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Heraklion Car Hire With a Debit Card: 100 of 120 Take One
Most of the fleet here settles on a debit card, so the question worth answering is what the security hold does next.
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Heraklion Car Hire Review
Insurance options available on all cars · TPL · CDW · SCDW · Full CDW
Paying and holding are two different moments
One hundred of the 120 cars bookable in Heraklion will take a debit card, so whether you can use one is settled before you start reading. What catches people out is that a hire asks the card to do two unrelated things, and only one of them is a payment.
The hire behaves like any other purchase
You pay for the days you reserved, online, and the amount is the one printed on the confirmation. Nothing about that step changes because the card is a debit one. It leaves the account once, and it is the only figure here that behaves the way you expect.
The hold is placed separately and it is not a charge
When the contract is signed the supplier places a security hold against the same card. Nobody has spent anything, but on a debit card the held amount stops being yours to spend until it is lifted. On a credit card it uses up a limit you were probably never going to reach. That gap is the whole practical difference.
Your spendable balance is smaller than your statement
While the car is yours, the held sum sits outside the money you can reach. If that account is also paying for rooms and the ferry, look at the balance before you fly rather than at the desk. People who come unstuck here are rarely refused a car. They are short on the day.
Released and visible are two separate events
The supplier lifts the hold once the car is back and checked over. Your bank then posts that release on its own schedule, which is why money can be free at one end and still missing from your app at the other. Ask the desk when they release, and ask your bank how long a release takes to appear.
The card rule belongs to the car, not to this page
Every car in the results above carries its own short list of particulars, and a few of those lines describe money at the counter rather than money at booking. The supplier who owns that car sets them, which is why two identical hatchbacks on the same screen can disagree.
| Line you may see | What it means at the desk | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Credit card: Not needed | This supplier finishes the hire on a debit card. | Take it at face value and stop hunting. |
| Deposit: Low | A hold is still placed, in the small band. | Check your balance carries it comfortably. |
| Cash deposit: Accepted | The hold can be left in euro notes instead. | Useful if your bank blocks holds abroad. |
| Cancellation: Free | Dropping the booking costs you nothing. | Reserve the card rule early, decide later. |
| Mileage: Unlimited km | No daily distance cap on this car. | Worth having if Matala or Chania is on the list. |
| Model: Or similar | You reserve a class, not that registration. | Expect the size, not the colour in the photo. |
Twenty cars in the fleet still want a credit card, and they are not the expensive end of it. The same small hatchbacks sit on both sides of that line: one supplier asks, and the next one, holding the identical model, does not.
What travels to the desk beside the card
The card is one of four things the counter wants. The other three are the ones people leave in a hotel safe, and all of them are easier to settle now than in a queue.
A licence that works in Greece
Bring the plastic licence itself, in the name of whoever is going to drive. One issued in the EU, the EEA or the United Kingdom is read straight off the counter. One issued further afield needs an International Driving Permit beside it, which works alongside the original, never in place of it.
Passport or national ID
The desk is matching three names: the booking, the licence and the card. Carry the document rather than a photograph of it.
One card, one name
The card has to belong to the named driver. A partner beside you with their own card is not a workaround, it is a different booking in a different name.
The confirmation, and someone to hand it to
Keep the voucher on your phone with a screenshot behind it, because arrivals halls eat signal. Eighty four of the 120 cars come to an address in Heraklion instead of being collected, which is ordinary on this island. Delivery moves the car, not the paperwork: the driver still stands there with the licence and the card.
Three arrivals, three different cards
The car said no credit card needed and the desk never asked for one. Passport, licence, my own bank card, ten minutes.
I had read that the island would demand a credit card. Two of the three cars I compared said otherwise in their own particulars.
My mistake was arriving on my partner's card. The booking had to go into his name at the counter. Simple, but unexpected.
120
cars counted on the live listing
100
of them settle on a debit card
20
still ask for a credit card
84
can be brought to your address
More Heraklion car hire options
Questions about the card itself
Both kinds, but not on every car. One hundred of the 120 cars complete the hire on a debit card and the remaining twenty want a credit one. The choice belongs to the supplier who owns the car, not to the country or the class of vehicle, so treat it as a filter while you compare.
On a debit card the amount stops being available to spend. Nobody has taken the money and it is not a purchase, but it is out of reach until the hold is lifted. On a credit card the same hold eats headroom instead of cash.
The supplier releases it once the car has been returned and looked over. Your bank then posts that release on its own timetable, which is a separate step. Ask the desk when they release holds and ask your own bank how long a released hold takes to show.
No, and it is the most common reason a booking gets rewritten at the counter. The card must belong to the person named as the driver, because the hold and the licence have to point at the same human being. If the cardholder is your partner, book in their name and add yourself as a second driver.
Bring one, or change the car. The rule follows the supplier rather than the model, so the same shape of hatchback is often available from someone else without that requirement. Filter first and compare prices second.
Put your dates in and read the card line
Heraklion Drive searches the local suppliers who hold the cars, and every result carries its own particulars. Set your dates, then pick a car whose lines say what you need.
Search the fleet