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I rented a car from Thrifty in Oz (which apparently joining in NZ doesn’t give you membership in Oz like a lot of other car companies). I remember being told that because I didn’t have Oz membership there’d be a $200 hold/bond.
Just noticed it ACTUALLY came off the credit card. Whenever I’ve dealt with other places I’m pretty sure it doesn’t actually come off the credit card. It’s just a hold. It was returned but I’m sure they got to put it into some interest bearing account in the interim and then there’s the exchange rates.
Guess I need to join thrifty in Oz or not use them. Apparently joining saves you the $200 bond thing. Anyway, BEWARE!
Do you mean it actually cleared as a transaction (not just pending), and then was matched with a refund?
I’ve rented with Thrifty Oz a number of times and they only ever took a pre-auth. I don’t have an issue with providers doing this, and I never bothered to sign up to their program.
Yes actually came off the credit card then re credited afterwards for each rental. I’ve had pre-authorisations and never seen anything come off the credit cards, a hold I guess so was really surprised going through statements they actually processed the $200. The reception guy looked into it and emailed me back saying because I wasn’t an Australian member it was policy to take the $200 which I assumed was going to be a hold (better than the recent ACE rental which was $2000 hold!!!). So dodgy, I need to make a list or something of different car company practices. And play closer attention.
I’d rented from Thrifty at Uluru last year and at the time they had difficulties with the card but said she’d give us a member rate anyway but no money came off the credit card then. It’s stupid they don’t recognise the NZ card though.
I think it might be just easier to join up to the Oz one to avoid the $200 bond but still give me flexibility if they’re the best rate at the time.
Because of the real time credit card processing now from most banks I’ll see holds appear on my ANZ statement with an amount next to them immediately after the hold was actioned.
It may well depend how your bank may show holds/pre-auths. I’m with CBA in Oz, and I see transactions marked “Pending:” before they clear, but they will eventually disappear if they are only auths.
Do you still see on your statement/online banking a cleared charge as a transaction, and then a separate, cleared refund? Personally, I don’t think I’d be too worried in either case as long as they refunded it.
In 2008 I stayed at a hotel in Los Angeles and checked in with my credit card that had a NZ$5000 limit at the time. The hotel decided to take a pre-auth of US$500/night for a 9 night stay. The US dollar was worth 51 NZ pesos at the time, so they took a hold on my card of approximately NZ$9000 – immediately maxing it out (and then some). I managed to get them to drop the hold down to US$1000 but it took a few days to clear, and I couldn’t use my card at all until it did, despite not actually haven’t spent a cent on it.
Since then I always travel with at least 2 credit cards, from different banks.
Yes, “pending” is one thing but this looked like a transaction, money came out and went back in later as CR. I did contact thrifty via twitter and they said their policy was just a hold basically and they said they were separate from the Australian company so to contact them. Maybe the guy was a junior burger and put it through as a transaction instead of a hold. I just wasn’t expecting the transaction $5 or so EACH transaction so ~ $30 in useless fees.
Yeah it’s that 2nd part of your story I sort of worry about a bit, your $ are sort of inactivated and not useable. I do have back up credit cards but only 1 work credit card really. Mainly rent through Europcar, Avis, Budget but been venturing further afield recently with interesting results!
Called them, sounds like I can sign up with a NZ address and that should avoid this debacle.
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