April 18th, 2007 
NCN
I do not use credit cards. I do not travel very often, and when I do, I usually just drive my own car. But, what if I wanted to use a car rental service? Could I do so using a debit (check) card?
Here is a list of many major car rental agencies and their debit card policies. Please click on the link associated with each company to read more about their policy. This information is provided in summary form and you should conduct your own research before using any of the companies listed. Information subject to change.
Hertz: The Hertz FAQs state:
Q: Can I use my Debit Card or Bank Card to reserve a Hertz car?
A: At most Hertz locations, debit cards (sometimes called check cards) issued under a VISA or Mastercard logo which draw funds directly from the cardholder’s account may be used to qualify for rental. However, prepaid or stored value cards which have a VISA or Mastercard logo are not accepted to qualify for rental. Debit cards must have available funds for the estimated amount of the rental charges plus a reasonable amount to cover any incidental charges in order to secure the rental. Both debit cards and prepaid or stored value cards issued under a VISA or Mastercard logo may be used as a form of payment when you return the vehicle. Please contact your local Hertz Reservations Office if you have a question about whether Hertz will accept a certain card.
Enterprise: The Enterprise website states:
Question
Can I use my debit card to rent the car?
Answer
Some of our Enterprise locations will accept a debit card for the rental deposits and payments. Please contact the office you plan to rent from to determine their policies on renting with a debit card.Question
What forms of payment does Enterprise accept?
Answer
A major credit card in the renter’s name is required for a deposit on all rentals. When the rental is returned, traveler’s checks, debit card, or a major credit card can be accepted to pay for the rental.
Avis: The Avis Website states:
Debit Card Policies
Avis reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to seek a Debit Card authorization hold in excess of the estimated rental charges. When using a debit card at Avis there may be a minimum hold of $500 and a maximum hold of the estimated rental charges will be placed on your account.
Upon returning the vehicle, Avis will process a release of the unused portion of the hold subject to your Bank’s procedures. The hold may take up to 2 weeks to be released by your bank.
Budget: The Budget website states:
If you’re using a debit card at a location that accepts them, we’ll require a hold of total estimated charges plus 25% or $300, whichever is greater. However, for insurance/service replacement rentals and tour rentals, the minimum debit card authorization hold is $100. At select locations in the Northeast and North Central regions, the minimum authorization hold is $500. Renters under 25 years of age may not use a debit card.
At some locations, debit and pre-paid charge cards are not accepted at time of rental but are accepted for payment at time of car return.
National: The National website states:
Debit Cards
When renting in the U.S., debit and check cards may only be used in conjunction with proof of a round trip travel ticket (airline, cruise ship or train) at time of rental.
Summary:
Almost every major rental car agency WILL allow you to reserve a car using a debit card. Most, however, will place a “hold” on your debit card in the amount of the full rental price plus, in some cases, a pretty healthy deposit percentage. Some rental agencies do not accept debit cards for reservation or have very strict policies. As for PAYMENT, however, almost ALL of the companies WILL accept a debit card as a method of payment when you RETURN the automobile. So, for now, perhaps the best way to rent a car is to either:
A) Reserve the car with a company that allows you to use a debit card. If yo do this, be sure that you have sufficient money in the bank to cover the entire rental fee and a rental ‘hold’ that the rental agency will no doubt place on your card.
B) RESERVE the car using your credit card and PAY for the car rental using cash or your debit card. (As I’ve stated before, I did not cut up my credit cards, and I carry one with me wherever I go. If pressed, for the safety and security of my family, I would use a credit card to reserve a rental car and pay cash whenever I returned the car.)
Again, before you use one of the above mentioned rental agencies, please research their current policies. Also, while I was compiling this information, I did not take into account ANY insurance-related policies. Please do your own research before you rent a car. An informed consumer is a powerful consumer!
For updated information on this subject, please read – Can I Rent A Car Without A Credit Card?
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I live in the northeast and only have a Visa Debit/Bank Card. I needed to rent a car to drive just to and from a NYC airport and had no success trying to use my card. I called Avis and Budget and both were a no-go. As my luck would always have it, if I had rented the car it would have cost me around $197 (vs $250 for car service). Instead, I drove to my sister’s house in Staten Island (left my car in her driveway) and her husband drove me for free to Newark Airport.
