# rental car damage claim



## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

I had to rent a car for a week. i extended my regular auto insurance to include rental car and declined all insurance from enterprise when i rented. when i returned the car, the enterprise employee surprisingly found a small dent which was not mentioned in my contract. i have no idea where this came from. unfortunately, he said, he had to report it. I got a bill from the damage recovery unit for about 700$ including admin fee and loss of use. if i had done the damage myself or at least noticed it, i would have taken it to a body shop and got it fixed for a couple of hundred bucks 

now my options:
1) pay myself
2) use mastercard insurance
3) use my auto insurance

of course i do not want my insurance premiums to go up. so (3) is probably not the best. 

if i chose (2), will it still go into my driving record and cause my premiums to go up?

the last is negotiate and see if they can at least reduce the amount pay myself.


----------



## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

rookie said:


> if i had done the damage myself or at least noticed it, i would have taken it to a body shop and got it fixed for a couple of hundred bucks
> ...


No, you don't own this vehicle. You would not be authorized to have repairs done to it (by some back-alley mechanic no doubt). So this was never an option.


----------



## FrugalTrader (Oct 13, 2008)

If you paid for the rental with your mastercard, and your mastercard has car rental insurance coverage, why not phone them to cover the bill?


----------



## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

FrugalTrader said:


> If you paid for the rental with your mastercard, and your mastercard has car rental insurance coverage, why not phone them to cover the bill?


that is what i am considering. what i want to know is if this incident does go into my driving record and whether my premiums for my auto insurance will be affected because of this. when i called the credit card company, they said it would not, but somehow i do not believe the rep.


----------



## w0nger (Mar 15, 2010)

why would it go onto your driving record? you were never issued a ticket or found at fault for anything... CC auto insurance has nothing to do with your driving record... it's simply covering the cost of the repair... that's why you pay your annual dues for credit cards...


----------



## FrugalTrader (Oct 13, 2008)

I'm with w0nger, I don't see how it would go on your driving record at all if you go through your CC. However, if you go through your traditional auto insurance, i'm not sure how that would work. In fact, I would probably pay cash for the damage before going through personal auto insurance.


----------



## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

rookie,

I had the exact same experience with a rental car a few years ago.
If you ask me, this is just another rip off strategy employed by these agencies to make some extra cash - and to punish you for not paying them for the CDW.

It will not go on your driving record.
If your MasterCard will cover this, that is your best option.
Else, just suck it up and pay cash.
Don't use your auto insurance.
Just not worth the hassle.
It'll cause a claim to be reported on your insurance and you'll likely face higher premiums.


----------



## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

I had the same thing happen to me - I just used my Visa insurance - no problem. 

After that I started paying more attention when doing the pre-inspection. I have no idea how the dent got there. However, I was doing a lot of parking at ski resorts, so it's likely that someone just accidently scraped their skiis against the car.


----------



## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

HaroldCrump said:


> rookie,
> 
> I had the exact same experience with a rental car a few years ago.
> If you ask me, this is just another rip off strategy employed by these agencies to make some extra cash - and to punish you for not paying them for the CDW.
> ...


thanks. glad to hear it from people who have gone through this. what i was wondering was mastercard has to insure from some other insurer and someone somewhere puts my name and drivers license on record against this payment, and our fav insurance companies are willing to pay for this data so they can snowball this small payment into a huge premium increase...



Four Pillars said:


> I had the same thing happen to me - I just used my Visa insurance - no problem.
> 
> After that I started paying more attention when doing the pre-inspection. I have no idea how the dent got there. However, I was doing a lot of parking at ski resorts, so it's likely that someone just accidently scraped their skiis against the car.


i took the car to a farm which had at least 2000 cars during their strawberry festival and to the lion safari. but then, god knows, it might even have happened at a mall


----------



## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

HaroldCrump said:


> rookie,
> 
> I had the exact same experience with a rental car a few years ago.
> If you ask me, this is just another rip off strategy employed by these agencies to make some extra cash - and to punish you for not paying them for the CDW.
> ...


is that why you just took the CDW last time?


----------



## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

also, did the credit card insurance pay the entire damage claim, including admin fee and loss of use?


----------



## balexis (Apr 4, 2009)

I have been renting cars on a montly basis for a few years now, using my Visa car rental insurance. I had 3 or 4 incidents, one ending up with a few 1000$'s of damage/loss of usage, and 100% of the time, the entire amount (including admin and loss of use) was reimbursed by Visa's insurance company (Royal Sun Alliance being the current one). 

