How no-deposit rental works on Praslin
With a classic rental brand, a security deposit of several hundred euros is frozen on your credit card and released weeks after the trip. On Praslin most local owners skip that entirely — and it isn't recklessness, it's geography.
The island is 12 km end to end. The owner lives here, hands you the car personally, and inspects it personally at return. There's nowhere for a car to disappear to, so the deposit's job is already done by the island itself.
What protects both sides instead:
- A stated damage excess — the maximum you'd ever pay for damage, printed on the car's card before you book. No open-ended card block.
- A two-minute photo ritual — you and the owner photograph the car together at pickup and return. That's the whole paperwork.
- Same insurance — cover on a no-deposit car is the same as on any other; nothing is traded away.
You pay the rental price, drive for the week, hand the keys back. Nothing frozen, nothing to chase after you fly home.