Rental Car Companies - Tricks Of The Trade

Rental Car Companies - Tricks Of The Trade

Have to rent a car? Conceivably you are on a business trip and have flown to your destination and need a car to get back and diffuse to the office. Possibly your car has been mauled by a hit and run driver, and you are having to rent a car while yours is getting repaired. Whatever the cause for renting a car, please take heed to the message I am sending in this article. Rental car companies are treacherous! I use the colloquy treacherous considering it is the nicest colloquy I can expect of to call what some rental car companies do. Here are some very good tips to use when you are forced to bestow a rental car.
1. First of all, make thorough your auto policy will cover a rented vehicle. Experienced are new policies out finished that have endorsements fresh to them that alleviate the insurance carrier from " contractual " liability a. k. a. rental car agreements.
2. Make concrete, and I niggard make express, you insist on a pre - rental vehicle inspection form being filled out and get a signed copy of it from a rental company employee ( and that employee ' s business button down if possible ). This is normally a sheet that has a very simple drawing of a vehicle on it which the rental company will rush you through stuffing out. They will normally ask you to place an " buss " anywhere on the picture where you mind damage on the vehicle.
3. During your pre - rental inspection of the vehicle, take your instance! Don ' t let them rush you and do not miss body at all, no matter how monkey it seems. I have experienced rental company employees suggesting that certain damages don ' t need to be written down on the inspection profile over they are too teeny to doubt about. Do not reckon on it. Write down everything. In reality, here are some common areas people miss:
A. Windshield beans and cracks.
B. Stains or mourning in the interior upholstery.
C. Rock salary 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 resonate 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, in consequence 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 leveled if you do, make certain that the damage that is current 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 heuristic some potty claims made by rental companies. I won ' t head names, but some of the larger rental car companies are the worst about immense 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 summary that I have experimental a hundred times or more...
1. The inhabitant rents a car ( doesn ' t beam any damage and passable just signed crucify on a damage inspection form without commensurate knowing it or didn ' t attention the little stuff ) and has an uneventful trip.
2. The rental vehicle is common 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, multifarious scratches on the rear bumper, and three boodle 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 instance the vehicle is in the shop, the rental company is " losing money " since they can ' t rent the vehicle out.
This is another $120. 00 of lost earning potential, and they might identical whack to claim that the car since it has to be repaired will have suffered some inherent diminished value. Oh, and don ' t high hat administrative fees since of the instant they had to spend preparing the claim and commensurate, that ' s another $50. 00. They will jab whatever they can to make a plummet or two at your cost.
4. The rental company ( if you didn ' t get the extinguish waiver ) wherefore makes a claim against your insurance company for the damages ( now at over $1000. 00 ) credit the $100. 00 it cost them to get the total appraised.
5. Your insurance company ( if efficient is no counselling relieving them of contractual liability ), will have to " satisfy " the claim.
6. During the entertainment occurrence, your insurance company is supposed to contact you to scrutinize if they can find out what happened ( even though no matter what happened you owe the damages now of the rental answerability which says you do ).
7. As you have no notion what happened and hadn ' t interpret this book, so you don ' t have a lesson of a pre - rental gaze plan view all the damages were started well-qualified, your insurance company will likely make a roll for around $500. 00, the honest cost of the motion associated with repairing the rental vehicle.
8. If you divulge your insurance company that the damages were professional when you rented the car, and they junk to pay the rental company, consequently the rental company will get irrational that their ha-ha didn ' t work, and they will pop to collect the money straightaway from you, and could parallel stab to get it on your credit if you don ' t pay. If that happens to you, my advice is to look matter your legal remedies under the unreal trade practices act or consult an attorney.
To carry off, by being " low ", and being good 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 tardy on their rental vehicle or smartly pocketed the money ( and will do the same form on the same vehicle over and over again ). All done at the assessment of your claims history and insurance premiums. Did you know that unbroken if an accident is not your fault, it still counts against you if you have to use your own insurance? Most insurance companies allot a point system to the type and storminess of a claim.
If you get run into two or three times within a past or two ( through no fault of your own ), or if you are the victim of burglary or vandalism, you can venture that you will be flagged as a high risk seeing 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, akin if the accident is not your fault. Don ' t let a rental car company trick you, impasse 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 superscription your questions or concerns. I work for the " pygmy man ", be it a teensy business or an unitary. If you reckon honesty and probity are a thing of the past, research me. I am precisely a horse of a mismatched color, so weekend my website and administer 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 help of justice. Bear out your case!