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Rent from Avis in germany

Posted by (Austin, TX, US) on

Hello,

I made a reservation for an Avis car through autoeurope. This time, I chose not to buy CDW/theft, and instead rely on my CapitalOne Visa card for coverage. I called CapitalOne and they said I am covered. I still have 2 questions,

  1. Since I am not buying CDW/theft from Avis, how much will Avis charge me on my card as a safety deposit (this is in addition to the rental fee), when I pick up the car?

  2. From what I read, one of the common mistakes in my case is to unintentionally check YES to CDW purchase. This will nullify the coverage from the credit card. Does anyone have a copy of the German version of the Avis contract, so I can ask my German friend which lines I need to watch out for?

For 2., it will help us German challenged a lot if someone can upload such a contract to the web (e.g., one of the free upload site)...

Thanks in advance,
Chister

Posted by
1078 posts

They charged me a deposit of 800 Euros in Sicily(to my Amex), however, it was wiped out when I returned it after they inspected the car.
Suggestion: take pictures of the rental car with a camera that shows a date and time in case there are questions on its exterior condition on return.

Posted by
2981 posts

Hi Chister,

Rented a car in Gemany 6 times the last 9 years and have never had a "safety deposit" charged/held on my CC.

I've also never encountered a car rental agent that didn't speak either some English, or spoke it very well. Actually, a few years ago the agent was British and he told me he was glad that someone finally spoke English for a change!

Paul

Posted by
1064 posts

You are renting from Avis through a third party, AutoEurope. If you rented directly from Avis, they would have your credit card number so they could lock in a security deposit. Since you went through Autoeurope, they are now trying to get the security deposit from you. If you call Autoeurope, they may be able to intercede and get the deposit waived; at a minimum, they will make sure that both you and the rental agent are in agreement. We encountered a similar situation with Europcar a couple of months ago. I did not bother trying to get the deposit waived, but, if I were doing so now, I probably would make the call. In any case, Europcar got my credit card information for a 400 or 450 euro deposit but, since I returned the car on time with a full tank of gas and in good condition, they never followed through with any actual charges. From all appearances, they were acting in good faith and not trying to sneak through extra costs for insurance or anything else.

Posted by
49 posts

Thanks everyone for the reply. I also checked with Autoeurope, and their response is

The security deposit depends on the vehicle received, but will most likely be approx. €850.00 EUR plus the value of on tank of fuel.

I am OK with that, as long as it is not as high as the value of the car like some tour books (Rick's book?) suggests. I mean, how many people has a credit line high enough to cover a new car ;)

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