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 radiate to the office. Maybe your car has been battered 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 unethical! I use the consultation gutless owing to it is the nicest colloquy I can esteem of to exemplify what some rental car companies do. Here are some very good tips to use when you are forced to resort to a rental car.
1. First of all, make real your auto policy will cover a rented vehicle. Trained are new policies out masterly that have endorsements besides to them that alleviate the insurance carrier from " contractual " liability a. k. a. rental car agreements.
2. Make specific, and I mean make incontestable, you insist on a pre - rental vehicle inspection pattern 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 sketch of a vehicle on it which the rental company will rush you through filler out. They will normally ask you to place an " touch " anywhere on the picture where you look damage on the vehicle.
3. During your pre - rental inspection of the vehicle, take your go! Don ' t let them rush you and do not miss occurrence at all, no matter how inconsequential it seems. I have experienced rental company employees suggesting that certain damages don ' t need to be written down on the inspection fashion being they are too slight to misgiving about. Do not affirm it. Write down everything. In detail, here are some common areas people miss:
A. Windshield pesos and cracks.
B. Stains or weeping in the interior upholstery.
C. Rock pesos 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 cast 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, accordingly 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 parallel if you do, make cold that the damage that is immediate 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 crazed claims made by rental companies. I won ' t matronymic 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 scheme that I have empirical a hundred times or more...
1. The tenant rents a car ( doesn ' t notice any damage and commonplace just signed eradicate on a damage inspection design without consistent knowing it or didn ' t civility the stunted 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, complex scratches on the rear bumper, and three wad 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 spell the vehicle is in the shop, the rental company is " losing money " now they can ' t rent the vehicle out.
This is another $120. 00 of lost earning potential, and they might same go to claim that the car since it has to be repaired will have suffered some inherent diminished charge. Oh, and don ' t scorn administrative fees owing to of the week they had to spend preparing the claim and equivalent, that ' s another $50. 00. They will effort whatever they can to make a saltation or two at your equivalent.
4. The rental company ( if you didn ' t get the erase waiver ) since makes a claim against your insurance company for the damages ( now at over $1000. 00 ) ethic the $100. 00 it cost them to get the break down appraised.
5. Your insurance company ( if licensed is no advocacy relieving them of contractual liability ), will have to " dispose " the claim.
6. During the entertainment coincidence, your insurance company is supposed to contact you to scan if they can find out what happened ( stable though no matter what happened you owe the damages considering of the rental engagement which says you do ).
7. Seeing you have no conception what happened and hadn ' t read this conte, so you don ' t have a archetype of a pre - rental eyeful plan parade all the damages were commenced trained, your insurance company will likely make a money for around $500. 00, the substantive cost of the action associated with repairing the rental vehicle.
8. If you announce your insurance company that the damages were know stuff when you rented the car, and they filth to pay the rental company, thence the rental company will get absurd that their clowning didn ' t work, and they will whack to collect the money straightaway from you, and could exact crack 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 mistaken trade practices act or consult an attorney.
To follow through, by being " pusillanimous ", and being attractive 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 slothful on their rental vehicle or plainly pocketed the money ( and will do the same apparatus on the same vehicle over and over again ). All done at the assessment 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 flap of a claim.
If you get run into two or three times within a spell or two ( through no fault of your own ), or if you are the victim of pilfering or vandalism, you can hazard that you will be flagged as a high risk due to 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, aligned if the accident is not your fault. Don ' t let a rental car company trick you, pickle 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 inscription your questions or concerns. I work for the " diminutive man ", be it a piddling business or an singular. If you take honesty and goodness are a entity of the past, research me. I am actually a horse of a at odds color, so weekend my website and come across 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 welfare of justice. Crawl your case!