Deposits and payments policy

Last updated: August 2026 · What is charged, when, and when it comes back

This document explains the money side of a booking: what the charge includes, the difference between authorising and charging, how the security deposit works and when it comes back. Refunds for cancelling have their own document; everything else is here, including what happens to your money when something goes wrong.

Definitions

Booking:: The agreement between a traveler and a host for the use of a vehicle on specific dates, created on the platform and governed by the contract both sign.
Rental:: The amount corresponding to use of the vehicle for the booked period, excluding deposit and delivery fee.
Security deposit:: Refundable amount that answers for damage, missing items, fuel, fines and other charges under the contract.
Delivery fee:: Optional charge set by the host for bringing the vehicle to the traveler.
Payout:: The payment Vribe transfers to the host for a booking, with the commission already deducted.

1. Currency and conversion

All Vribe amounts are expressed and processed in US dollars. If your card is issued in another currency, your bank will apply its own exchange rate and may charge you a conversion fee: that happens between you and your bank, Vribe does not take part and receives no share of it. That is why the amount on your statement may not match exactly the one shown on the platform.

2. What is charged when you book

A booking charge is made up of up to three parts, and they're shown at checkout before you pay. The price you see is the final price: nothing is added at payment time. On vehicles rented without placing a hold on your card, the rental price already includes the no-hold fee.

2.1 The parts of the charge

The rental for the booked period — which on no-hold vehicles already includes the no-hold fee; the home delivery fee, only if you chose that service; and the security deposit, if the vehicle requires one. It all goes in a single charge to your card, not in separate ones. If you have promotional credit available, it's applied before charging and only to the host's price: it never pays the no-hold fee, the delivery or the deposit.

2.2 What is NOT charged

There's no charge for using the platform, for paying with one card instead of another, or for booking a vehicle that requires a security deposit. Vribe's commission is paid by the host out of their payout, not out of your pocket. There's no charge for cancelling either: what happens when you cancel is that you get less back, according to the vehicle's policy, not that you're charged something new — and if the booking carried a no-hold fee, that fee is returned to you in the same proportion as the rental.

3. Authorised is not charged

This is the distinction that causes the most confusion, because your bank shows both in similar ways. If the vehicle is instant-book, the charge executes on confirmation. If it needs host approval, the amount is authorised on your card without being charged: your bank shows it as a pending charge that reduces your available limit, but that money has not left your account. If the host accepts, the authorisation becomes a charge. If they decline or let their 24 hours pass, it is released and you were never charged. How long the hold takes to disappear from your statement is decided by your bank, not by Vribe.

4. The security deposit

The deposit is a refundable amount that answers for damage, missing items, fuel, fines and other charges arising from the contract. It is not part of the rental price: if the trip closes without incident, it comes back in full. Asking for one is the host's decision: some vehicles ask for none, and there the charge is the rental alone.

4.1 Who sets it

The host sets it when listing their vehicle, and it varies from one to another: they decide whether to ask for one at all and how much, so some vehicles ask for none. It is always shown separately at checkout, never mixed into the rental, so you know exactly how much of what you pay is refundable.

4.2 What it covers and what it does not

It covers charges arising from the rental contract. It is not insurance and does not replace the vehicle's policy: if there is a claim covered by insurance, the excess is the traveler's responsibility under the contract, and the deposit may be applied to it. Nor is it a cap on liability: if the damage exceeds the deposit, the host keeps their remedies for the difference.

5. When the deposit comes back

On returning the vehicle, the host has 24 hours to inspect it and report damage. If they report nothing, the booking closes and the deposit is refunded automatically to the same card you paid with, without you having to ask. The automatic close runs every hour, so it may happen up to an hour after the deadline falls due. The refund goes out immediately from Vribe; when it appears on your statement depends on your bank's timings, usually between five and ten business days. If the vehicle asked for no deposit, there is no refund to issue: the booking closes just the same and on the same timings.

6. When the deposit does not release on its own

There are three situations in which the automatic return does not happen, and they are worth knowing because in all three the money is held until someone decides:

The host reports damage within their 24-hour window. The booking enters a dispute and, if the vehicle asked for a deposit, that amount is held until it is resolved.
A dispute is opened for any other reason — a charge you do not recognise, a problem with the vehicle, an incident during the trip.
The return inspection was flagged for manual review. The booking waits for someone on the team to look at the evidence: we prefer to delay the return rather than release a deposit with nobody having reviewed the case, because releasing it is irreversible.

