How damn hard is it to rent one lousy car for two days? So I'm going to see my father for Christmas, and he had the idea that I should rent a car. No problem, since I am landing late in the evening, and wouldn't want to be totally dependent on driving my dad or grandma's car. Should be no problem, since booking the flight wasn't a hassle.
But oh no, rental agencies have several lines of fine print.
The first hurdle came when I found that all major rental agencies require a major credit card in order to even rent, though debit card is fine to pay with, except for Budget. (I refuse to get a credit card, since the rest of civilization doesn't seem to care what type of plastic you use, as long as they get money.) So, I reserved a car through them, after carefully studying every line of fine print on their website. Then I got a nice little e-mail that had MORE fine print, such as a minimum $300 hold on all debit card transactions (even if one is renting an economy car) IF the rental agency accepts debit AND it would take up to two WEEKS to process a credit back onto the card. That is something I simply can't afford to do! I can afford the $130 it would take to rent a car, no strings attached, but not more than double that amount! I have more important things in life to be spending $300 on, such as 3/4ths of my rent! Looking furiously on other websites, it didn't get much better.
I guess maybe 20 years ago it was different. But a few bad seeds had to screw people over and spoil it for the rest of us honest people. But I will say this: next time I take a trip anywhere, unless it is overseas, I am driving my car to and from. That is the most reliable way for me to get from point A to point B without any damn hurdles. And in the meantime... somebody at a website I frequent posted this, so I'm borrowing it.
But anyhow, car rental agencies can........
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