Hire cars · Deposits

Hire-car deposits and card holds: what each company asks for

Checked 1 October 2026 against each company's own published terms · skynomad

At the desk the company puts a hold, a pre-authorisation, on your card. It is not a payment, it comes off your available balance, and releasing it takes days. Companies do not all use the same words, so the pages below quote what each one calls it. Checked against each company's own terms on 1 October 2026.

What the companies publish

Sixt UK's groups are by car type: £300 covers the economy to full-size groups, and £2,000 the sports and luxury cars. Europcar's €1,000 and €1,500 figures are for named prestige categories in France.

Credit card or debit card

Sixt UK treats them differently in its own terms. The approval on a credit card is not debited, but is held until the rental fees are paid. The deposit on a debit card is immediately debited from your bank account and held until the agreement ends. The amounts are the same table. A hold you cannot afford to lose from your balance is a reason to use a credit card where the company accepts one.

Declining the cover makes the hold bigger

This is the line to read. At Hertz in France, the hold includes €500 if you have not purchased SuperCover. At Europcar, a protection that cuts the damage excess to zero brings the hold down from €300 to €100. Both companies publish the effect in their own terms: the bigger hold is what the cover is partly selling. Whether to buy the company's cover, or cover it yourself, is on the excess page.

How long a hold takes to disappear

Europcar says 4 working days on its deposit page; the exception is a rental you cancel after starting, up to 30 days. Hertz's France terms say it may take up to 30 days for an unused pre-authorisation to be released. Avis UK says it can take up to 28 days for the release to show in your balance, and that your card company, not the rental location, is responsible for releasing it. The practical rule: do not put the deposit on the card you need for the rest of the trip.

Moving to the next step

Before you sign, ask the desk three things: the exact amount of the hold, whether it changes if you take or refuse the cover, and when it is released. The answers should match the page above. If they do not, ask for the figure in writing. The other charges that arrive after the trip are in extra charges.

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