The Lemon Fool

Hi everyone
I am planning next summer's family holiday. I've got more than enough money saved to pay for everything, but my credit card limit is below the insurance excess amount required available on the card at the time of pickup of the hire car. (We are travelling as a big group, so the hire car is quite expensive). The hire car company say they won't actually charge anything unless the car is damaged. And I have insurance to reclaim the excess in any case.
As it happens, the credit card limit is also below the total amount I will need to pay the hotel at the end of the stay.
The car hire company says "no debit cards" and "no pre-paid credit cards". I am not sure if the hotel will accept a debit card.
My credit card company has already raised my credit limit but they won't raise it enough to actually be useful for this once-per-year expensive holiday!
Any ideas how to get around this?
I understand that pre-loading my credit card is a bad idea (because it might trigger AML concerns).
Thanks in advance!
Ken

kenpoken wrote:Any ideas how to get around this?

Another credit card? Then use one for the car hire and the other for the hotel.

If you never need to borrow money, credit card issuers queue up to offer credit.

Alaric wrote:

kenpoken wrote:Any ideas how to get around this?

Another credit card? Then use one for the car hire and the other for the hotel.

If you never need to borrow money, credit card issuers queue up to offer credit.

The car hire company will put a pre-authorisation on your credit card, that is generally at least as large as the uninsured damage excess. This can be a pretty chunky number. You need to have an available balance on your card that is big enough to accept this.

regards, dspp

Try American Express. They have no limit to what you spend for the normal charge card.

Very useful if you have to buy a long haul airline ticket at short notice.

TJH

Ask your credit card company to raise the limit for the required period.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:Ask your credit card company to raise the limit for the required period.

Dod

Just done that with my M&S cc and authorised immediately.

You mention travelling as a big party. Could one of the other members of the party book the hire car on this occasion?

Watis

The day before you go pay some money from your bank acccount to your credit card company so you start your holiday with the credit card owing you money.

Or with how easy internet banking is, do the day before your hotel bill is due.

Many thanks to everyone for your replies - all very useful!

Gan020 wrote:The day before you go pay some money from your bank acccount to your credit card company so you start your holiday with the credit card owing you money.

Or with how easy internet banking is, do the day before your hotel bill is due.

My card doesn’t accept such transfers. The only solution is another card, an increase in the credit limit, or another in the party pays. Or, of course, you buy their excess insurance policy. The hotel will accept a debit card, but car hire companies do not. Be very careful, I have seen people refused a car at the airport - it’s not a pretty sight and most distressing.

toofast2live wrote:

Gan020 wrote:The day before you go pay some money from your bank acccount to your credit card company so you start your holiday with the credit card owing you money.

Or with how easy internet banking is, do the day before your hotel bill is due.

My card doesn’t accept such transfers. The only solution is another card, an increase in the credit limit, or another in the party pays. Or, of course, you buy their excess insurance policy. The hotel will accept a debit card, but car hire companies do not. Be very careful, I have seen people refused a car at the airport - it’s not a pretty sight and most distressing.

I'm not sure I understand. Let's say the bill from your credit card company is £1,000 for the month. Instead of paying £1,000 you pay them £2,000 and you will then be £1,000 in credit. You don't have to do it at the regular montly payment date. You can do it at any time in the month and/or make several payments a month

Gan020 wrote:

toofast2live wrote:My card doesn’t accept such transfers. The only solution is another card, an increase in the credit limit, or another in the party pays. Or, of course, you buy their excess insurance policy. The hotel will accept a debit card, but car hire companies do not. Be very careful, I have seen people refused a car at the airport - it’s not a pretty sight and most distressing.

I'm not sure I understand. Let's say the bill from your credit card company is £1,000 for the month. Instead of paying £1,000 you pay them £2,000 and you will then be £1,000 in credit. You don't have to do it at the regular montly payment date. You can do it at any time in the month and/or make several payments a month

I'm not answering for toofast2live, but some credit cards won't let the account stay in credit and will return any excess to you straight away.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:

Gan020 wrote:

toofast2live wrote:My card doesn’t accept such transfers. The only solution is another card, an increase in the credit limit, or another in the party pays. Or, of course, you buy their excess insurance policy. The hotel will accept a debit card, but car hire companies do not. Be very careful, I have seen people refused a car at the airport - it’s not a pretty sight and most distressing.

I'm not sure I understand. Let's say the bill from your credit card company is £1,000 for the month. Instead of paying £1,000 you pay them £2,000 and you will then be £1,000 in credit. You don't have to do it at the regular montly payment date. You can do it at any time in the month and/or make several payments a month

I'm not answering for toofast2live, but some credit cards won't let the account stay in credit and will return any excess to you straight away.

Scott.

