How and when you collect a security deposit

A security deposit is a hold placed on a customer's card that you can draw from if a rental comes back damaged or late, and refund if it doesn't. This page controls when that hold is placed, how long it stays live, and what happens when it's about to expire — not the dollar amount itself.

Where to find it

Fleet → Pricing → Payment & Policies → Deposit / Percentage Down card. The deposit amount is set separately, per fleet item, on that item's own editor (Fleet → [item] → Deposit) — this card only controls how the hold behaves once it's placed.

How it works

• Deposit hold timing — for customer self-serve bookings on your storefront, choose when the hold is placed: immediately at checkout, or closer to pickup. (For bookings you create yourself in the admin, you instead choose the hold timing per booking, in the payment step.) The platform never authorizes the hold more than 24 hours before pickup, even if you've asked for it at booking time.
• Deposit Hold Duration — how long after the rental's return the hold stays in place before auto-releasing: at return, or 24, 48, 72 hours, or 7 days after.
• When the deposit hold ends — what happens as the hold nears its expiration at your card processor (holds generally expire after about 7 days): Re-up automatically re-authorizes the hold so it stays live through your full hold window, or it can simply expire/release on its own, depending on the option chosen.

Example

Pickup is Friday, return is Sunday, with the defaults (hold placed when the booking is made, but never more than 24 hours out) and a 48-hour hold duration. The hold goes on the card Thursday, and — if the rental comes back clean — auto-releases Tuesday, 48 hours after the Sunday return.

Good to know

• Every fleet item sets its own deposit amount; the settings on this page apply the same hold timing and expiry behavior to every rental, regardless of which item's deposit is being held.
• Marking an item free ("This is a free item") zeroes out the rental price, but the deposit hold still goes on the card as usual — so you can still hold security on a rental you're giving away.
• Placing the hold closer to pickup (rather than at checkout) shortens how long the customer's funds are tied up, which can reduce complaints about held money.
• The deposit is separate from the price calculation described in How a price is calculated — it's held and released, not charged and spent.