Payment with only Master debit Card for car rental at Hertz LAX office?

Yes, you can reserve and pay for a car with a Debit card from the major agencies.

However, when you pick up the car, they will remind you many times that the Hold on a Debit card works a bit differently than a credit card. Meaning, the bank will hold several hundred US of your actual money to guarantee the charge.

If you need access to that cash, what you can do is reserve and rent with a Credit card, then settle with the Debit card. They have no problems doing this, but you may have to go to the counter to pay.

US Car rental companies want a Credit Card on file for rental, to cover potential extra cost. For the real payment, you can use debit cards (or even cash); typically, when returning the car, they ask you if you want to pay with the credit card on file, or another card.

Having a debit card on file is no security for them, as they cannot access it if you disappear or the car gets damaged, or you simply keep it some days longer.

You will probably not be able to rent without having a credit card (in your name) to show and put on file. Note that this credit card will not be charged; it is just a 'insurance' for the rental company.

According to their site, yes, Hertz allows rental using a debit card at most locations (including LAX). (This is for debit cards with a Visa or Mastercard logo).

However, there are some additional requirements:

• They will place a hold covering estimated rental charges (which may be higher than your actual charge if there is a promotion involved) plus $200 on your debit card.
• They will likely perform a credit check, and you have to meet minimum requirements for them to rent to you (no information given on what these requirements are). It's not clear how this would be applied to someone who is not a U.S. resident.
• You need to present two forms of ID (but as an international traveller you will already have your passport and driver's license, so this is no problem).

In short, you should not have a problem with this as long as your financial circumstances are pretty good, but it could make a difference in marginal cases.

Personally, I would just take out a credit card unless you have a good reason not to. Even if you never plan to use it, it is free and simple to open an account, and it's always useful to have a backup form of payment when travelling internationally.

The information can be found here, after you select LAX as your location and select "Forms of Payment" from the dropdown box.