RastaPasta

I'm a local EE who rents from LAX a lot (25 times this year and probably 75 since 2020). Dropped off a CX-9 and decided to pick up another car since I need one more rental to extend my status. Grabbed an X3 and headed to the gate - gave the lady my license and executive card that shows member since 2006. After a minute she asked if I had a 3rd form of ID. I was like what do you mean I never had to do that before and she said well a second form of digital ID since my executive card is not really an ID - she said it is a new policy for local renters because of fraud. I was kind of taken aback but gave her my global entry card which is the only other ID I have. She says sorry it has to be digital (like bank account, insurance or whatever). I explain to her that the global entry is issued by the department of homeland security and I had to go through an extensive background check to get it.

She said she thought it had to be digital but if I wanted she could call her manager. I said please do, who then told her it also had to be digital and that homeland security ID is not acceptable. I think at this point she could tell I was kind of pissed off. Should have just left since I didn't really need the car, but there was a long line behind me. I explain again that I'm an EE who rents here all the time and she said "get used to this new rule then". I grabbed my phone and was logging in to my bank account app and asked her if she would show her bank account to someone just to rent a car and she said "I would if I had to".

Get my app open, show it to her, she says I don't need to see all your balances and stuff. "What's your name?" My name is RastaPasta. "I need to see your name"... okay.. fumble around in the app searching for my name, show it to her, she says something like what is this just a webpage, I reply no it is my bank app on my phone. She says something about it having my picture - at that point she can tell I am super pissed off and I'm complaining and telling her I know she is just following the rules but this is ridiculous and she says it's ok and lets me go and apologizes a few times.

Needless to say I am pretty pissed and think this is the end of my National experience forever. Will email customer service but doubt that is going to do anything. In retrospect, I guess I could have tried to show her my name on the national app instead of my bank, but they already raised the local hold charge to $400 which is outrageous I've put up with since it doesn't really affect me. The local hold charge is stupid itself and this is worse.

kennycrudup

... whew- I got that at SNA and thought I was being profiled or something. That being said, they took my GE card (and I use that as primary ID in most non-DL ID uses), but those guys all know me by now anyway so maybe I lucked out.

My Costco App has my face and is "digital"- I should try that next time, but yeah, to suddenly require this w/o any warning is pretty stupid on NCR's fault.

scott56

There’s no way that can be a rule. Sorry. Asking for a bank account. Absolutely not. At that point I would be more nervous about them trying to do fraud. If national does this they will go out of business. When it comes to exotics , a second form of ID yes. Hertz did the same. Global entry is more then enough to prove. Never had an issue. Only with exotics because they need to verify insurance. Not a bank account !!!

camk500

Yeah they will not be seeing my bank account info I can tell ya that right now. I’ll go to Hertz or elsewhere

HibernateNow

I have never seen my picture in my Costco app.... is this something new?( or only in certain states?)

kennycrudup

Ya made me go look- and yeah, in the "Card" tab in the Android app, my face is up there along with my Membership card encoded into QR- but looking at the picture, it's definitely a Costco-taken mugshot, and IIRC I think I'd gotten the app and signed in one day when I'd been in-store as I wasn't carrying the physical card

HibernateNow

I have been a Costco member for over 20 years... but cancelled my membership two years ago because I moved to a city with no nearby Costco.

Just last week, I was travelling and there was a Costco across from the hotel... I went in and signed up again. Strangely, they didn't even take my picture. The new membership card had no photo. (which explains why my photo was not in the Costco app)

bocastephen

I think we need the National social rep on this thread to comment on what is going on and state the official policy.

HibernateNow

if their goal really is fraud prevention or something like that, why not just remotely disable the vehicles?

Sneeaky

So how do they even know its a local rental? (I have a non-California DL)

HibernateNow

pretty sure that makes you a non-local?

hourglass

I mean you are "supposed" to change license when you move unless exempt(student, military)
but if you don't own any vehicles I guess it doesn't really matter that much?

kxc262

Sounds like a fictitious policy. Had a local National branch tell me once that I couldn't rent without a return airline ticket once since I was a local renter. On the next rental, I wasn't asked for a return ticket.

Could see this being a new policy if the branch has a local issue. OMA restricted vehicle swaps since people were swapping car parts several years ago.
Using rental cars to steal car parts!?

kennycrudup

The fact that it happened at two different branches in SoCal implies that either something has changed, or they're both owned by the same franchisee.

Either way, I've probably rented three contiguous years of cars from NCR/EHI if you add it all up over the decade- why is someone with my profile suddenly going to steal their Infiniti?!

RastaPasta

I received the canned response from customer service with offer for a free day. The thing with their policies is it seems to be by location and also gate agent. I've had some agents not charge me the $400 local renter hold before, although this year I think that has only happened once. 2+ years ago they never charged it. In Jan 2020 I rented 100 cars at this location within a month for a work project, somewhere in the middle of the project some agents started placing the hold on my card, which if you rent that many cars it starts to add up very fast. I spoke to the manager and he got it waived for me moving forward.

When I inquired why they even charge local renter's a $200 hold fee he said that they had a lot of problems with local people renting cars and basically never returning them (stealing), so the $200 was a security precaution. I thought that was pretty laughable since it's probably organized crime and if you're going to steal a car who cares about $200, or even $400 lol