Chinese People Enjoys Deposit Exemption for Overseas Car Rental

Chinese citizens can enjoy a deposit exemption when renting cars abroad, a spokesperson for Zhima Credit announced on November 27.

Users whose Zhima Credit exceeds 700 will be able to rent cars without a deposit or credit card at the five airports in the US, Thailand and New Zealand. This week, Zhima Credit announced the deposit exemption at overseas car rental locations with its partner, American Yesaway. It is the world’s first overseas free car rental deposit service.

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In the past, Chinese tourists who wanted to rent a car abroad had to use credit cards for pre-authorization, which means freezing a portion of the credit limit as a “deposit”. Now, users can enter the car rental platform on Alipay, select Yesaway and choose their Zhima Credit Deposit exemption in “Vehicle Deposit (Pre-Authorization)” to complete reservation. Users can also pay any rental fees through Alipay.

Zuzuche is the preferred car rental platform for Chinese when traveling abroad, with a market share of 76.2 percent, but Yesaway is also popular. Currently, deposit exemption car rentals are available in Yesaway’s five airport locations in Los Angeles, Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket, and Christchurch, New Zealand.

Yesaway is the first overseas company offering a deposit exemption. Xiao Zhang, its China head, said the trend of deposit exemption and mobile payment in Chinese industries is striking. Yesaway introduced Zhima Credit and Alipay to attract more Chinese tourists and to combat the problem of low credit card use among Chinese tourists and high exchange charges on overseas rentals.

Hu Tao, general manager of Zhima Credit, said that deposit exemption is the most important thing for Zhima Credit. The company hopes to work with businesses to exempt the deposit for users with a high credit rating, reduce barriers and improve user experience. Zhima Credit is also prepared to solve problems related to risk and insecurity in the businesses.

Deposit exemption not only improves the user experience, but also help businesses to improve their conditions. Consider the domestic car rental industry as an example. After introducing credit exemption, it has more orders and the car loss rate fell from 3.1 per 10,000 to 1.8 per 10,000.

Hu Tao said overseas car rentals are a new scenario for deposit exemption based on credit. In the year ahead, Zhima Credit will upgrade credit exemption scheme to include risk control and insurance, so as to provide better travel services. “We hope to work with partners like Zuzuche and Yesaway to promote deposit exemption,” Hu said.