Rental Car Companies - Tricks Of The Trade

Rental Car Companies - Tricks Of The Trade

Have to rent a car? Feasibly you are on a business trip and have flown to your destination and need a car to get back and emit to the office. Maybe your car has been tender by a hit and run driver, and you are having to rent a car while yours is getting repaired. Whatever the motive for renting a car, please take heed to the message I am sending in this article. Rental car companies are unprincipled! I use the colloquy deceitful for it is the nicest chitchat I can deem of to describe what some rental car companies do. Here are some very good tips to use when you are forced to exploit a rental car.
1. First of all, make affirmative your auto policy will cover a rented vehicle. Finished are new policies out skillful that have endorsements likewise to them that alleviate the insurance carrier from " contractual " liability a. k. a. rental car agreements.
2. Make genuine, and I beggarly make assured, you insist on a pre - rental vehicle inspection structure being filled out and get a signed copy of it from a rental company employee ( and that employee ' s business distinguish if possible ). This is normally a sheet that has a very simple sketch of a vehicle on it which the rental company will rush you through filler out. They will normally ask you to place an " sugar " anywhere on the picture where you sight damage on the vehicle.
3. During your pre - rental inspection of the vehicle, take your duration! Don ' t let them rush you and do not miss word at all, no matter how small it seems. I have experienced rental company employees suggesting that certain damages don ' t need to be written down on the inspection fashion over they are too small-scale to heartache about. Do not postulate it. Write down everything. In truth, here are some common areas people miss:
A. Windshield hard cash and cracks.
B. Stains or dirge in the interior upholstery.
C. Rock payment on the front bumper cover or hood.
D. Scratches on the rear bumper.
E. Door handle on rear doors or passenger side doesn ' t operate.
F. Rearview reproduce is loose.
G. Wheels have scuffs or scratches on them.
H. Antennae is broken or doesn ' t operate correctly ( if it is one of those up and down ones ).
I. Minor door dings.
4. If your insurance doesn ' t cover contractual liability, since either bite the bullet and purchase the " damage waiver " from the rental company, or be warned!
Okay, so the point is that you might not have coverage for damage to a rental vehicle, and equable if you do, make categorical that the damage that is topical on the vehicle can ' t be claimed against your insurance policy. As an insurance adjuster for companies that excluded contractual liability and for companies that paid it, I have pragmatic some crazy claims made by rental companies. I won ' t agname names, but some of the larger rental car companies are the worst about exacting to generate revenue by making what the industry would call " non - meritorious claims ", but not provable as fraud. Here ' s a new set of numbers reflecting a structure that I have empitic a hundred times or more...
1. The occupant rents a car ( doesn ' t scan any damage and casual just signed garrote on a damage inspection fashion without comparable knowing it or didn ' t consideration the undersized stuff ) and has an uneventful trip.
2. The rental vehicle is reciprocal to the rental company as it was before the trip.
3. The rental company now goes over the vehicle with a fine toothed comb and locates three door dings, confused scratches on the rear bumper, and three sugar in the windshield that have to be repaired. They get the damages estimated and total damages are $742. 00. On top of the repair cost, the vehicle will have to be in the shop for three or four days to get all the repairs done, and during the bit the vehicle is in the shop, the rental company is " losing money " in that they can ' t rent the vehicle out.
This is another $120. 00 of lost earning potential, and they might calm fling to claim that the car since it has to be repaired will have suffered some inherent diminished amount. Oh, and don ' t forget administrative fees in that of the point they had to spend preparing the claim and such, that ' s another $50. 00. They will one's damndest whatever they can to make a leapfrog or two at your price.
4. The rental company ( if you didn ' t get the despoil waiver ) forasmuch as makes a claim against your insurance company for the damages ( now at over $1000. 00 ) high-mindedness the $100. 00 it cost them to get the zap appraised.
5. Your insurance company ( if expert is no counselling relieving them of contractual liability ), will have to " satisfy " the claim.
6. During the entertainment predicament, your insurance company is supposed to contact you to inspect if they can find out what happened ( commensurate though no matter what happened you owe the damages over of the rental obligation which says you do ).
7. Now you have no conception what happened and hadn ' t construe this clothesline, so you don ' t have a paradigm of a pre - rental lamp silhouette program all the damages were even now crack, your insurance company will likely make a moolah for around $500. 00, the heartfelt cost of the activity associated with repairing the rental vehicle.
8. If you tell your insurance company that the damages were ace when you rented the car, and they debris to pay the rental company, ergo the rental company will get foolish that their shenanigan didn ' t work, and they will try to collect the money now from you, and could equivalent try to get it on your credit if you don ' t pay. If that happens to you, my advice is to look moment your legal remedies under the illusive trade practices act or consult an attorney.
To reach, by being " craven ", and being agreeable to you when you are renting the vehicle as well as when you turn it back in, the rental company has taken advantage of your confidence in them, and either fixed all the loafing on their rental vehicle or cleverly pocketed the money ( and will do the same material on the same vehicle over and over again ). All done at the cost of your claims history and insurance premiums. Did you know that lined up if an accident is not your fault, it still counts against you if you have to use your own insurance? Most insurance companies appropriate a point system to the type and uproar of a claim.
If you get run into two or three times within a infinity or two ( through no fault of your own ), or if you are the victim of purloining or vandalism, you can stake that you will be flagged as a high risk now of your " luck " and will eventually have a higher premium. Additionally most insurance companies have the right to just cancel your policy flat if you have an accident within the first 30 to 60 days of the policy term, exact if the accident is not your fault. Don ' t let a rental car company trick you, strait you, or cause your insurance rates or credit score to be negatively affected!
Justin Petty / Licensed All Lines Adjuster and Public Adjuster
My personal cell phone and e - mail are listed on my website, and I will personally answer my phone to inscription your questions or concerns. I work for the " meager man ", be it a stunted business or an personalized. If you consider honesty and incorruptibility are a device of the past, research me. I am all told a horse of a contrary color, so vacation my website and tip me a call or drop me a line. I trust you will be surprised when I personally answer the phone. I am the founder and CEO of Petty Details, LLC, and I have the power to bend my own rules and prices for the godsend of justice. Excuse your case!