Car rental debit card
Debit cards have become the most common and preferred way for making payments and purchases. Even everyday items such as grocery and gas can be purchased using a debit card. A debit card that is specifically used for the purpose of car rentals is called as car rental debit card.
Why car rental companies dont like debit cards?
A debit card is like a personal check or cash without the burden of having to carrying cash on your person. For a car rental company, a debit is not a very acceptable thing from a customer.This is because for the car rental company, the customer is driving away with high value merchandise and it can be a great loss of the asset and business if the customer decides not to return! Most car rental companies would ask for a credit card to initiate the rental process, even if the customer walks in with a debit card. Even those car rental companies that allow the use of a debit card would want an authorization hold on the debit card between $300 and $500.The unused funds, if any on your debit card would be returned to you after a lag of two weeks. This ensures that the car is returned back to the company by the customer.
Car rental debit card rules
Some car rental companies accept prepaid or gift cards only at the time of return of the car.Proof of identification including round-trip travel identification and drivers license is a must along with the application for cars. Also there are many car rental rules where debit cards cannot be used in the same way as credit cards. Let us see why.
- An issuing bank gives a debit card to nearly any one with a bank account. This is not the same with a credit card where only those willing to take a loan in the form of a credit card apply for it.
- Debit cards also do not provide any qualification of creditworthiness.This becomes very important as car rental companies need to achieve a certain level of confidence when they send out their cars on rent. A car may be anywhere up to $20,000 in value and the customer is virtually walking away with it.
Why credit cards are preferred over debit cards ?
A credit card is preferred over a debit card because the customer can still be tracked with the help of the issuing bank in the event of the car not being returned to the company.In the case of a debit card, however, a person with a small amount of money that is just enough to pay for the rental can misuse the trust of the issuing bank as well as the car rental company and steal the car that is of much higher value than the funds in his checking account.
Overview
While it is not a wrong thing to use a debit card when dealing with any car rental company, a credit card is still the preferred mode of payment from the car rental companys point of view.However, many car rental companies are quite okay with regular customers using a car rental debit card.
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