Car rental without deposit in Marbella: is it possible?
Car rental without a deposit in Marbella is not possible with MARBIORA. On the cars with a set amount, €4,000 or €5,000 is held on a credit card in the main driver's name and released once the car is back and checked. The €4,000 figure covers five cars, including the Audi RS3 Sedan.
Car rental without a deposit in Marbella is not something MARBIORA offers: every rental comes with a guarantee held on a credit card. On the cars with a set amount it is €4,000 or €5,000 depending on the model, and on the others the figure reaches you in writing before you pay anything. Better to learn that here than at your hotel door. The money is blocked rather than charged, and five cars ask for the lower figure.
Why can't you rent a luxury car with no deposit?
A security deposit is an amount held on your card for the length of the rental as a guarantee, and released once the car has been returned and checked. Every car in the fleet belongs to a private owner who has placed it in the MARBIORA programme, and the guarantee applies to all of them. One day or one month makes no difference, because the amount follows the model and the rental length leaves it unchanged.
Insurance does not replace it either. Comprehensive insurance is included in every rate, and the deposit is a separate figure from the excess, which is the share of damage costs that stays with the renter. Our guide on how the security deposit works when you rent a luxury car in Marbella goes through that difference in detail. If you would rather block as little as possible, what helps is the choice of car and the card you bring.
Holds like this are normal in Spain. The RACE guide to renting a car, from the Spanish motoring club, says most companies ask for a bank card in the main driver's name and that there is no fixed amount, because it depends on the company, the vehicle and the cover. With any offer, ask for both figures, deposit and excess, before you compare prices.
How much is the deposit on each car?
Among the coastal cars with a published amount there are only two figures, €4,000 and €5,000. The €5,000 group includes the Lamborghini Urus, the Huracán EVO and Performante, the Ferrari Portofino Blue, the Bentley Continental GT, the Audi R8, the Mercedes-Benz G400, the G63 AMG and the G63 AMG Brabus 800. Five cars sit at €4,000, and they are all in the table in the next section.
For the rest of the fleet the amount is agreed when you book and written into the confirmation. That goes for the Mercedes-Benz CLE Cabrio at €300 for one day and for the Aston Martin DBX 707 at €1,100. A low daily price tells you nothing about what will be blocked on your card, so ask for the figure before you decide instead of guessing it from the rate.
Which cars have the lowest deposit?
The €4,000 deposit applies to five cars in the coastal fleet, all based in Marbella. On these cars each kilometre above the 150 km per day included costs €4, against €5 on the €5,000 cars that have this rate set. The table lists the five by the price of a single day:
| Car | Seats | Power | 1 day | 3 to 6 days, per day | 30 days or more, per day | Deposit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audi RS3 Sedan | 5 | 400 PS | €350 | €275 | €150 | €4,000 |
| Mercedes-Benz V-Class | 7 | 237 PS | €500 | €450 | €350 | €4,000 |
| Range Rover Sport | 5 | 530 PS | €500 | €450 | €350 | €4,000 |
| Mercedes-Benz GLE53 AMG | 5 | 449 PS | €650 | €600 | €450 | €4,000 |
| Mercedes-Benz S500 4MATIC Long | 5 | 435 PS | €700 | €650 | €500 | €4,000 |
Audi RS3 Sedan
The 2025 Audi RS3 Sedan is the cheapest of the five: €350 for one day and €150 per day from 30 days, which comes to €4,500 for a month. It has five seats and 400 PS, and it goes from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.8 seconds. The sums look odd on a short rental, since a single day blocks more than eleven times what you pay.
Mercedes-Benz V-Class
The 2024 V-Class is the only one of the five with seven seats: diesel, 237 PS, €500 for one day and €425 per day for 7 to 14 days. Even with seven people on board, the guarantee is held once, on the main driver's card. Our guide to renting the Mercedes V-Class in Marbella has the rest of its rates and how the car is delivered.
