If your children are on half-term holiday soon and you are planning to collect a hire car, make sure you have the right kind of credit card. These cautionary tales show the costly consequences if yours does not pass muster.<\/p>\n
I hired a car for a family holiday from Enterprise Rent-A-Car in France. The collection desk at Carcassonne airport refused to hand over the keys when I presented the Visa credit card used for the booking because it was issued by First Direct. It told me it did not accept cards from online banks.<\/p>\n
The rental branch subsequently confirmed this in writing. Enterprise\u2019s terms and conditions state that Visa, Mastercard and American Express are accepted, while virtual, single-use and prepaid cards are not. We were forced to arrange alternative rail and taxi transport for our group of 10, costing us \u20ac440 [\u00a3370] and causing considerable stress.<\/p>\n
The booking agent has refunded the \u00a3388.44 rental cost, but Enterprise first ignored, then refused, my requests for my expenses to be refunded.
\n
JM, Oxford<\/p>\n
This is an extraordinary stance on the part of Enterprise, given that First Direct is part of HSBC and that terms and conditions not explicitly stated in a contract are unenforceable.<\/p>\n
You have been battling vainly for redress since May, so it\u2019s provoking that Enterprise instantly rolled over when I waded in. It admitted that First Direct Visa cards were accepted and that branch staff blundered.<\/p>\n
Apparently, it says, staff are now \u201cvery apologetic\u201d three months after the event despite the company having doubled down in writing when you complained.<\/p>\n
It has now refunded your expenses, though not a penny more to reflect the impact of its error.<\/p>\n
It says: \u201cOn this occasion, the customer did not receive the high level of service and support that we aim to provide. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
VD of London was also caught out by unexpected credit card rules when she tried to collect a prepaid car from Warsaw airport that had been booked through Holiday Autos. The provider, Flex To Go, refused to release it because her credit card bore her initials instead of her forename.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Holiday Autos confirmation did say \u2018no abbreviations\u2019, but I took that to mean shortened names rather than initials, and I have had no problems with my card over many years of hiring cars,\u201d she says. \u201cIn the end, we had to get a Polish friend to call the car hire desk and pay over \u00a3145 for their comprehensive insurance \u2013 when we already had our own \u2013 so we could have the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although it is common for UK credit cards to replace a customer\u2019s forename with initials, it is not unusual for car rental companies to refuse them as security guarantees. Instead, they insist the name on the card matches the name on the lead driver\u2019s licence.<\/p>\n
However, I agree that Holiday Autos\u2019 warning about this was open to misinterpretation. Flex To Go\u2019s Ts & Cs did specify it, but these were not given to you until you had completed the transaction at the collection desk. Those Ts & Cs conceal other nasty surprises.<\/p>\n
Buried in the small print are clauses stating that the company charges customers for \u201cminor expenses for ordinary use of the vehicle, ie refilling screen washer liquid and washing the vehicle\u201d.<\/p>\n
Customers are also required to carry out \u201cdaily inspections\u201d of brake fluid, oil and liquid coolant control, regardless of any dashboard warnings.<\/p>\n
These terms strike me as onerous and unusual, and were neither highlighted by Flex To Go as \u201conerous and unusual\u201d terms must be, nor were they mentioned by Holiday Autos.<\/p>\n
Flex To Go did not respond to any of these points. Holiday Autos ignored the point about the ambiguity of \u201cabbreviations\u201d and its supplier\u2019s maintenance demands.<\/p>\n
It told me that names on cards and driver licences must match for identity verification and fraud prevention, and that customers should review terms and conditions before travel. \u201cWe appreciate how frustrating this situation must have been,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n
Always read reviews of car rental firms before booking to discover which ones to avoid. Looking at the Ts & Cs of Flex To Go, which operates on three continents, I will not be using them. And don\u2019t be caught out by hire firms\u2019 rules on credit cards that are designed not only for identity verification, but to ensure deductions from a customer\u2019s bank account are possible if a vehicle is damaged.<\/p>\n
Hire companies tend to accept physical credit cards only, not Apple Pay, as one reader found to his cost. If the firms can\u2019t reliably match the card to the licence and booking name, they are likely to insist that you pay for their comprehensive insurance, which can be expensive.<\/p>\n
We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com<\/a> or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If your children are on half-term holiday soon and you are planning to collect a hire car, make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-807384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}