What Happens If You Refuse to Pay for "Damages" to a Car Rental in Another Country?

I live in the US. Rented a car in Germany and returned it in Switzerland. Car rental company is completely trying to scam me. They sent an email ASKING me to pay 1200 in damages for a 10cm scratch on the lower part of the trunk. We have photos proving it isn’t there but they still keep emailing back. What happens if we don’t pay it? What are the repercussions?

I had this happen with Enterprise in France. The guy who checked us in said the front bumper gap was off and we had struck something. I showed him a picture I took of the area with pretty much the same gap. Anyway, he said he would process the claim against me. I cancelled the credit card immediately and then wrote a letter to Enterprise corporate office in France with a USB of my pictures. A couple of weeks later they wrote back, said they agreed with me (no evidence of damage) and dropped the claim.

@Miller
Holy sh*t this exact same thing happened to me with Enterprise in a European country as well.

Jesse said:
@Miller
Holy sh*t this exact same thing happened to me with Enterprise in a European country as well.

I think they found a new way to scam.

@Miller
Why would you cancel your card? Just file the claim with your credit card. They should all have some level of rental car coverage.

Wynne said:
@Miller
Why would you cancel your card? Just file the claim with your credit card. They should all have some level of rental car coverage.

Why do a claim when there is nothing to claim?

They will charge your card.

Terry said:
They will charge your card.

Card has been frozen for this exact reason as we were worried by their initial email.

Happy said:

Terry said:
They will charge your card.

Card has been frozen for this exact reason as we were worried by their initial email.

Maybe get a new card, new number, so they can never charge you on that card again.

@Teo
I’m not necessarily trying to “duck them” as we did absolutely nothing wrong and it’s just a scummy company. Trying to find out the potential repercussions.

Happy said:
@Teo
I’m not necessarily trying to “duck them” as we did absolutely nothing wrong and it’s just a scummy company. Trying to find out the potential repercussions.

Someone already stated this, if they are an international company, they can ban you all over the world. But they probably won’t come to the USA to sue you, and they won’t have jurisdiction here, it will be impossible for them to get money from you, if you never go back to that country and never rent from them or their affiliate.

@Teo
I just did that because of Ticketmaster. They allow people to sell tickets on their site. My tickets never got delivered digitally so I called. They said they’re not responsible so I cancelled the payment with my bank and ordered a new card with a new number.

@Phoenix
You just need to call your bank and dispute the single charge. It’s not the Wild West where the merchant will re-charge your card after a charge back. Killing your card just wastes resources and creates extra work for you.

@Teo
I’m getting to the point, without even having such an issue with a rental car, that I should just replace my credit cards with new numbers after every big trip out to Europe or the Middle East. I almost always end up with some random charges in the months following such trips. Most of the time it’s some testing charges where you know the card number was sold on the dark web or something. Crazy.

Happy said:

Terry said:
They will charge your card.

Card has been frozen for this exact reason as we were worried by their initial email.

Which company? Name and shame them.

Happy said:

Terry said:
They will charge your card.

Card has been frozen for this exact reason as we were worried by their initial email.

Wow, easily spooked huh? A misunderstanding of how credit cards actually work and your consumer rights. You didn’t need to do this and it wouldn’t stop a false/incorrect payment being made against you. Anyway, they have your address and your credit card company could have made a dispute on your behalf.

@Vince
Also could have avoided the inconvenience by looking up what a ‘virtual card’ is, and that most card companies allow for this feature.

Happy said:

Terry said:
They will charge your card.

Card has been frozen for this exact reason as we were worried by their initial email.

Why would you freeze it? Just file the claim with your credit card company. It should have car rental insurance.

This happened to me in Ireland. I told them I had time-stamped pictures of the car. I then called my credit card company and told them I would not authorize any charges for damages. Never heard from them again.

If you used any U.S.-based chains, they could ban you worldwide from future rentals.