Zero deposit, nothing blocked on your card
Drive away without locking up any of your money. See exactly when the deposit is zero and when one applies.
What zero deposit means at Simple Rent
Zero deposit means we take nothing and block nothing on your card when you pick the car up. At Simple Rent in Cluj-Napoca the deposit is 0 EUR for drivers aged between 25 and 65 who have held their licence for more than 3 years. We do not ask for a credit card and we do not run pre-authorisations, while RCA, the road tax vignette and roadside assistance are included in the rate.
In practice you pay for the rental and nothing else. There is nothing to claim back at drop-off, because nothing was held in the first place. That is the difference from the usual market model, where anywhere between a few hundred and a few thousand euro stays frozen on a credit card for weeks after the car goes back.
Who qualifies for a zero deposit
The conditions are straightforward and we check them once, when the contract is signed:
- Aged between 25 and 65, the bracket our insurer accepts without an extra premium.
- Driving licence held for more than 3 years and valid throughout the rental period.
- A valid ID document, for Romanian and foreign nationals alike.
- Travel within Romania, with no border crossing.
If you meet these conditions, the deposit stays at 0 EUR whichever car you pick and however long you rent for.
At a glance
When a deposit does apply
We prefer to say it upfront, before you book, rather than at the counter. There are three situations in which we do hold a deposit:
- Drivers under 25 or over 65, or a licence held for less than 3 years. The insurer treats these as a higher risk period and charges us extra in the event of damage, so a deposit of 300 to 500 EUR applies.
- Leaving Romania. For trips abroad the deposit is set according to the destination and the length of the journey.
- Very long rentals, where the risk of intensive use is higher.
The exact amount always appears in the booking summary, on the car page, before you confirm anything. No new costs turn up at pickup.
The deposit for every car in the fleet
The table below updates automatically from our booking system, so it reflects the values in force today.
The deposit shown applies to rentals within Romania, for drivers who meet the age and licence conditions.
Deposit, excess, security hold: the difference
The three terms are often used interchangeably in this market, even though they mean different things. Here is what each one means in our contract:
- The deposit
- The amount held when you pick the car up and returned in full at drop-off, provided the car has no new damage. At Simple Rent it is 0 EUR in most cases.
- The excess (CDW)
- The claim handling fee, payable only if an incident covered by CASCO occurs, never upfront. It is not the cost of the repair, which stays with the insurer. It covers the paperwork: the damage report, the documents, the trips to the insurer, to the garage and, where needed, to the police, all handled by one of our colleagues on your behalf. The amount differs from one model to another, between 100 and 500 EUR per incident, and you will find it in the table above.
- SCDW
- The option that brings the claim handling fee, that is the excess, down to zero. It applies only to drivers who meet the age and licence conditions.
- Blocking money on a card
- The procedure many companies use to reserve funds on a credit card for the whole rental period. We block nothing and we do not ask for a credit card.
How the deposit comes back, if you paid one
- At pickup the deposit is paid in cash or by card, and the amount is written into the contract.
- At drop-off we inspect the car together, inside and out, and record its condition in the handover report.
- If there is no new damage and no unpaid fines or road taxes, you get the full deposit back on the spot, with no refund fee.
- If a fine arrives later for the period you were driving, we contact you with the document received from the authorities before anything is deducted.