Credit card swipe

[SeanT]

I was reading the the faq for uscarhire site and the following was mentioned

The rental company will 'swipe' the card, usually for around $500. The rental company will authorise and lock off this amount, but don't actually take the payment from your account. Once the car is returned, the deposit amount is then released.

Does there need to be $500 in the account (as the car has already been paid)? or does the rental company just take of any outstanding items at the end (ie. petrol, extras), therefore would $100 cover this if no extras taken.

Thanks
Sean

[roger]

$500 is usually the maximum they block off, it's often less, but the funds do need to be available on your card. This is mainly to cover them if the car is not returned so they can start to take a daily rental from your card. They will also use this to take fuel (if applicable) and any other options such as child seats or toll violations etc.

[SeanT]

Thanks for the reply Roger