I have a Revolut Credit Card for a few years. I got it mainly for a carrental companies, because they need them.
But as Revolut was not a bank in first years, it is still considered as a nonbanking fintech.
And even though it is a credit card, it is quite often rejected because it is Revolut.
First thing: How to prove a car company, that Revolut is a Bank?
Second thing: I think Revolut should contact main car rental companies and inform them, that revolut credit cards are as credit cards as any other.
The ones, that always reject are: Thrifty and SIXT. I do not remember others.
It is always a stresfull situation for me,. when I land on vacation - will they accept my card or not.
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in theory, merchants should honor the label on the card itself. Issuers have to mark their cards with credit, debit, business … correctly. I have not seen a Revolut credit card in person. If Revolut’s renderings on the website are correct, there’s “credit” printed on the front. But the car rental staff probably doesn’t care.
You could try to “trick” the rental company into accepting the card. The BIN should be identified as credit. You could try to pay contactless or via Apple Pay. The payment might go through. But I would not rely on it.
I believe the best hope for improving the situation is what you suggest: via corporate communications. It probably will take time. Revolut issued millions of debit and prepaid cards compared to thousands of credit cards maybe.
(I am not sure how serious your first question is. But you can download an account confirmation for your account under “Details”. It’s got your name and address on it and in the footer the full legal details about Revolut’s regulatory status as a credit institution. Any person could then look up the license online and check if it’s fake or not. Revolut is registered with the European and the Lithuanian Central Bank under the company numbers printed on this statement and shows up in online registries accordingly. Not sure if a random car rental clerk is willing to do this, though. It’s not like they’re experts in banking licenses.)
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The general issue this this type of “problem” is, that a private company in all jurisdictions I know can simply choose what clients they want to serve and what clients they don’t, and I also don’t know of any country where “card payment” is mandatory for private companies.
So if they don’t like your electronic payment method, they can simply reject you. Nothing you (or Revolut for that matter) can do about that.
If they don’t like Revolut because there is a higher fraud rate with their cards that with others - they don’t have to accept those issuer.
→ If you want to be sure that you can rent a car, the best thing you can do is do the research beforehand and check the legal documents or ask the company of your choice upfront if everything is OK with whatever card you choose - or use taxis/Ubers/trams/whatever.
2nd best thing is, if possible, just have a credit card from a well known issuer as backup. But quite frankly, I also had issues with UniCredit credit cards accepted for car rentals abroad for example, simply because they blocked the transaction though and I couldn’t get hold of any support at that timezone, not a general acceptance problem.
Bottom line: Do research upfront, have backups for multiple reasons, don’t use cars if possible - but not really much else anyone can do about that specific issue.
At least I don’t see any change about that within over a decade, always the same problems with car rentals with basically all new-ish card issuers and even brickt and mortat bank cards are more and more being rejected due to fraud detection behind the scenes etc.
It’s more or less a “myth” that companies have to accept “all VISA credit cards” or so. Noone can force them to do so. That was a thing in the old days probably where every credit card was good for credit, it’s not anymore today. You never can be sure that you can pay with whatever card anymore nowadays due to the technology behind this all that we have now.
…that’s at least my 2cents on that whole issue.
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Sixt, Hertz etc so tend to accept the standard issued Revolut Debit card. That is, for the lower classes cars. Higher ones need a Credit Card. I am surprised they wouldn’t accept a Revolut CC as the do accept the DC.
Not to be mean, but are you sure you have the CC? As far as I know only Ireland, Poland, Lithuania and the United States of America have that option available, all others are debit cards. Your card will mention it on the back.
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Please. I know what type of card I have. I live in Poland and I have z CC revolut card with “credit” printed on it. Rental companies usually say: we need a “bank issued” credit card and revolut is not a bank.
They have given rules and even if i have printed proof of revolut being a bank, it does not help.
It is decision of people up there, not a person’s by the desk
That is why I only see tye option of Revolut contacting renta companies, because the change would have to come from up.
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