Car Rental "Do Not Rent" Lists: Policies at Enterprise, Hertz, etc

A rental car company’s Do Not Rent (DNR) list is a list of customers who have been forbidden from renting a vehicle for any reason. These lists are maintained privately by car rental companies and are typically checked against customers who are picking up rental cars.

If your name is on a Do Not Rent list, the rental company employees will be unable to rent a vehicle to you.

It’s important to note that there are a few major car rental companies in the U.S., and these companies own the majority of national chains as subsidiaries or sister companies. If you end up on a Do Not Rent list for one company, you will also be blacklisted from all of its subsidiaries.

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Which Rental Companies Keep Do Not Rent Lists?

Do Not Rent lists contain proprietary data that car rental companies don’t openly share. We reached out to customer service representatives at the major car rental companies for any information they were willing to provide.

Additionally, we researched customer reports of their experiences with Do Not Rent lists at various car rental companies. Each of the companies listed below maintains a Do Not Rent list that also applies to all subsidiary companies:

Avis Rent A Car: Owns Budget Car Rental, Payless Car Rental, and Zipcar^[1]
Enterprise Rent-A-Car: Owns Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental^[2]
Hertz Car Rental: Owns Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental^[3]

Other independent car rental companies that maintain Do Not Rent lists include:

Fox Rent A Car
Rent-A-Wreck
Sixt rent a car

How Do You Get on a Do Not Rent List?

Most drivers don’t have to worry about ending up on a Do Not Rent list. People are usually blacklisted from car rental companies due to avoidable issues like failing to follow the terms of the rental lease, causing unpaid damage to rental cars, or participating in illegal activities.

The most common way that customers end up on Do Not Rent lists is by owing money to a rental car company.

While none of the major car rental companies were able to confirm all conditions where failure to pay leads to being blacklisted, some companies and customers have reported the following reasons:

Non-payment or bounced payment: If the car rental company has reported you to a collection agency for non-payment or payments that have failed to clear, you will be placed on its DNR list.^[4]^[5]
Ignoring rental company communications about additional bills: Similar to the non-payment issue, if you ignore or fail to pay bills sent by the car rental company after you’ve returned and paid for the rental — such as bills for damage to the vehicle, violating geographic restrictions, incurring additional fees, or refueling charges — you will likely be placed on the DNR list.^[4]^[6]
Failure to pay fines or citations: If you receive a ticket or citation while driving a rental car and fail to clear the ticket(s) with the appropriate court or pay the fines, you will likely be placed on the rental company’s Do Not Rent list.^[4]^[5]
Rental charge disputes: Some customers have reported being placed on a Do Not Rent list for disputing charges with a rental car company.

Customer representatives from Hertz and Avis confirmed that rental customers may also end up on their Do Not Rent lists for:

Presenting false identification or other documents when renting a car
Allowing unauthorized drivers to operate a rental vehicle
Commission of illegal activity involving a rental vehicle
Rental car insurance fraud (such as intentionally staging an accident with a rental car in order to collect an insurance settlement)
Attempting to rent a vehicle at a car rental location while intoxicated, or being belligerent or threatening toward employees while at a car rental location
Receiving a DUI citation while driving a rental car (See our article for more on renting a car with a DUI on your record.)
Violating the geographical restrictions of a rental agreement, or other unauthorized use of a rental car according to the agreement

How To Find Out If You’re on a Do Not Rent List

In most cases, a car rental company will contact you to let you know that you’ve been added to its Do Not Rent list. The company will typically mail a letter to the address listed on your customer record.

However, if your address has changed, or in the rare case that the company fails to inform you that you’ve been added to the DNR list, you may end up reserving a rental car only to be refused when you go to the rental office to pick up the vehicle.

This can occur especially with online reservations where you’re not required to give your driver’s license information to make a rental reservation.

If you believe you may have been added to a Do Not Rent list at a car rental company but you haven’t been notified, you can call the company to ask about it.

You’ll need to have your driver’s license handy, as representatives will look up your license to confirm whether or not you are on the list.

Here are the contact numbers you can call to see if your name has been placed on a car rental company’s Do Not Rent list:

Avis Rent A Car: Customer service at (800) 352-7900
Enterprise Rent-A-Car: Customer service at (800) 264-6350
Fox Rent A Car: Corporate office at (323) 593-7486
Hertz: Do Not Rent department at (800) 654-4173
Rent-a-Wreck: Corporate office at (877) 877-0700
Sixt rent a car: Contact the Sixt location you rented from; you can look up the location online.

Customer service representatives at these companies confirmed that if you are on a Do Not Rent list, the company will be able to tell you why you’ve been placed on the list.

How To Get off a Do Not Rent List

There is no law requiring private companies to do business with anyone, with the exception of discriminatory refusals prohibited by the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In its tip sheet for renting a car, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also explains that car rental companies may refuse to rent vehicles to drivers with violations on their driving records.

If you’re placed on a Do Not Rent list, you generally don’t have legal recourse against the company.

However, customers report that you may sometimes be able to get your name removed from a Do Not Rent list, particularly if you were placed on the list due to disputed charges, money owed to the rental car company, or circumstances that were beyond your control.

The major car rental companies don’t have a formal appeal process for removal from the Do Not Rent list, but you can contact customer service or company executives and ask for your case to be reviewed.

Be sure to pay off any debt you owe the rental company prior to contacting them, and/or explain any extenuating circumstances that may be involved in your case. Here are the best ways to contact each company:

Avis Rent A Car

Call customer service: (800) 352-7900
Send a letter to the company headquarters:
- Avis Rent a Car System, LLC
  6 Sylvan Way
  Parsippany, NJ 07054

Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Call customer service: (800) 264-6350
Send a letter to the company headquarters:
- Enterprise Rent-A-Car
  600 Corporate Park Drive
  St. Louis, MO 63105

Fox Rent A Car

Call the corporate office: (323) 593-7486
Send a letter to the company headquarters:
- Fox Rent A Car
  5500 West Century Blvd
  Los Angeles, CA 90045

Hertz Car Rental

Call the Do Not Rent department: (800) 654-4173
Send a letter to the company headquarters:
- Hertz Car Rental
  8501 Williams Rd
  Estero, FL 33928

Rent-A-Wreck

Call the corporate office: (877) 877-0700
Send a letter to the company headquarters:
- Rent-A-Wreck International Headquarters
  13900 Laurel Lakes Avenue
  Suite 100
  Laurel, MD 20707

Sixt rent a car

Call customer service: (888) 749-8227
Send a letter to the company headquarters:
- Sixt rent a car, LLC.
  1850 SE 17th Street Causeway Suite 207
  Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316

Keep in mind that car rental companies maintain the right to refuse service, and they may not agree to remove your name from the Do Not Rent list.

If this happens, you might simply have to avoid the company where you’ve been placed on a DNR list — and its subsidiaries — and rent from other car rental companies.

For additional options, you may want to see our article about renting a car for someone else.