Credit card overview

In 2005 the BVRLA launched a strategy to engage with MasterCard and Visa to ensure that their current and future global operating rules fairly reflected the vehicle rental sector’s commercial and operational needs. A payment card working group has been established, which reports into Leaseurope's car rental working group, covering all payment card related matters across Europe.

Key achievements to date

Visa

Best practice for the car rental industry in processing visa cards
Change in Visa’s global rules to allow members to charge a no-show or cancellation charge when a renter fails to arrive at the rental desk
Flexible interpretation of existing rules to allow Members to charge traffic violations to Visa cards after the rental was completed

MasterCard

A more flexible interpretation of chargeback rules has been taken which allows members fair representation and has seen a reduction in the number of MasterCard chargebacks
Clarification has been received in relation to MasterCard’s rules which do allow members to charge a fee when the renter fails to arrive at the rental desk
MasterCard reviewed their rules on vehicle extensions to reflect and accommodate commercial reality

Current areas of work

The payment card working group is currently working on:

industry best practice guidance on chargebacks to improve compliance with Visa and MasterCard’s rules
a review of Visa's best practice guidance for rental companies
the introduction of MasterCard best practice guidance for rental companies
industry guidance from MasterCard on applying reservation fees