Range Rover Sport
At 530 PS the 2024 Range Rover Sport is the most powerful of the five, yet it costs the same as the V-Class at every rental length. Set it against the Lamborghini Urus, another five-seat SUV, and one day is €700 cheaper (€500 against €1,200) with €1,000 less blocked on your card. More in our guide to renting the Range Rover Sport in Marbella.
How is the deposit held on a credit card?
A card hold, also called a pre-authorisation, is a reservation that cuts your available credit without creating a charge. Wikipedia's entry on the “authorization hold” describes it as a service from card providers that sets the approved amount aside until the transaction is completed, cancelled or expires. While it lasts you have less credit to spend, even though nobody has billed you that sum.
With MARBIORA the hold happens on the day of handover, because nothing is taken through the website. Your licence and passport or ID are checked, the amount is held and the rental agreement is signed, and the whole handover takes about ten minutes. The card has to be a credit card in the main driver's name, the same person as on the licence. Your partner's card will not work unless your partner is the main driver.
Our published terms describe only this hold on a credit card and mention no other way of leaving the guarantee. RACE warns that some companies refuse debit cards and that others accept only credit cards for blocking the deposit. If debit is all you have, raise it before you book. That conversation goes far better on WhatsApp than at the airport terminal.
How do you get your card ready before you travel?
The practical risk with a deposit is turning up to the handover with too little free credit, especially if the same card has also paid for flights or a hotel. You can head that off with a few steps, and all of them can be done before you fly:
- Ask for the written confirmation with the total price, the deposit and the excess for your car.
- Check the available credit on your card with your bank, since it can be lower than the full limit.
- Add the rental to the deposit if you plan to pay both on the same card.
- Make sure the card and the licence are in the same person's name.
- If they are not, name the cardholder as main driver, provided they are 25 or over with three years of driving.
- Go through the documents you need to rent a car in Marbella and bring them to the handover.
Here is how it works with real numbers. Three days in the Audi RS3 Sedan cost €825 at €275 per day, so paying on the card that also carries the €4,000 hold means you need €4,825 of free credit. A week in the V-Class or the Range Rover Sport comes to €2,975, or €6,975 with the deposit. Payment method and timing are confirmed before the rental starts, so the total drops if you pay another way.
When is the deposit released, and how long does it take?
The deposit is released once the car has been returned and checked. Since it was never charged, what comes back is the credit that was blocked. We do not quote a number of days, because the time it takes to show on your card depends on your bank, which processes the release on its side. If you will need your full limit soon after the trip, keep that in mind when you pick the card.
We collect the car wherever you finish, and it reached you photographed, so its starting condition is on record. Charges that depend on the rental, such as extra kilometres or refuelling, are set out in the rental agreement before you sign it. Traffic fines and tolls stay with the renter, together with the cost of processing them. Read that part properly on the day, even if the car is already calling you.
The EU's Your Europe portal advises understanding the terms before you hire a car and, if a dispute comes up, getting help from the European consumer centre in your country. For a deposit that advice comes down to something simple: keep the written confirmation and the agreement until you see the credit available on your card again.
Can you lower the deposit or use a different card?
Our terms offer no way to lower the amount on a particular car, but there is room to block less or to put the hold on another card within your group. These options come directly from the published rules, so you can plan around them before you write to us:
- choose one of the five €4,000 cars, with €1,000 less blocked than on an Urus or a G63 AMG;
- name as main driver the person with the most free credit, if they meet the age and licence rules;
- ask for the exact figure on the cars with no published amount before choosing between them.
A longer rental will not help. The deposit is the same on a monthly rental, and only the daily rate goes down. A chauffeur can be arranged with any car, with the terms sent in writing along with the rate, but our published terms do not say whether an amount is held in that case. Ask when you request one.
How do you confirm the deposit before paying?
One message does it. Write on WhatsApp or call +370 699 66178, or use the contact page, with the car, the dates, the delivery address and the name of each driver. We reply in writing the same day with availability, total price, deposit and excess. A request is not yet a booking, so if the figure does not suit you, you can ask about another car without having paid anything.
