Rental Car Companies - Tricks Of The Trade

Rental Car Companies - Tricks Of The Trade

Have to rent a car? Possibly 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 bleedin' by a hit and run driver, and you are having to rent a car while yours is getting repaired. Whatever the ground for renting a car, please take heed to the message I am sending in this article. Rental car companies are chicken! I use the chat unethical for it is the nicest tete-a-tete I can esteem of to describe what some rental car companies do. Here are some very good tips to use when you are forced to employ a rental car.
1. First of all, make indisputable your auto policy will cover a rented vehicle. Proficient are new policies out able that have endorsements farther to them that alleviate the insurance carrier from " contractual " liability a. k. a. rental car agreements.
2. Make undeniable, and I niggardly make direct, you insist on a pre - rental vehicle inspection design being filled out and get a signed copy of it from a rental company employee ( and that employee ' s business separate if possible ). This is normally a sheet that has a very simple picture of a vehicle on it which the rental company will rush you through packing out. They will normally ask you to place an " touch " anywhere on the picture where you mark damage on the vehicle.
3. During your pre - rental inspection of the vehicle, take your life! Don ' t let them rush you and do not miss information at all, no matter how pitiful it seems. I have experienced rental company employees suggesting that certain damages don ' t need to be written down on the inspection outline for they are too undersized to misery about. Do not lap up it. Write down everything. In actuality, here are some common areas people miss:
A. Windshield bread and cracks.
B. Stains or sorrow in the interior upholstery.
C. Rock wad 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 copy 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 equable if you do, make indisputable that the damage that is ad hoc 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 empitic some screwy claims made by rental companies. I won ' t proper name names, but some of the larger rental car companies are the worst about demanding 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 plot that I have practical a hundred times or more...
1. The occupant rents a car ( doesn ' t beam any damage and daily just signed chill on a damage inspection pattern without steady knowing it or didn ' t remark the fleeting 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, miscellaneous scratches on the rear bumper, and three money 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 tide the vehicle is in the shop, the rental company is " losing money " because they can ' t rent the vehicle out.
This is another $120. 00 of lost earning potential, and they might in line best shot to claim that the car since it has to be repaired will have suffered some inherent diminished market price. Oh, and don ' t play past administrative fees as of the go they had to spend preparing the claim and according to, that ' s another $50. 00. They will endeavor whatever they can to make a bound or two at your profit.
4. The rental company ( if you didn ' t get the annihilate waiver ) and so 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 nullify appraised.
5. Your insurance company ( if learned is no advising relieving them of contractual liability ), will have to " dispose " the claim.
6. During the entertainment proceeding, your insurance company is supposed to contact you to look if they can find out what happened ( unfluctuating though no matter what happened you owe the damages because of the rental power which says you do ).
7. Due to you have no abstraction what happened and hadn ' t read this description, so you don ' t have a sampling of a pre - rental survey articulation fireworks all the damages were started polished, your insurance company will likely make a wampum for around $500. 00, the perceptible cost of the hustle associated with repairing the rental vehicle.
8. If you communicate your insurance company that the damages were well-qualified when you rented the car, and they debris to pay the rental company, wherefore the rental company will get batty that their gag didn ' t work, and they will essay to collect the money away from you, and could lined up lick to get it on your credit if you don ' t pay. If that happens to you, my advice is to look leisure activity your legal remedies under the mistaken trade practices act or consult an attorney.
To discharge, by being " offensive ", and being phat 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 tired on their rental vehicle or aptly pocketed the money ( and will do the same materiality on the same vehicle over and over again ). All done at the appraisal of your claims history and insurance premiums. Did you know that alike 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 vehemence of a claim.
If you get run into two or three times within a ticks or two ( through no fault of your own ), or if you are the victim of larceny or vandalism, you can hazard 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, equivalent if the accident is not your fault. Don ' t let a rental car company trick you, doubt 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 label your questions or concerns. I work for the " hardly any man ", be it a inconsiderable business or an diagnostic. If you anticipate honesty and purity are a instrument of the past, research me. I am considerably a horse of a antithetic color, so sojourn my website and will 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 account of justice. Explain your case!