Hi All,

 

Sorry if this post has been covered a million times,

 

I want to rent a car from chiang mai airport to buriram airport... I had a look online and got to the booking screen, all good prices etc but it didn't say the deposit and really how it charges you (in the uk they didn't even charge my card on a deposit just used it incase) 

 

Anyway I went to the airport tonight and went to the national rental desk, the guy seemed realy flakey about my question, I wanted to know if I use my mastercard to pay how much do they take off my card and how long does it take for them to put it back on, id assume on the day you give the keys back in they put the deposit back in my account immediately?

 

He first said they take 20k off your card on top of the rental fee, and when the keys are back they give you 20k back after they have looked at the car, I asked do they do it instantly and he went off to ask then came back and said its 10k actually but didn't look confident and they return it within 5 days? so he doesn't even know really, my friend here rented off one company and you simply give them 4000 cash bhat and get it back when you return the car only thing is they wont let you drop off in a different location. I have had bad experience with rental companies here years back one not returning my deposit and mastercard saying they never even sent it.. they did in the end but it was a ball ache I can do without, I also had one rental company in Phuket 'attempt' so charge my card 45k bhat on my card without success thankfully my NatWest card declined them.... 

 

I would rather rent with a reputable company tbh and prefrebly online, anyone here rented one way might be able to point me in the right direction and tell me what deposits was taken etc? also I wanted to get a bigger car to move some stuff, from what I heard in broken thai tonight is some cars have massive deposits whilst your little Nissan marches etc have smaller deposits? thats just what ive been told my an old thai mate...

 

Cheers all in advance

Edited May 25, 20197 yr by ryanhull

p.s im getting 'approx.USD500-3000 for pre-authorization from main driver's credit card at pick up.' from doing this online, 3000USD deposit seems a bit much? cheers

Maybe this could help.

 

https://www.rentalcars.com/en/country/th/?affiliateCode=google&preflang=en&label=th-rYkF4lgYyhB8KVHduQCHggS282763721418&ws=&ppc_placement=&ppc_target=&ppc_param1=&ppc_param2=&aceid=&adposition=1t1&ppc_network=g&feeditemid=&ppc_targetid=aud-112244617068:kwd-44075828939&loc_physical_ms=9047152&loc_interest_ms=&ppc_device=c&ppc_devicemodel=&gclid=Cj0KCQjwz6PnBRCPARIsANOtCw2ccLKXit3tovztWmsfurz6IGC1hHa2nhzHuy9DIorzu01rFlmLUPMaAtVbEALw_wcB

They don't actually charge your credit card, they just put a "hold" on it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_hold

As you can see from this Wikipedia article it also depends on your credit card issuing bank how long it takes until the hold is removed, so the rental company can't tell you.

I've rented a car a few times in Thailand from different companies (international companies, at airports), never had a problem with it. I never paid much attention how long it took until the deposit hold was removed, but it always was.

As Jack says, it isn't charged unless of course you don't return vehicle/damage it; at least that's how it has always worked with me in the past. Have rented one-way many times up & down the country, sedans and pickups. Had best service/deals with ThaiRentACar and Budget, though things can change I guess.

Yes, like with ordering hotels and other related things they simply put some block on the money which later will be really released here anyway for all that types like booking real estate or cars really. All the way to it. It's serves like their guranteed insurance for that matter.