7. What happens to the money in a dispute

When a dispute opens, the booking freezes and the money stops moving on its own. Nothing is charged or returned until there is a resolution, and that resolution is made by a person on the team reviewing the evidence, not by an automatic process.

7.1 If it is resolved in the host's favour

The determined amount is taken first from the deposit, which is what it exists for. If the deposit does not cover it, the difference is not automatically charged to your card: it remains a matter between the parties, with the case file as support. If the deposit covers it and there is money left over, the remainder returns to your card. If the vehicle asked for no deposit there is no held amount to take it from, so the charge is a matter between the parties from the first dollar, with the same case file as support.

7.2 If it is resolved in your favour

The full deposit is released and the applicable part of the rental is refunded. If you had paid with promotional credit, that credit returns to your balance before the cash refund is calculated, so it is not lost through someone else's failure.

7.3 How long it takes

Vribe aims to resolve each dispute within 72 hours of it being opened, and the system raises an internal alert when a case has few hours left to meet that target. It is a service target, not a guarantee: a case with contradictory evidence or one that needs further documentation may take longer, and if that happens we tell you.

8. Refunds for cancelling

Refunds for cancelling depend on the vehicle's policy — which you see at checkout before paying and which is frozen on your booking — and on who cancels. They are described in detail in the Cancellation policy. The only thing worth repeating here is the rule that never changes: in every cancellation the deposit is returned in full. The cancellation policy affects the rental and the delivery, never the deposit. All of this applies when the vehicle asks for a deposit; if it asks for none, there is no held amount to return and the cancellation only moves the rental.

9. Changes and extensions

Modifying a booking moves money, and it does not do so the same way in both cases.

9.1 Date change

If the change makes the booking more expensive, the difference is charged as a separate payment; if it makes it cheaper, it is refunded to you. The host's commission is recalculated with the rate frozen on your booking, not the current one, so a date change does not alter what they agreed to be charged.

9.2 Trip extension

If you extend with the vehicle already in your hands, the difference is calculated at the vehicle's current rate and charged as a separate payment, additional to the original booking. The extension only becomes firm once that payment completes: if it fails, the trip keeps its original dates and the return remains as agreed.

9.3 Refunds across several payments

When a booking has grown through one or more of these changes, the money charged lives across several separate payments. If a refund is later due, it cascades against each of them, starting with the original, until what you are owed is complete. You do not have to do anything different or claim separately.

10. Vribe's commission

Vribe charges its commission to the host, deducting it from their payout: it is not added to the traveler. The rate is frozen on the booking at the moment it is created, so neither a tier change nor a later modification alters what the host agreed to. The percentage and the tiers are in the Fees and commissions policy.

11. Promotional credit

If you have Vribe credit available, it is applied automatically on payment and deducted only from the rental. It does not cover the security deposit or the delivery fee, which are always charged to your card, nor the difference payments of a date change or an extension. If you cancel by your own decision the applied credit is lost; it returns to your balance if the failure was the host's, or if you change the dates instead of cancelling. The full rules are in the Referral programme terms.

12. Where your money lives

Vribe does not store your card details: the form where you type them is served by our payment processor and those details go straight to it. Vribe receives only what it needs to identify the payment and execute refunds. Every movement of a booking's money is recorded: charges, refunds and host payouts, including voided ones, which are marked as voided rather than deleted. That is what makes it possible to reconstruct afterwards what happened to every cent.

What this policy is not

It is not insurance nor a guarantee of cover: the deposit answers for the contract's charges, it does not replace the vehicle's policy or the excess, which are the traveler's responsibility. Nor does it set prices: each host decides their vehicle's rate and deposit, and Vribe does not intervene in that decision. It is not a promise about your bank's timings: what Vribe controls is when it executes the refund, not when your bank credits it. And it does not replace the Cancellation policy or the Disputes and incidents policy, which govern those two cases.

In the event of any discrepancy between the translated versions of this document, the Spanish version prevails.