Cheapest credit card that works for car rentals

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1

Hi all

I’m a bit under time pressure, since I need to rent a car for moving my apartment in 3 weeks. I used Revolut so far and last time it was rejected, so that kind of scarred me.

So now, which credit card should I get that has no issues with car rentals and such? Is Swisscard a good one and reliable?

2

What about the migros cumulus card (Mastercard)? It’s totally free and it wqs always accepted everywhere.

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3

Can confirm that both Cumulus and Supercard works for rental cars.

Also Cashback cards from Swisscard. That one has a better exchange rate though.

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4

NIce, thanks to both of you! I was originally planning to go with the Migros Cumulus card, but could not find any confirmation that it works with car rentals.

5

Anything that’s a real credit card should work, right?

(Revolut is more like a prepaid card)

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6

I believe technically also Revolut would work if you have like 2.5-5k CHF balance on it for the deposit reservation.

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That’s what I thought, and Revolut with lots of cash on it worked in Germany, Switzerland and Spain for me so far. They just locked up some amount and it was all fine. But then I was in the US for a business trip, and none of the car rental services would accept it. I checked all 6 companies at the airport and they all immediately said “no loaner cards”. I had like 4k on it and told them exactly that, but they said it’s against their policy.

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8

Same for me. The funny thing is when they don’t know Revolut and just try it, it works like a regular credit card. When I go on holiday my balance at Revolut than is higher than my credit line anyway, so it shouldn’t matter.

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For them, it’s not about you having the minimum deposit / authorisation amount required on your card.
It’s about being credit-worthy at all.

10

That seems logical. Fun fact: The failed experience I had in the US was actually in San Francisco :slight_smile:

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11

In Portugal rental offices ask for a credit card. Revolut is a debit card so they say NO immediately.

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12

Two suggestions:

  1. Take a look at 2em.ch. This is a platform for renting vehicles from private individuals, and is generally much cheaper than rental car companies. 2em provides insurance, etc. so for you as a renter it is just like renting from an agency. I rent out my car on this platform, and have not had any issues so far.
  2. Check out point 2 in this article: Tips for Cheaper Car Rentals - moneyland.ch
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13

Nice link, thanks.

Also the only site in the world that tells you which language you can change to instead of the actual language :slight_smile:

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