We have heard from a few readers who have encountered difficulties at car-hire desks around Europe over the course of the summer, and their experiences might save others from getting into trouble before they leave airports on foreign shores. <\/p>\n
First up there was James who got in touch in connection with an issue he encountered while renting a car at Pisa Airport.<\/p>\n
He was less than pleased when the company refused to accept his Bank of Ireland<\/a>-issued credit card on the basis that his name and the numbers and expiry date were printed on the card, rather than embossed, as used to be the case with the cards. <\/p>\n He notes that this restriction was explicitly stated in the terms and conditions, although he did not realise it ahead of time. <\/p>\n He was fortunate that he had another, older, embossed AIB<\/a> card that he was able to use, but he \u201cwitnessed two other Irish people at the desk who had no other option but to pay extra charges in order to leave with a rental car. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Travel insurance and car hire for your holiday: An essential guideOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n \u201cI have contacted Bank of Ireland, who said it had nothing to do with them, and said I should contact Mastercard. Mastercard says it\u2019s nothing to do with them and to contact the Bank of Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n We contacted Bank of Ireland to see whether it was aware of the issue and was alerting customers to the issues they might have at car hire desks.<\/p>\n Bank sources expressed surprise at this query as the situation appears to be out of line with broadly accepted rules and industry standards \u2013 which includes non-embossed cards and widespread acceptance of phone wallet payments.<\/p>\n We contacted Bank of Ireland and received the following statement: \u201cWe\u2019re sorry to hear that the customer had this experience when using their Bank of Ireland card at a car hire company in Italy. Mastercard scheme rules require that merchants accept all valid Mastercards. The rules emphasise non-discrimination of cards at point of sale. <\/p>\n \u201cMerchants cannot refuse a Mastercard card solely based on appearance, including whether it is embossed or not. If the card is valid and the transaction can be authorised electronically, it should be accepted. These scheme rules apply across Europe including Italy. <\/p>\n \u201cIn Italy, rejecting a Mastercard solely because it isn\u2019t embossed is not compliant with scheme rules. Retailers must accept valid cards regardless of embossing. The only exemption is if the merchant was to solely rely on old manual imprint machines, which is unlikely to happen given that current industry standard includes non-embossed cards and widespread acceptance of phone wallet payments.\u201d <\/p>\n We then heard from Ronan, who booked a rental car in July for his family\u2019s summer holidays in Tuscany. <\/p>\n