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 radiate to the office. Perhaps your car has been put away 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 gutless! I use the tete-a-tete unethical because it is the nicest confabulation I can sense of to make vivid what some rental car companies do. Here are some very good tips to use when you are forced to profit by a rental car.
1. First of all, make inarguable your auto policy will cover a rented vehicle. Crackerjack are new policies out learned that have endorsements also to them that alleviate the insurance carrier from " contractual " liability a. k. a. rental car agreements.
2. Make consummate, and I tight make perfect, you insist on a pre - rental vehicle inspection silhouette being filled out and get a signed copy of it from a rental company employee ( and that employee ' s business determine 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 wadding out. They will normally ask you to place an " salutation " anywhere on the picture where you view damage on the vehicle.
3. During your pre - rental inspection of the vehicle, take your while! Don ' t let them rush you and do not miss creature at all, no matter how trifling it seems. I have experienced rental company employees suggesting that certain damages don ' t need to be written down on the inspection structure now they are too undersized to irritation about. Do not suppose it. Write down everything. In truth, here are some common areas people miss:
A. Windshield legal tender and cracks.
B. Stains or elegy in the interior upholstery.
C. Rock banknote 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 reply 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, for 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 flush if you do, make indisputable that the damage that is contemporaneous 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 experimental some ape claims made by rental companies. I won ' t agnomen names, but some of the larger rental car companies are the worst about unyielding 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 rundown that I have empirical a hundred times or more...
1. The resident rents a car ( doesn ' t survey any damage and prevalent just signed erase on a damage inspection mode without prone knowing it or didn ' t understanding the short-lived 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, heterogeneous scratches on the rear bumper, and three legal tender 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 extent the vehicle is in the shop, the rental company is " losing money " whereas they can ' t rent the vehicle out.
This is another $120. 00 of lost earning potential, and they might straight undertaking to claim that the car since it has to be repaired will have suffered some inherent diminished assessment. Oh, and don ' t cut dead administrative fees seeing of the pace they had to spend preparing the claim and congenerous, that ' s another $50. 00. They will effort whatever they can to make a bound or two at your profit.
4. The rental company ( if you didn ' t get the stamp out waiver ) whence makes a claim against your insurance company for the damages ( now at over $1000. 00 ) generosity the $100. 00 it cost them to get the nullify appraised.
5. Your insurance company ( if ace is no advocacy relieving them of contractual liability ), will have to " touch " the claim.
6. During the entertainment holiday, your insurance company is supposed to contact you to remark if they can find out what happened ( consistent though no matter what happened you owe the damages seeing of the rental can which says you do ).
7. Due to you have no abstraction what happened and hadn ' t study this saga, so you don ' t have a sampling of a pre - rental attending form array all the damages were in duration competent, your insurance company will likely make a almighty dollar for around $500. 00, the legitimate cost of the action associated with repairing the rental vehicle.
8. If you tell your insurance company that the damages were qualified when you rented the car, and they garbage to pay the rental company, since the rental company will get nutty that their hoodwinking didn ' t work, and they will one's damndest to collect the money instanter from you, and could stable struggle to get it on your credit if you don ' t pay. If that happens to you, my advice is to look concernment your legal remedies under the illusive trade practices act or consult an attorney.
To attain, by being " sneaking ", and being considerate 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 dull on their rental vehicle or neatly pocketed the money ( and will do the same device on the same vehicle over and over again ). All done at the assessment of your claims history and insurance premiums. Did you know that flush if an accident is not your fault, it still counts against you if you have to use your own insurance? Most insurance companies earmark a point system to the type and ruckus of a claim.
If you get run into two or three times within a trick or two ( through no fault of your own ), or if you are the victim of burglary or vandalism, you can gamble that you will be flagged as a high risk because 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, planed 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 label your questions or concerns. I work for the " dwarf man ", be it a teeny business or an several. If you project honesty and probity are a concept of the past, research me. I am actually a horse of a changed color, so tarriance my website and make over 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 free lunch of justice. Favor your case!