[...] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Try leaving a comment, or sharing a post you like too! The share function supports Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and many more.Thanks for visiting!No Credit Needed recently put a question about renting cars with a debit card. [...]
The answer is yes, you can:
http://www.kmull.com/2007/04/19/re-renting-a-car-with-a-debit-card/
[...] Credit Needed asks if you can use a debit card to rent a car. I know the answer, but if I tell you now, you won’t visit [...]
[...] were lots of post. But the on post that really stood out (and is related to credit cards) is from No Credit Needed who painstakingly listed car rental policies on using debit cards. If you are a debit card holder [...]
I rented for years through Dollar with my debit but lately they seemed to have upped their credit requirement and now the debit gets rejected. The whole process is a big secret as you can’t confirm your card will work until you are standing at the counter. Legally, in NYS, you don’t even need a credit card to get a car rental but there are so many rules the long and short of it is that you do need a credit card to rent in the US
[...] online purchases or for reserving a hotel – I use my debit card. Click here to read my post about using a debit card to reserve a hotel or to rent a car. (My debit card has built-in fraud protection. Ask your bank about their fraud protection [...]
I’ve been renting a few times a year from Avis over the last year+ with a DC with no problems. The hold they put on the debit card is very reasonable. I have also rented from Hertz without a problem.
I’ve tried this, but wasn’t allowed to rent without a credit card. It was embarrassing at the time…..
[...] 18 – Can I Use A Debit Card To Rent A Car? – For those of you who don’t use credit cards, this post might come in [...]
I recentaly rented a car with a debit card.
I told them I would pay in cash whe I returned,
When I went to pay them they told me that they had already charged my account. In checking my account I found that they had charged me $43 extra which also resulted in a $27 overdraft charge which would not have
happened if they charged me the correct price.
Do I have any recourse.
Thank You
I Just spoke with Hertz. They do not divulge to you until AFTER you make the reservation that they will do a credit check if you use a debit card. So that means a record made on your credit report that a credit check has been made. Hertz does NOT mention this until after the fact. I believe Hertz SHOULD NOT be receiving any favorable advertising among those of us who do not want to use credit cards. Hertz is benefiting with positive feedback THAT THEY SHOULD NOT BE GETTING.
Enterprise (a neighborhood location) was VERY REASONABLE. We used a debit card, they asked to see latest paycheck stub and 2 home utility bills and were VERY FRIENDLY on top of that. So here is a plug for a car rental agency that allows the use of a debit card with proof that the customer is a local resident with every intention of returning the vehicle on time. No credit check and no credit card required.
I just used a debit card to rent a van from Enterprise without providing anything other than a driver’s license. The problem is that the $300 charge to my checking account will not be reversed for 3 – 5 days. When I asked Bank of the West (where I currently have my checking account)why reversal of the deposit would take 3-5 days, they stated that they needed to wait for a “return receipt” from Enterprise and that the credit process had to be run through the Federal Reserve. Enterprise knows nothing about a “return receipt.” Bottom line: If you use a debit card, then you will not have access to your money for a about a week after you return the vehicle.
[...] think of may be renting a car [you can read the debit card policies of major car rental agencies here]. The only limitation of a debit card is that it will prevent you from taking on any debt. In any [...]
Use Alamo! I always use my debit card with them. If you’re traveling they just want to see your round
trip itenary (Tickets) but they do not do this
nonsense of charging some outrageous amount to your debit card. They will always get mt business
because they don’t make you feel like a loser
because you choose not to have credit cards. ALAMO!
Enterprise is great! I’m 22 and flying into Boston this weekend from Illinois. They said that I CAN use my debit card as long as I have:
Out of state license (non-Mass)
Return flight itinerary
Up to a full size vehicle is OK
I have the cost of the rental + $250 available (which will be released later)
This relieved much stress, as I have tried to rent from Enterprise in Chicago before and they needed a paycheck stub, and 2 current (not past due) utility bills. Being a novice at the time, I was unaware of this whole debit card deal.
However, the deal at Logan Airport Enterprise is great!!
Try Payless Rental. They aren’t in every state, but you can get great discounts on rentals and they always accept debit cards with a $300 hold on the card. They also can give you daily specials for $10 to $30 off your rental. I got a great deal off a suzuki sx4 which was orig $39 a day for only $22 a day!!
