Rent a car with a debit card

If you don’t have a credit card, you can forget renting a car. But that’s about to change as Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty are now welcoming debit cards in various European markets.

In Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovakia, mainland Spain and the UK, customers can now use a credit card or a debit car to rent a car.

The move should open up new markets, as recent market research by Retail Banking Research (Cards Issuing and Acquiring Europe, 2016) shows that 70% of card payment transactions in Europe are made with debit cards. What’s more, 50% of people only carry debit cards (Lafferty Group, Retail Banking Report, ECB Payment Statistics). These studies confirm findings of Mastercard that people are increasingly using their debit card.

If customers want to use a debit card, a pre-authorised deposit for the vehicle will be held on the customer’s account. Once the vehicle has been returned, the reserved amount will be released less any owed charges. Typically, it can take four to seven days for the customer’s deposit to appear back in their account, depending on the card issuer.