Thrifty Car Rental - Deposit

[m535607]

Hi All. I made a booking for car hire with Thrifty Ayers Rock and the confirmation says that apart from paying for the rental fee on car pick up - I also need to provide a $200 credit card deposit bond on pick up of the car which I understand. My question is do they just do a pre authorisation on my card and reserve the funds but do not charge my account . (like at hotel check in) and when I return the car they then calc the kms used and then charge the actual amount OR do they charge / debit my credit card $200 on car pick up and then do a refund less kms used on my credit card when I return the car. I have tried to ask them by email but its answered by a centre overseas and the answer is unclear. Thanks

 

[Denali]

By memory, on my Dec credit card statement I saw $200 go out and $200 go in for Thrifty hire. On the same month statement (car hire was 8 days by memory).

Car hire charges were additional/shown separate transaction.

Side note, my car hire next week is a £1,800 security deposit!

 

[sezza]

I've had the same experience with thrifty in the past when renting in australia - they take the money and then return it. It takes about a week to get the money back. This has happened for car rentals I've had of more than 3 days. Not sure if its diffrent for shorter stays.

 

[JohnK]

In my experience most car rental companies do a preauthorisation on your credit card of a deposit + car hire amount.

 

[dajop]

In my experience most Tcar rental companies do a preauthorisation on your credit card of a deposit + car hire amount.

Rented with Thrifty last week, and specifically asked if the charge deposit and cancel or do a hold like most "normal" multinational car hire companies. They said they actually charge the amount and cancel on return. Important, so used AU card instead, as I didn't want to be enriching Visa and Citibank with FX fees on the way out and again on the way back in. On the other hand my previous rentals were with Avis and Hertz, who both put holds on the deposit amount.