HERTZ is a BAD company for debit cards. AFTER the reservation when you go to pick up the vehicle, they tell you that you must submit to a CREDIT CHECK. If you do not meet the credit check criteria (unclear as to what that is) then you are not rented the vehicle! This happened to me having made a reservation with Priceline (prepaid, having indicated that I would only be using a debit card). I was out the price of my reservation. NEVER USE HERTZ! This is also a ding on your credit report, that your rating has been checked. (too many checks hurts your score). Plus, it is very invasive.
I also had a bad experience renting through HERTZ not at all my favourite company in fact I would never rent from them again.
I had a smooth experience using my debit card with ALAMO this past November at a northern CA airport (Sacramento).
It was painless. They just wanted to see my valid driver’s licence and return round trip ticket. I don’t think there was a credit check involved. I am sure they secured a deposit (hold) from my checking account but it wasn’t anything unexpected.
I will rent from Alamo again in a few weeks (again on a trip to Northern CA). Hope it’s goes as well as my last experience with them.
Go Alamo!
How do you know the positive comments on here are not employees of rental car agencies? I’ve heard of many instances where most of the positive comments on a given blog/forum were by people pretending to be “regular people”. You never really know who it is behind any positive comment about a company…
I HAVE NOT FOUND ONE RENTAL AGENCY IN THE PHILADELPHIA AREA THAT WILL ACCEPT A DEBIT CARD. SO FRUSTATING.
I HAVE NOT FOUND ONE RENTAL AGENCY IN THE PHILADELPHIA AREA THAT WILL ACCEPT A DEBIT CARD. SO FRUSTATING.
I reserved from Hertz as well with debit card, I then called to make sure I could use the depit card. They stated yess……..But same thing got to counter gave them my card they ran credit check and not sure why but they would not let me use the debit card and I had way enuff to cover funds and lots more. Talk about feeling like a loser. NEVER AGAIN WITH HERTZ……………
I recently rented through Dollar in Miami Beach and they accepted my wife’s debit card from the Cayman Islands without a problem – mind you, they were not cheap for a month’s rental – over $1000.
Enterprise would not accept our debit card because it was not from a U.S. Bank and we do not have U.S. Drivers Licenses – has we been US residents a debit card would have been OK. Shame because their rates were reasonable.
Latest quote from a local independent with a cash deposit of $200 was $43 per day! A lot of money over the course of a month.
I just spoke to an Enterprise rep and although she was very friendly, she told me I needed to have full coverage auto insurance to rent a car with a debit card.
The problem is, I don’t own a car. So I don’t _have_ auto insurance. So for me, renting a car with a debit card is not possible. At least not with Enterprise.
I tried using a debit card at hertz, they did a credit check, was denied. Account has thousands of dollars in it. For the hell of it, I gave them my paypal debit card. Using this card, I DID pass their credit check but did not have the funds available. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would they get two different credit reports from two different cards? Nissan (my car was being repaired and thats why i needed the rental) even offered to send them a purchase order for the rental, and pay for it because of problems I had already had at Nissan that they were very kind to fix. Hertz said “we don’t do things like that anymore.” I asked if I could use the one card for the credit check and then hold the funds for the rental on my other card… couldn’t do that either. All in all they have very stingy, questionable policies and I have no way of finding out why one was denied and the other wasn’t.
sitting on a bus, late for my grandfather’s funeral because Enterprise on Fulton street in manhattan would not rent me a car with a debit card. I had pay stubs and utility bills, but have a PA license, so they refused. I have more than enough money in my account to cover the rental cost. The heartless man behind the counter did not blink as I teared up and told him I had this funeral to go to. I recently got out of a huge amount of CC debt and am proud that I no longer live on credit. Disgusted with Enterprise and their policies that they don’t mention until you’re standing at the counter.
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[...] do not miss it. I’ve managed to reserve hotel rooms with my debit card, and I’ve even researched how to rent a car with a debit card. My current bank treats debit card transactions with the same security as credit card [...]
Great information. … You were first up on the Google search.
hotel rewards card…
I looked through your previous posts on GlennSacks.com ” Blog Archive ” False Abuse Claim Results in Kidnapping …. Nice work there….
These comments are very helpful. As a college student, I had my fair share of credit cards, and the debt that came with them. Now older, I refuse to get another one. Although I have enjoyed my freedom from high interest rates and temptations, it seems businesses really frown on this, regardless of what you have in the bank.