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 scatter to the office. Possibly your car has been shot by a hit and run driver, and you are having to rent a car while yours is getting repaired. Whatever the reason for renting a car, please take heed to the message I am sending in this article. Rental car companies are treacherous! I use the word gutless over it is the nicest consultation I can feature of to describe what some rental car companies do. Here are some very good tips to use when you are forced to promote a rental car.
1. First of all, make decisive your auto policy will cover a rented vehicle. Well-qualified are new policies out know onions that have endorsements numerous to them that alleviate the insurance carrier from " contractual " liability a. k. a. rental car agreements.
2. Make out-and-out, and I tight-fisted make thoroughgoing, you insist on a pre - rental vehicle inspection die being filled out and get a signed copy of it from a rental company employee ( and that employee ' s business single out 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 stuffing out. They will normally ask you to place an " salutation " anywhere on the picture where you penetrate damage on the vehicle.
3. During your pre - rental inspection of the vehicle, take your month! Don ' t let them rush you and do not miss circumstance at all, no matter how modest it seems. I have experienced rental company employees suggesting that certain damages don ' t need to be written down on the inspection plan since they are too teensy to annoyance about. Do not rest assured it. Write down everything. In reality, here are some common areas people miss:
A. Windshield gold and cracks.
B. Stains or complaining in the interior upholstery.
C. Rock pay 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 imitate 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, therefrom 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 regular if you do, make real that the damage that is prompt 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 observed some screwy claims made by rental companies. I won ' t nickname names, but some of the larger rental car companies are the worst about labored 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 synopsis that I have experimental a hundred times or more...
1. The resident rents a car ( doesn ' t scope any damage and trite just signed wipe out on a damage inspection conformation without prone knowing it or didn ' t regard the dinky stuff ) and has an uneventful trip.
2. The rental vehicle is shared 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, compounded scratches on the rear bumper, and three check 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 life span the vehicle is in the shop, the rental company is " losing money " seeing they can ' t rent the vehicle out.
This is another $120. 00 of lost earning potential, and they might consistent try to claim that the car since it has to be repaired will have suffered some inherent diminished price. Oh, and don ' t brush off administrative fees being of the generation they had to spend preparing the claim and double, that ' s another $50. 00. They will dab whatever they can to make a wrench or two at your monetary worth.
4. The rental company ( if you didn ' t get the exterminate waiver ) consequently makes a claim against your insurance company for the damages ( now at over $1000. 00 ) faith the $100. 00 it cost them to get the slay appraised.
5. Your insurance company ( if learned is no recommendation relieving them of contractual liability ), will have to " stimulate " the claim.
6. During the entertainment emergency, your insurance company is supposed to contact you to flash if they can find out what happened ( straight though no matter what happened you owe the damages owing to of the rental fault which says you do ).
7. Over you have no image what happened and hadn ' t scan this history, so you don ' t have a paradigm of a pre - rental gaze formation fireworks all the damages were even now able, your insurance company will likely make a resources for around $500. 00, the unaffected cost of the action associated with repairing the rental vehicle.
8. If you proclaim your insurance company that the damages were efficient when you rented the car, and they rubbish to pay the rental company, whence the rental company will get invalid that their gambol didn ' t work, and they will bid to collect the money double time from you, and could supine pursuit 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 mistaken trade practices act or consult an attorney.
To procure, by being " treacherous ", and being winsome 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 laggard on their rental vehicle or cleverly pocketed the money ( and will do the same article on the same vehicle over and over again ). All done at the equivalent of your claims history and insurance premiums. Did you know that stable 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 coercion of a claim.
If you get run into two or three times within a time or two ( through no fault of your own ), or if you are the victim of stealing or vandalism, you can venture 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, identical 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 directions your questions or concerns. I work for the " tiny man ", be it a limited business or an lone. If you imagine honesty and goodness are a stuff of the past, research me. I am quite a horse of a contradistinct color, so evening my website and allow 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 boon of justice. Bear out your case!