One has to look at the T&Cs for the card really. As an example, from the Halifax Clarity Card terms:

"You must not pay us more than you owe when you make payments to your account, or transfer funds from another credit or store card if this creates a credit balance on your account. If there is a credit balance on your account at any time, we may apply it to any recent transactions not yet shown on your account, or to transactions made after the date your account goes into credit.

We may also return any credit balance to the account from which the money has been sent or pay the funds into a deposit account you hold with us. We do not pay interest on any credit balances or take them into account for the purpose of any reward schemes."

https://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/h ... rity-card/

I'm pretty sure there's a thread somewhere on heres about trying to get interest-free cash withdrawals overseas by overpaying in this way - which may not work. You could search for that if you really want to....

I note the Halifax Clarity credit card is not a "standard" card in that charges no fx fees.

I suggest it all depends who your card provider is. Mine is not my bank and do not know my bank account details so would have no method to send it back even if they wanted to. Or rather that is how I perceive it should be. I have not provided bank details to them since it's been 20 years since I set up the card and have moved bank since but I suspect if they really wanted to return the money there is a way for them to do it.

Gan020 wrote:I note the Halifax Clarity credit card is not a "standard" card in that charges no fx fees.

I suggest it all depends who your card provider is. Mine is not my bank and do not know my bank account details so would have no method to send it back even if they wanted to. Or rather that is how I perceive it should be. I have not provided bank details to them since it's been 20 years since I set up the card and have moved bank since but I suspect if they really wanted to return the money there is a way for them to do it.

By cheque (remember them?) to your home address would do, if all else fails.

To the OP, the easiest solutions I we are:

For the car, take the "full insurance" package on offer by the hire company. This will be expensive, and waste the excess insurance you already have, but it gets the job done.

For the hotel, they will usually accept debit cards. If they need a credit card lodged for potential extra charges, use it just for that and pay for the room in advance with your debit card.

Scott.

kenpoken wrote:my credit card limit is below the insurance excess amount required available on the card at the time of pickup of the hire car. (We are travelling as a big group, so the hire car is quite expensive). The hire car company say they won't actually charge anything unless the car is damaged. And I have insurance to reclaim the excess in any case.

You don't mention which hire car company you are using, but some at the cheaper end of the market put quite a lot of pressure on customers to take their overpriced insurance.

There are reports, and I have had it happen to me, is for the hire car company to eventually after the hard sell on the insurance reluctantly take your card to put the hefty deposit on, and then cheerfully tell you the transaction has been declined and therefore you will need to take their insurance.

In my case I was able to pull out another card from a different bank and tell them to try again, which was accepted. Now whether they were telling the truth or not about the original card being declined I will never know, but when I spoke to the bank when I got home they had no record of any transaction or decline.

Watis wrote:You mention travelling as a big party. Could one of the other members of the party book the hire car on this occasion?

To emphasise, the other person would actually need to book the car in their name as the hire car company will insist the deposit is put on a credit card belonging to the person who booked. They will not accept a credit card from someone else in the party, even if that person is authorised to drive.

Assuming that you have the money, you can usually pay your card into credit by making a car hire booking for an appropriate amount and then cancelling the booking. I have found Rentalcars and Auto-europe reasonably reliable in providing refunds.

tjh290633 wrote:Try American Express. They have no limit to what you spend for the normal charge card.

Very useful if you have to buy a long haul airline ticket at short notice.

TJH

Well, when I tried to buy a Diamond engagement ring in Amsterdam many years ago they didn't OK the charge at the first time of asking.
It was Saturday and they told me to go to a bank on Monday for some reason or other (I forgot what now) and we would have left by then and my other credit cards weren't up to the task a stern word to the call centre management and threat to cut the card up seemed to do the job.

So, I wouldn't rely on the strap line, the Ts&Cs are probably a little different.

AF62 wrote:There are reports, and I have had it happen to me, is for the hire car company to eventually after the hard sell on the insurance reluctantly take your card to put the hefty deposit on, and then cheerfully tell you the transaction has been declined and therefore you will need to take their insurance.

If this happens it is usually appropriate to point out that you are quite happy to hire a car elsewhere and that, should the credit card function effectively, the original hirer will be paying for the second car hire. Small claims courts have their advantages.

stockton wrote:

AF62 wrote:There are reports, and I have had it happen to me, is for the hire car company to eventually after the hard sell on the insurance reluctantly take your card to put the hefty deposit on, and then cheerfully tell you the transaction has been declined and therefore you will need to take their insurance.

If this happens it is usually appropriate to point out that you are quite happy to hire a car elsewhere and that, should the credit card function effectively, the original hirer will be paying for the second car hire. Small claims courts have their advantages.

Your Spanish language skills to explain that to the rental agent are obviously better than mine, as is your knowledge of the Spanish small claims court system to recover the advance payment from that hire company and the balance.

So I find it easier to have a range of credit cards I can use, rather than have an intricate knowledge of the court systems in Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, France...