Rental Car Question

Budget and Enterprise are two that have let me use a debit card. They do hold a couple hundred until the car is returned. Ask them if there is any supporting documetation you may need. One of them required a current utilility bill to verify my residence.

ok thanks.. what's crazy is that you can reserve a car with less than $10 left over on a credit card but you need it on your bank card. thanks for the heads up on the documentation, i have a PO box and it sometimes makes it complicated. thanks :o)

do they run a credit check? my credit is shot (i declared bankruptcy as well as other credit problems). can i be turned down for a rental? i did not even think that my credit would affect this! i guess it affects everything :(

also, how much is held? i am on budget's site and they say $400 - $500?? That sounds really, really high to me..
also how does this work? if my rental is $350, do I need to basically give them $750 and they will return the $400 in a few weeks or do i give them only $400 and they give me the unused portion when i return it? sorry for the stupid questions i only had a rental one time and it was when my insurance covered it for my car being in the shop. i never rented a car before like this.

I never have either other then when insurance paid for one when my truck was stolen a couple years ago.

I looked into renting one later as I was having a hard time finding a cheap car to buy and all the requirements they had made it impossible.

i really want to rent one i just do not understand how it works lol. is the security on top of the rental or do they take the rental out of the security amount (which is twice as much as the rental!) when its done?

nohiogal - what requirements? i can handle the ID, insurance and driving record check. i can even give them extra deposit with my debit card (though as I said above i still do not get how that works, lol). do they actually run a credit check? i am going with budget rental, as they are one of the few that has cars you can smoke in but this seems harder than it should be. why would my credit affect me renting a car? i do not have a history of stealing cars (lol).

They required a credit card I did not have one and if I used debit then there was a large deposit and I did not have that.

I don't think they run a credit check but I do not know that for sure.

thanks again for your help. i called, they said no credit check at my location (some do though which is kinda scary!) and they will need $400 and they will take the rental price of $341.76 out of it on return. it is a lot, a lot of money to be honest but this vacation is speacial to me and i had help with money to reserve the property and am willing to try to work hard on this to get a car to drive.

this is so frustrating! i now can see why you decided not to bother! but i have to rent a car :( i got an email today which said the location does not accept debit cards. i was confused as they told me they would accept them! so than i called and they said they accept them but they do a credit check. i could have cried!
my credit is so shot with my bankruptcy and my debt.. so i do not know what to do. he said i could get a secured credit card from bank of america. does anyone have any thoughts on that??

what rental car company did you talk to?

IMHO...a credit card is almost a necessity in this day and age...especially if you travel...hotel & car reservations...it's no big deal to get a secured credit card...and if you DO have a credit card, then you won't need to do the deposit that the car place requires!! You can get a secured credit card with as little as $300!

thanks, i agree.. a credit is necessary. i have managed to get by with my debit card so far, but in these cases they want a real card. i closed off the ones i had and paid them off (or settled with all but one so far of the charged off ones.) i am going to look into secured cards, i posted about that in another foroum.. thanks for your opinion, i really appreciate it. i am a little concerned of getting turned down by the secured card to be honest.. it really is hard when you have bad credit :(
if worse comes to worse, my mom said she can add me on as a card holder with one of her accounts and they can send me a card with my name on it to take care of this rental. i appreciate it, but i know i really need to get one of my own (its not like i can just use her card often, she just knows how necessary it is for me to rent this car)

oh, i picked budget because they had the best rates and are convient for me.

New Millienum and Bk of America both offer secured credit cards. Most credit unions do to...usually you won't be turned down for a secured credit card. How it works is you put the money in a "deposit account" and whatever is in your account is equal to your credit line. Some places let you increase your line by adding to your deposit account, but others don't. Do your homework and find out which is better for you.

thanks again :) bank of america was recommended to me by the rental place, so i think i will check with them first (or my credit union, actually).

Beware of Bank of America. I have no clue about the secured cards but their are tons of complaints against them. Just Google "Bank of America complaints".

There are also some members on this board in the Payday help section that had very bad experiance trying to get BoA to close their account.

Just a heads up.

Thanks for the heads up :) , i have also heard the horror stories about them (but at least they have over draft, which is more than i can say about my dumb bank!)
i am probably going the credit card route but i would prefer bank of america over, say orchard bank (who charged me off on a credit card and i am still fighting to settle over).

thanks again :)