Almost every quote you compare for Crete hides the same question, and it is not the daily rate. It is how much of your money sits frozen on a card while you drive.
It is not a payment. It is a pre-authorisation: the rental company asks your bank to reserve an amount on your credit card, and the bank makes that money unavailable to you. Nothing is charged unless something happens to the car. The money is not gone — but it is not yours to spend either, and it usually stays that way for a week or two after you hand the car back, sometimes longer. How long depends on your bank, not on the rental company.
There is no figure set by law. Each company sets its own, and it moves with the class of car and the insurance you take — a small manual hatchback and an automatic SUV are not treated the same. The number that matters is not the one in the advert but the one written on the rental agreement you sign at pickup, and in most cases it is simply equal to the insurance excess. The company holds what it might one day have to claim.
Every rental in Greece includes basic collision cover, and that cover carries an excess — the first slice of any damage that you pay rather than the insurer. The deposit is how a company makes sure that slice is collectable. Buy the excess down to zero, under whatever name the counter uses, and most companies reduce the hold or drop it. That is the honest trade behind the whole arrangement: a daily premium instead of a frozen lump sum.
| What it is called | What happens at the counter | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit against the excess | An amount is blocked on a credit card in the driver's own name | Nothing, unless there is damage — but the money is unavailable during the trip and often for weeks after |
| Excess waiver | The hold is reduced or removed once you buy full cover | A premium charged for every day of the rental |
| No deposit at all | Nothing is blocked and no credit card is asked for | Nothing — the company carries the risk itself |
Treat the phrase carefully. A good number of the pages ranking for it are not rental companies at all — they are comparison sites and affiliates that forward your booking to a local supplier. The promise belongs to the page; the terms at the counter belong to the supplier, and that is exactly where the deposit tends to reappear. There is a simple test: does the company taking your booking also own the car? If a site cannot tell you which company will hand you the keys, it cannot tell you what they will ask you for.
We hold nothing. No credit card at any stage — not to reserve the car, not at pickup — and no pre-authorisation on any card you own. A booking is made with a name, a phone number and an email; you pay in cash or by debit card when we bring you the car, or online beforehand if you would rather. Insurance with a €1,200 excess is inside the price of every rental. That excess is not a deposit either: nothing is blocked or held when you collect the car, and the amount is charged only if the car is damaged. Drivers under 27 can remove the excess completely for €10 a day. We can work this way because we are a family business with sixteen cars and we meet every customer ourselves. The pre-authorisation exists to protect companies that never see who they are dealing with.
This is the single most common way a Crete booking falls apart. A debit card generally cannot be pre-authorised the way a credit card can, so a company that requires a hold will refuse it — sometimes only after you have landed and queued. If there is no credit card in the driver's own name, look for companies that say plainly they need neither, and get it confirmed in writing before you fly rather than at the desk.
Not everywhere. Most companies require one because they hold a deposit on it, and a company that holds no deposit has no reason to ask. Check before you fly and get the answer in writing — this is the most common reason a booking fails at the counter.
There is no legal amount. In practice it tracks the insurance excess, so it rises with the class of car and falls if you buy the excess down. What binds is the figure on the rental agreement, not the one in the advert.
That is decided by your bank, not by the rental company. A release is usually visible within a week or two, but it can take longer, and the money is unavailable to you the whole time.
Not by itself. Compare the total you actually pay: a low daily rate with an excess waiver added to every day, plus an airport surcharge and a second-driver fee, often ends up above an all-inclusive price with nothing held.
No. Nothing is blocked and nothing is taken. The €1,200 is a ceiling, not a deposit — it is the most you would pay towards repairs, and it is charged only if the car is damaged. If nothing happens, you never see it.
Related: renting without a credit card, and the full list of our terms in one page. If anything here is unclear for your dates, ask us before you book — info@paulcar.gr or +30 695 923 3080, which is also WhatsApp.