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How is this legal? Holds ought to be capped at the maximum payable for a transaction.

Sounds like you've never rented a moving truck. Or a power tool. Or tried to rent a car with a debit card.

Last time I rented a van, the hold was AU$500 (around US$300). Seems pretty crazy to put a $1200 hold on some phone repair gear.

Vans may be slightly harder to hide than phone repair equipment.

I've rented all the items you've listed, plus construction equipment and hotel rooms, and none had this absurd cost:hold ratio. Notably, only the powertools were cheaper than the repair equipment in absolute terms.

Having a difference of 2 orders of magnitude between card hold and actual fee is absurd and atypical. I cant imagine a $7,500 hotel room stay placing a $120,000 hold

The $1200 amount comes from it being what the tools actually cost if you wanted to buy them. The hold is to bypass the whole “charge $1200, then return for $1150 credit” rigamarole. Doing that would affect your credit usage and could kill your score if it wasn’t returned before the card due date; A hold doesn’t.

You can't steal a hotel room. You can't permanently damage a hotel room.

The comparison makes no sense.

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