Back, Worn but Happy

Traveling has become so much easier, from a financial standpoint, because my sister now works for an airline.  That means I'm able to get really inexpensive flights.  The downside is that I'll be the first bumped off that flight if a full-fare customer wants my seat.  That makes perfect sense on all sides, but kinda sucks when I'm trying to get home. 

So after spending the day at LAX hoping to get an flight, I ended up spending the night at a hotel, flying to Chicago quite early the next day, then driving from Chicago to the Indy airport (had to drop off the rental and pick up my car) and finally to home.  Gah.  After talking to my sis, I now know how I can avoid that happening again by airport-hopping my way home.  It might have meant four flights instead of two, but it certainly would have been the better option.

Anyway.

The trip was fantastic.  Patricia and I spent every available moment filling each other in on our lives over the last five years.  We talked until we were nodding off to sleep, and got up early on my last day to talk some more.  In between, I made some excellent contacts with some folks in the wellness field, and identified businesses I need to contact for future meetings.  Patricia also helped me talk through the specifics of my goals--the essential element of planning and success.  With work, and a little luck, I'm hoping to have workshops set up in the area 12 to 18 months from now.

But before all that happened, I took a little drive through parts of the Santa Ynez Valley I hadn't seen when Dev and I were there in December.  While standing at the base of Nojoqui Falls (which should be named Nojoqui Trickle this time year...), I made two decisions.  

First, I will indeed write a SY Valley tale set before the Indy tale.  Considering the amount of backstory I was building for the Indy novel, and how interested I was in that backstory, this won't be a big stretch of new creation.  My two visits to the valley stirred up all sorts of memories of places and incidents and little local stories that can be woven in. 

Second, I'll be writing these with an eye to self-publishing.  That doesn't mean I won't pursue traditional publishing with Chant and related novels.  But the SYV/Indy novels are present-day paranormal while the others are quite firmly other-world fantasy.  They are different enough that I feel comfortable placing them on different paths.

Alas, as much as I'd like to run back to Santa Ynez this week, it'll be three months before I can swing it.  In the meantime, I've a story to write.

Consumer PSA: Thrifty Car Rental

When car company rental agreements say they will perform a "debit card screening" prior to letting you rent a car, this really means "We will run a full credit check that will show up on your credit report as a hard inquiry and may impact your credit score for up to two years."  Essentially, if you want to pay cash for a car rental, your credit report looks the same as if you'd applied for a loan to purchase the vehicle.

I made this discovery a day after I rented through Thrifty Car Rentals in LA.  I carry a single credit card, and deliberately keep the credit limit low.  Between my recent trip, and the trip coming up in a couple weeks, I'd come close to my credit limit, but knew I had plenty to pay for the car rental.  But Thrifty wanted to hold nearly three times the car rental amount when I picked up the car, and I didn't have that much available credit.  No problem, think I, because my back account had more than enough to cover the hold and my other expenses.  When I was told there would be a "debit card evaluation," I assumed that had something to do with my, y'know, debit card--checking to ensure I had enough to cover the cost.

The next day, I received an email from my credit monitoring service indicating a hard inquiry had been made.  Surprise!  That's what Thrifty calls a "debit card screening."

Thrifty's customer service responded to my complaint by stating their policy of "credit inquiry" is "clearly disclosed," then quoted their Policy Information: "Customers using debit cards to qualify to rent at the beginning of the rental will be subject to a debit card screening, which may impact the customer's credit evaluation. If the screening fails to meet our debit card criteria, the customer will be required to present a major credit card in order to qualify to rent."

Does anyone see the phrase "credit inquiry" in the section quoted to me?  No.  The deceptive language, however, is pretty easy to spot.  Besides, I didn't know I was "qualifying" for anything.  I thought I was purchasing a service.  Turns out car rental companies think they're doing me a monumental favor by letting me pay for a service.  And I did present a credit card.  They just wanted me to have more credit available on it.

Thrifty isn't alone in their policy of treating cash--even a large cash deposit--as inferior to credit.  I've been asked to put down huge cash deposits, for example, which I've always found amusing.  But I've never had a company want to run a credit check before taking my cash.

Other companies call a credit check what it is.  When I rented from Avis, they were up front about the policy both in their written materials and their verbal report.  Thrifty is deliberately deceptive in their language, and is seemingly quite proud of it. 

It may be perfectly legal for random service providers to view a person's credit report at will and without informed consent.  But it's a pretty crappy form of customer service.  Perhaps they get away with it because the industry doesn't have a competing business model.

In the meantime, I've sent a payment to credit card provider to zero out my account, just in case some other random service provider adopts the same policy while I'm on vacation in March.