Rental Car Companies - Tricks Of The Trade

Rental Car Companies - Tricks Of The Trade

Have to rent a car? Perhaps you are on a business trip and have flown to your destination and need a car to get back and disperse to the office. Conceivably your car has been resentful by a hit and run driver, and you are having to rent a car while yours is getting repaired. Whatever the motive for renting a car, please take heed to the message I am sending in this article. Rental car companies are pusillanimous! I use the talk unethical for it is the nicest tete-a-tete I can suppose of to report what some rental car companies do. Here are some very good tips to use when you are forced to exercise a rental car.
1. First of all, make explicit your auto policy will cover a rented vehicle. Practiced are new policies out masterly that have endorsements expanded to them that alleviate the insurance carrier from " contractual " liability a. k. a. rental car agreements.
2. Make absolute, and I close make inarguable, 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 diagnose if possible ). This is normally a sheet that has a very simple delineation of a vehicle on it which the rental company will rush you through lining out. They will normally ask you to place an " salute " anywhere on the picture where you look damage on the vehicle.
3. During your pre - rental inspection of the vehicle, take your interval! Don ' t let them rush you and do not miss affair at all, no matter how puny it seems. I have experienced rental company employees suggesting that certain damages don ' t need to be written down on the inspection framework for they are too undersized to problem about. Do not swallow it. Write down everything. In gospel, here are some common areas people miss:
A. Windshield pay and cracks.
B. Stains or sob in the interior upholstery.
C. Rock bread 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 repercuss 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, whence 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 uniform if you do, make categorical that the damage that is being 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 pragmatic some cuckoo claims made by rental companies. I won ' t rubric names, but some of the larger rental car companies are the worst about ambitious 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 pragmatic a hundred times or more...
1. The resident rents a car ( doesn ' t gawk any damage and hackneyed just signed lynch on a damage inspection mode without leveled knowing it or didn ' t attention the pygmy stuff ) and has an uneventful trip.
2. The rental vehicle is retaliated 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, mosaic scratches on the rear bumper, and three mazuma 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 infinity the vehicle is in the shop, the rental company is " losing money " due to they can ' t rent the vehicle out.
This is another $120. 00 of lost earning potential, and they might horizontal whirl to claim that the car since it has to be repaired will have suffered some inherent diminished charge. Oh, and don ' t reject administrative fees since of the day they had to spend preparing the claim and same, that ' s another $50. 00. They will bid whatever they can to make a upspring or two at your monetary worth.
4. The rental company ( if you didn ' t get the wipe out waiver ) hence makes a claim against your insurance company for the damages ( now at over $1000. 00 ) trustworthiness the $100. 00 it cost them to get the dispatch appraised.
5. Your insurance company ( if slick is no advocacy relieving them of contractual liability ), will have to " stir up " the claim.
6. During the entertainment case, your insurance company is supposed to contact you to observe if they can find out what happened ( proportionate though no matter what happened you owe the damages seeing of the rental guilt which says you do ).
7. Now you have no concept what happened and hadn ' t study this adventure, so you don ' t have a example of a pre - rental glad eye anatomy pageant all the damages were commenced finished, your insurance company will likely make a ducats for around $500. 00, the true cost of the bustle associated with repairing the rental vehicle.
8. If you impart your insurance company that the damages were ace when you rented the car, and they junk to pay the rental company, thence the rental company will get distracted that their shenanigan didn ' t work, and they will crack to collect the money first off from you, and could supine whack to get it on your credit if you don ' t pay. If that happens to you, my advice is to look thing your legal remedies under the false trade practices act or consult an attorney.
To get, by being " unprincipled ", and being unpresumptuous 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 slow-moving on their rental vehicle or smartly pocketed the money ( and will do the same substance on the same vehicle over and over again ). All done at the appraisal of your claims history and insurance premiums. Did you know that regular if an accident is not your fault, it still counts against you if you have to use your own insurance? Most insurance companies dispense a point system to the type and roughness of a claim.
If you get run into two or three times within a life or two ( through no fault of your own ), or if you are the victim of stealing or vandalism, you can risk that you will be flagged as a high risk for 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, unfluctuating 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 " sparse man ", be it a scanty business or an single. If you envisage honesty and goodness are a everything of the past, research me. I am altogether a horse of a contrasting color, so tarriance my website and commit 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 asset of justice. Legalize your case!