record, there is no change with a Visa card for 2020. No $200 deposit. Just a hit against your card for the expected actual charges (from my January 2, 2020 LAX rental).