Credit Card verses Debit Cards for payment of car hire! Some Rental Car companies will charge you an extra surcharge for using a Debit Card to pay for your hire car, this is because they have no security if you use a Debit Card. You may only have just enough available funds to pay for the booking and nothing else, which means that should you damage the vehicle the car rental company can not recover that money from you. Normally they would be able to access your credit card and would do so for the amount of the damage to the car rental.
A credit card means you have credit with the bank – that is that they will loan you the money to an agreed value. A debit card means you use the money you have in the account- it is the same as your eftpos card. Mastercard and Visa are brand names and do not mean you have credit with a bank. Many people call daily and are very confused with what they think they have.
I know that most of us are safe drivers and truly believe that we will not have an accident, afterall we have never had one in our own car have we? Reality is that travellers do have accidents, maybe its because they are on holiday, relaxed, not 100% focused or even if you are “what about the other people driving on the same road”?
One of the best ways to avoid unpleasant endings to ones well deserved holiday is to take excess reduction when hiring a car. This way the excess will be at a level you can afford, you will pay a daily fee but you will have peace of mind. Pay with a credit card to avoid any surcharge from debit cards.