A little bit of hassle, you have to send a bunch of papers and wait for a while, but in the end you are covered. Make sure to respect all the conditions though, usually you can't rent the car for more than X consecutive days and have to pay the entire rental fees with your CC (they will ask for the CC statement showing the car rental fees charged to it).

And regarding whether or not this goes to your personal record, I bought my first car a few months ago and asked my insurance lady if I had any claims on file, she looked and said she doesn't see any claim at all.

So this is really a cool CC feature, it ends up saving a LOT of money compared to taking the car rental place insurance.


----------



## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

rookie said:


> is that why you just took the CDW last time?


Nope, that was because it was for business use and re-imbursed by my employer 
CDW is very expensive (average $16 - $18 a day), almost the same daily price as a small size car.
Which is why the rental car companies rip you off with that.
In my case, the "damage" was a barely visible scratch.
It caused no aesthetic loss of value in the car, no loss of use, etc.
Just pure rip off game.


----------



## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

rookie said:


> also, did the credit card insurance pay the entire damage claim, including admin fee and loss of use?


I'm not sure who this question is directed to, but my incident was just a "scratch". I think they charged $70 which of course the CC insurance covered.


----------



## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

Four Pillars said:


> I'm not sure who this question is directed to, but my incident was just a "scratch". I think they charged $70 which of course the CC insurance covered.


thanks mike. that question was for everyone who had gone through this process.

i called mastercard and they said they would cover all the charges except admin fee. need to call enterprise damage claim and see if they can waive it. else i will have to swallow it


----------



## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I have had no trouble with CC claims in Canada and the US. But I had no success in Spain and Mexico. The documentation that the car cos require seems to beyond the capabilty of Eurocar to supply. They put the charge on the CC and the CC co would not remove it pending receipt of the necessary documention.

Now I pay the CDW when renting in those countries.


----------



## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

rookie said:


> i called mastercard and they said they would cover all the charges except admin fee. need to call enterprise damage claim and see if they can waive it. else i will have to swallow it


You better thank your lucky stars, you're getting off easy 
I had to pay $220.
No admin fee or loss of use though.
Just the repair done by a bodyshop.
The bodyshop invoice was attached to the paperwork.

Since that incident, I've been paying for the CDW regardless of personal or business use.
Until I get a CC that covers this, I'll have to do this.
One rental damage charge by an agency can wipe out several days of CDW savings.


----------



## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

the adjustor asked me to first go ahead and make a claim. she said she would support me with any docs that i would need and even mentioned that if the insurance company does not reimburse any cost, "she can do something about those costs".

she already emailed some docs (rental agreement, damage report, repair invoice etc) to the insurance company and i havent even sent my claim yet!!!

smell some kind of a collusion...

i will keep you guys posted on how things go.


----------



## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

rookie said:


> i took the car to a farm which had at least 2000 cars during their strawberry festival and to the lion safari. but then, god knows, it might even have happened at a mall


The dent is from a lion claw.... those lions HATE rental cars.


----------



## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

and now i hate the lions


----------



## wheel (Jun 22, 2010)

Many years ago my brother in law borrowed our minivan to pick up some family from the airport (christmas vacation). Driving down the 401, someone drove into the side of him and trashed the whole side of the van. So into the body shop it went.

When I got the rental, they asked me if I wanted insurance. Since the other guy's insurance was paying for the rental, I said what the heck - give me everything you got. 

Next day I'm at a stop sign with a car ahead of me. Guy can't make it over the snow drift at the stop sign so he throws it into reverse - right into the front of my rental (me on the horn the whole time). We trade info, I call the car rental company, they tell me to keep driving it. 

That night we leave my wife's corp. Christmas party early to go to some friends. When we leave the friends place, I sit on this piece of plastic. Seems like it's fallen from the roof. Look up, nothing there. Shrug. Go to put the key in the ignition, the ignition is on the floor. Somebody scraped the car door getting it opened, then smashed the steering column to try and get it started. The car wasn't even drivable then. We cabbed it home.

The car rental owner was driving me home the next day, I'm apologizing. _That's when he tells me that they're self insured for this stuff. _ The $50 insurance they charge goes right in their pockets!


----------



## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

Funny how this thread came up, I just got a $927 bill from the car rental place, regarding damage. I am making a claim through my credit card now.


----------



## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

wheel said:


> Many years ago my brother in law borrowed our minivan to pick up some family from the airport (christmas vacation). Driving down the 401, someone drove into the side of him and trashed the whole side of the van. So into the body shop it went.
> 
> When I got the rental, they asked me if I wanted insurance. Since the other guy's insurance was paying for the rental, I said what the heck - give me everything you got.
> 
> ...


Wow, sounds like you had a smashing good time that Christmas!


----------

