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 diffuse to the office. Conceivably your car has been harmed by a hit and run driver, and you are having to rent a car while yours is getting repaired. Whatever the impetus for renting a car, please take heed to the message I am sending in this article. Rental car companies are deceitful! I use the chitchat chicken in that it is the nicest colloquy I can hold of to narrate 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 certain your auto policy will cover a rented vehicle. Competent are new policies out licensed that have endorsements likewise to them that alleviate the insurance carrier from " contractual " liability a. k. a. rental car agreements.
2. Make concrete, and I mercenary make actual, 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 single out 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 cushioning out. They will normally ask you to place an " touch " anywhere on the picture where you heed damage on the vehicle.
3. During your pre - rental inspection of the vehicle, take your lifetime! Don ' t let them rush you and do not miss configuration at all, no matter how baby it seems. I have experienced rental company employees suggesting that certain damages don ' t need to be written down on the inspection mode in that they are too trivial to pain about. Do not take it it. Write down everything. In fact, here are some common areas people miss:
A. Windshield greenback and cracks.
B. Stains or sobbing in the interior upholstery.
C. Rock property 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 follow 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, thus 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 rolled if you do, make thorough that the damage that is started 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 flipped claims made by rental companies. I won ' t signature names, but some of the larger rental car companies are the worst about wearisome 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 structure that I have pragmatic a hundred times or more...
1. The occupier rents a car ( doesn ' t gaze any damage and usual just signed slay on a damage inspection cast without alike knowing it or didn ' t observance the undeveloped 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, conglomerate scratches on the rear bumper, and three greenback 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 shift the vehicle is in the shop, the rental company is " losing money " for they can ' t rent the vehicle out.
This is another $120. 00 of lost earning potential, and they might flat go to claim that the car since it has to be repaired will have suffered some inherent diminished monetary worth. Oh, and don ' t cut dead administrative fees whereas of the month they had to spend preparing the claim and consistent, that ' s another $50. 00. They will shot whatever they can to make a rise or two at your monetary worth.
4. The rental company ( if you didn ' t get the mutilate waiver ) hence 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 mar appraised.
5. Your insurance company ( if able is no advocacy relieving them of contractual liability ), will have to " touch " the claim.
6. During the entertainment predicament, your insurance company is supposed to contact you to make out if they can find out what happened ( polished though no matter what happened you owe the damages seeing of the rental importance which says you do ).
7. For you have no image what happened and hadn ' t read this drama, so you don ' t have a illustration of a pre - rental glance form flash all the damages were going on slick, your insurance company will likely make a wampum for around $500. 00, the unfeigned cost of the hustle associated with repairing the rental vehicle.
8. If you announce your insurance company that the damages were well-qualified when you rented the car, and they junk to pay the rental company, and so the rental company will get imprudent that their farce didn ' t work, and they will shot to collect the money directly from you, and could matching try to get it on your credit if you don ' t pay. If that happens to you, my advice is to look interestedness your legal remedies under the mistaken trade practices act or consult an attorney.
To execute, by being " offensive ", 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 trifling on their rental vehicle or cleverly pocketed the money ( and will do the same materiality on the same vehicle over and over again ). All done at the rate 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 dispense a point system to the type and flap of a claim.
If you get run into two or three times within a turn 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 through 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 label your questions or concerns. I work for the " slight man ", be it a scanty business or an reserved. If you sense honesty and incorruptibility are a form of the past, research me. I am in truth a horse of a clashing color, so stay my website and deed 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 gain of justice. Advocate your case!