Rental Car Companies - Tricks Of The Trade

Rental Car Companies - Tricks Of The Trade

Have to rent a car? Maybe you are on a business trip and have flown to your destination and need a car to get back and spread to the office. Maybe your car has been scraped by a hit and run driver, and you are having to rent a car while yours is getting repaired. Whatever the actuation for renting a car, please take heed to the message I am sending in this article. Rental car companies are unprincipled! I use the conversation lily-livered due to it is the nicest consultation I can esteem of to chronicle 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 incontrovertible your auto policy will cover a rented vehicle. Know stuff are new policies out experienced that have endorsements supplementary to them that alleviate the insurance carrier from " contractual " liability a. k. a. rental car agreements.
2. Make cocksure, and I mean make conclusive, you insist on a pre - rental vehicle inspection cast being filled out and get a signed copy of it from a rental company employee ( and that employee ' s business place 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 " osculation " anywhere on the picture where you glimpse damage on the vehicle.
3. During your pre - rental inspection of the vehicle, take your shift! Don ' t let them rush you and do not miss situation at all, no matter how meager it seems. I have experienced rental company employees suggesting that certain damages don ' t need to be written down on the inspection mode being they are too microscopic to care about. Do not hold it. Write down everything. In detail, here are some common areas people miss:
A. Windshield moolah and cracks.
B. Stains or weeping in the interior upholstery.
C. Rock greenback 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 shine 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 commensurate if you do, make categorical that the damage that is commenced 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 ape claims made by rental companies. I won ' t appellation names, but some of the larger rental car companies are the worst about irritating 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 scenario that I have empirical a hundred times or more...
1. The tenant rents a car ( doesn ' t peer any damage and colloquial just signed erase on a damage inspection model without continuous knowing it or didn ' t observance the fleeting 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, compound scratches on the rear bumper, and three scratch 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 interval the vehicle is in the shop, the rental company is " losing money " considering they can ' t rent the vehicle out.
This is another $120. 00 of lost earning potential, and they might flush slap to claim that the car since it has to be repaired will have suffered some inherent diminished assessment. Oh, and don ' t scorn administrative fees seeing of the day they had to spend preparing the claim and equal, that ' s another $50. 00. They will essay whatever they can to make a jump or two at your price.
4. The rental company ( if you didn ' t get the crush waiver ) thence makes a claim against your insurance company for the damages ( now at over $1000. 00 ) character the $100. 00 it cost them to get the sabotage appraised.
5. Your insurance company ( if licensed is no counselling relieving them of contractual liability ), will have to " arouse " the claim.
6. During the entertainment appearance, your insurance company is supposed to contact you to scan if they can find out what happened ( unfluctuating though no matter what happened you owe the damages in that of the rental importance which says you do ).
7. Being you have no abstraction what happened and hadn ' t scrutinize this narration, so you don ' t have a standard of a pre - rental gun design spectacle all the damages were up-to-date proficient, your insurance company will likely make a kitty for around $500. 00, the tangible cost of the exertion associated with repairing the rental vehicle.
8. If you announce your insurance company that the damages were finished when you rented the car, and they filth to pay the rental company, ergo the rental company will get bonkers that their saw didn ' t work, and they will struggle to collect the money promptly from you, and could flat header to get it on your credit if you don ' t pay. If that happens to you, my advice is to look racket your legal remedies under the deceptive trade practices act or consult an attorney.
To bring about, by being " treacherous ", and being helpful 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 languid on their rental vehicle or cleverly pocketed the money ( and will do the same matter 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 fury of a claim.
If you get run into two or three times within a month or two ( through no fault of your own ), or if you are the victim of larceny or vandalism, you can stake that you will be flagged as a high risk whereas 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, level if the accident is not your fault. Don ' t let a rental car company trick you, puzzle 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 " light man ", be it a pint-sized business or an discrete. If you hold honesty and rectitude are a substance of the past, research me. I am positively a horse of a various color, so holiday my website and accord 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 prosperity of justice. Confirm your case!