Johnny Rocket

So there's Zipcar.com in many cities across the US and in London too.

The clever thing about Zipcar is that you can reserve online in advance.

Your profile contains your credit card details and your account is billed instantly.

You can only reserve a maximum of 4 days in a row however there are 52 weeks in the year so there's a lot of days to be reserved.

You can rack up near enought $20k in reservations.

Wait until the transactions post which take a day or two.

THEN.... go back into your profile and switch the credit card or put in a debit card.

Click CANCEL on each of your 52 reservations... the money is then refunded automatically back to your new credit card or if you put a debit card in your profile straight to your bank account.

I know several people who have done this who made their Hilton HH Gold Status with $20k for free and another 10k in US Airways Preferred miles...

One shrewd chap actually used a 0% APR purchase card and booked $15k in bookings... refunded the money to his bank account and then put the cash into a savings account for a few months!

There are not many companies that do this and clearly its a loophole in Zipcars billing system that needs to be exploited!

denCSA

Verrrry intriguing... Now I regret closing my Zipcar account earlier this year

Evan!

Closest ZipCar to me is Miami. Not that I couldn't still work this angle. I just would like to use ZipCar since I don't own a car. Thanks for the info. ^

IAHtraveler

hmmmm.... I could join for $35/yr. I wonder how many times one could do this & refund it to a different card (without ever completing a reservation) before they catch on?

cepheid

Everyone does realize that Zipcar has to pay per-transaction fees to its merchant bank, and therefore this scheme costs them significant money, right? The percentage fees are often refunded on chargebacks, but the per-transaction fees are not. It may be a loophole, but it's not "victimless" - Zipcar will incur significant costs through exploitation of this loophole.

ukflyer1

What happens if they close the loophole before you get stuff refunded?

sjuhawk_jd

No sweat. You will still refunded via the original payment method (credit card).

Zipcar is doing great service towards a greener planet. Let's not exploit this loophole if it is going to cost them money. Majority of Zipcar customers are students, low income families, young professionals, etc.

tsg20

Does this really work?! Perhaps one has to be on a particular plan. We frequently make and cancel Zipcar reservations, but we only get charged after completing the reservations.

WBurcham

+1 however, looking at this I learned some new information about their service and probably will take advantage of it when I'm in Seattle & Houston...

Antipode

There is a similar thread that may be worth reading here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-here-how.html

I have my opinions about whether this is ethical or not, but I'll leave it to the individual to figure out whether it's worth it to them or not.

jw713

If I had to guess, I would think they wouldn't get the percentage fees refunded either since it's going back to a different card.

So for someone racking up $20k in charges and doing a refund to a different card you're potentially costing them $500 or more (figure 2% per transaction between their per transaction fee and their percentage fee).

ukflyer1

OK, fair enough.

skit53

I believe this is the case for me too.

Regardless, zipcar is a great company and doing this trick will hurt their bottom line.

tsg20

Right. And as we rely on them a lot for car use, I wouldn't want my account closed for abuse, either.

Johnny Rocket

It depends on how your account is set up.

For some their credit card charges as soon as you make a reservation.

For other the billing takes place at the end of the reservation.

Clearly, this little trick only works when you get billed ahead of time!