Thetownend.com

Anyone done this lately?

Looking to go over in April. Fly to Orly then hire a car. It’s a long time since I hired one and they are asking for a €3000 hold on my credit card on top of any actual rental charges.

Is this normal or just a shit car rental company?

I rented in the states and they never asked anything similar. Would shop around. Doesn't sound normal to me.

I am not sure about the figure but from recollection its pretty common practice in various European countries to put some sort of holding figure on your card till its returned and checked.

From experience they seem to have a pretty laissez faire attitude to checking in France (last time basically looked out of the door to make sure there was a car there) unlike in Italy where they tried to pin some scratches on us on car that looked like it had been used as a dodgem car before we picked it up!

I'd shop around - I've never had anything like that large a reserve held on my card. Last time I hired from Orly I found that Firefly - a low-cost Hertz brand - was the best value. There's plenty of choice, but I usually end up booking via RentalCars which compares all the companies' offers at any given time.

Sounds very dodgy.  Rental companies have a tendency to identify "new damage" on cars as it is, this would send alarm bells ringing for me.  Usually it's no more than a couple of hundred at most they hold.

I’ll try Firefly. Other option is getting a train to Caen and hiring from there - maybe a bit more reasonable.

I’ve still got my UK credit card which I rarely use but the limit is less than €3000 I’m sure!

That's the norm in Spain

Seems no getting away from it. Looked at Budget at Orly - the same €2000_3000 depending on the car.

They take it out pretty much for 24 hours then stick it back in, normally on a credit card

Not so (and I know you live there). It was the usual c£250/€300 holding/security/damages fee/waiver when we hired a couple of years ago.

Included pick up in Bilbao and drop off in Malaga. Unless it's a relatively new thing/new rise? It was never that much and it's still bullshit behaviour if it's just for a card check (rather than a holding fee).

300 in Tenerife too, not that it's relevant really.

I wouldn't trust the bastards with that much, though it seems these's little choice

See if they're a bit hungrier for your business in Caen?