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Europcar overcharged Tim Harford by €14.99? Europcar Barcelona recently tried to me charge me an extra €260! I had arrived at the airport, after booking online,

Europcar overcharged Tim Harford by €14.99? Europcar Barcelona recently tried to me charge me an extra €260! I had arrived at the airport, after booking online, and they wouldn't allow me to pay the rental deposit with a debit card. 'Company policy' to only accept credit cards. Unless I paid the extra €260. This is nothing to do with subtle economics. It's extortion because you're in a foreign country and desperate. I think we are just talking about a very unethical company.

Angostura 7y ago
The deposit on credit card only thing seems quite common across the world.
atemerev 7y ago
Well, debit cards are not accepted anywhere for car rental (at least I don't know any counterexamples). $260 in this case are returned at the end of the rental term, it is just a (relatively recent) additional service from Europcar, allowing people with only the debit cards to rent cars nevertheless. (Disclosure: I use Europcar at Barcelona airport about 5-6 times per year; they have some quirks, but I wouldn't use the terms "extortion" and "unethical").
- mieseratte 7y ago
  I've personally used a debit card (major bank, Visa logo) for Enterprise car rentals in the US. Perhaps this is either a Euro or Non-US problem? They placed a $1 hold on the card. If memory serves, I've also done this with Hertz but to the tune of a $200 hold.
  - atemerev 7y ago
    In 2012 in Boston, Enterprise refused to deal with my (European) debit card. However, in general this is right: US standards of customer service are unreachable anywhere in the world, except probably Japan. To the US people expectations, customer service is simply nonexistent here. "And remember -- here in France, the customer is always _wrong_!"
- martingoodson 7y ago
  Well in this case at least this €260 was not going to be refunded. It was a one off charge. And I have rented many cars elsewhere in Europe using only a debit card.
  - atemerev 7y ago
    OK, this is called "prohibitory pricing". As in, "we really really don't want your debit card, but if it is an emergency, here's an option. Still, please don't". I tried to rent a car with a debit card a few times, and it was simply not accepted everywhere I tried, (Europcar in Barcelona, Hertz in Geneva and Copenhagen, Avis in Geneva).
Nextgrid 7y ago
There could be a technical reason for it - some debit cards don’t allow the type of charge they’re trying to do (offline transaction, or something else that I’m not aware of). However, they can at least try it and see if it declines. If they try it and it fails it’s somewhat legitimate, if they don’t even want to try it it’s clearly malicious.
crazygringo 7y ago
I mean, not taking debit makes sense for them, to be fair. With a credit card, they can place a $2,000 hold on your card. If you've only got $100 in your debit account, it makes it a lot harder for them to recoup costs if you damage the car, above all for someone international. The whole point of debit instead of credit is you can't spend more than you have (usually). Car rental is in a pretty unique category of purchase, to be honest, in that they're trusting you temporarily with equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars. (Debit card holds do exist sometimes, but can be much more limited than credit card holds, and may have additional international restrictions.) I've never heard of charging extra to allow it though. I guess they ran they numbers and calculated the actual additional risk they're exposed to?
- ValentineC 7y ago
  I don't get it — why can't the car rental company mention beforehand that they're required to hold a ~$2,000 deposit on some sort of card, and that the renter should have this amount to cover it? There are credit cards out there (e.g. student ones) with abysmally-low limits. And I can easily keep a hold of ~$2,000 on my Visa/Mastercard debit card, as long as I have that amount in my bank account.
chadcmulligan 7y ago
Yes, I had a similar experience with Europcar - screw those guys, I've never dealt with them again.

Angostura 7y ago

The deposit on credit card only thing seems quite common across the world.

atemerev 7y ago

Well, debit cards are not accepted anywhere for car rental (at least I don't know any counterexamples). $260 in this case are returned at the end of the rental term, it is just a (relatively recent) additional service from Europcar, allowing people with only the debit cards to rent cars nevertheless. (Disclosure: I use Europcar at Barcelona airport about 5-6 times per year; they have some quirks, but I wouldn't use the terms "extortion" and "unethical").

mieseratte 7y ago
I've personally used a debit card (major bank, Visa logo) for Enterprise car rentals in the US. Perhaps this is either a Euro or Non-US problem? They placed a $1 hold on the card. If memory serves, I've also done this with Hertz but to the tune of a $200 hold.
- atemerev 7y ago
  In 2012 in Boston, Enterprise refused to deal with my (European) debit card. However, in general this is right: US standards of customer service are unreachable anywhere in the world, except probably Japan. To the US people expectations, customer service is simply nonexistent here. "And remember -- here in France, the customer is always _wrong_!"
martingoodson 7y ago
Well in this case at least this €260 was not going to be refunded. It was a one off charge. And I have rented many cars elsewhere in Europe using only a debit card.
- atemerev 7y ago
  OK, this is called "prohibitory pricing". As in, "we really really don't want your debit card, but if it is an emergency, here's an option. Still, please don't". I tried to rent a car with a debit card a few times, and it was simply not accepted everywhere I tried, (Europcar in Barcelona, Hertz in Geneva and Copenhagen, Avis in Geneva).

Nextgrid 7y ago

There could be a technical reason for it - some debit cards don’t allow the type of charge they’re trying to do (offline transaction, or something else that I’m not aware of). However, they can at least try it and see if it declines. If they try it and it fails it’s somewhat legitimate, if they don’t even want to try it it’s clearly malicious.

crazygringo 7y ago

I mean, not taking debit makes sense for them, to be fair. With a credit card, they can place a $2,000 hold on your card. If you've only got $100 in your debit account, it makes it a lot harder for them to recoup costs if you damage the car, above all for someone international. The whole point of debit instead of credit is you can't spend more than you have (usually). Car rental is in a pretty unique category of purchase, to be honest, in that they're trusting you temporarily with equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars. (Debit card holds do exist sometimes, but can be much more limited than credit card holds, and may have additional international restrictions.) I've never heard of charging extra to allow it though. I guess they ran they numbers and calculated the actual additional risk they're exposed to?

ValentineC 7y ago
I don't get it — why can't the car rental company mention beforehand that they're required to hold a ~$2,000 deposit on some sort of card, and that the renter should have this amount to cover it? There are credit cards out there (e.g. student ones) with abysmally-low limits. And I can easily keep a hold of ~$2,000 on my Visa/Mastercard debit card, as long as I have that amount in my bank account.

chadcmulligan 7y ago

Yes, I had a similar experience with Europcar - screw those guys, I've never dealt with them again.