Across the airport-based rental companies, they’ve all gone from uber-friendly to monosyllabic drones after I refuse their insurance push 2-3 times; they think they’re clever stating the name of the coverage at the end of the details of my online reservation and then asking me, ‘Ok?’ as though I won’t realize they tacked it on. I will specifically say, ‘No additional insurance, please.’ (I don’t tell them why I’m declining b/c my money is none of their damn business.)
They act shocked or bemused, tell me the low, low price of coverage and then I repeat myself; then it’s disbelief that I don’t want to be protected in any way whatsoever from the thousands of dollars it could cost to repair or replace any vehicle the car is in an accident w/ under my care. They give up after I decline the third time, usually, if I haven’t already cut them off through my teeth. The switch flips from helpful, gregarious rental car agent asking about my trip to a robot sharing only the most basic information to direct me to my rental and asking to help who’s next over my shoulder.
Maybe the experience is different at non-airport branches? It’s to the point I loathe the rental pickup part of any trip I take.
Wait til you visit Iceland and rent a car and are asked if you want “volcano insurance”!
I’m not regular automobile rental customer, but i’ve rented about a dozen times over the past few years, and i haven’t been given the hard sell on collision and loss damage waivers in quite a while now. Usually, when they first broach the subject, i decline politely but firmly, in a way that makes clear that i had already made up my mind before they even asked the question.
Do the math. Around here you can insure a $50,000 car for about $500 pa, which is 1%.
The CDW fee of $25/day is $9125 pa, and you are insuring a deductible (around here) of about $2000. So that’s about 450% percent.
So that is totally worthwhile as long as you are assuming you will crash 4.5 times per year on average. Are you a totally shit driver who frankly shouldn’t be on the road or are you being completely, utterly ripped off because you can’t do math?
Ummm…how 'bout “none of the above” ?
I do the math too…And it ain’t 450% of anything. It’s a flat charge-- a one-time payment that increases the cost of my vacation by about $50.
And I don’t expect to crash 4.5 times or 3 times, either. ONCE is enough.
And if that one time happens to occur tomorrow morning when I’m in my rental car…well, I don’t give a damn if it cost me an unecessary $50. I got more than $50 worth of peace of mind.
Sure, I know it’s expensive.
When I’m in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language, I don’t need bureacratic hassles.
If something happens (even if I am not at fault)–and a local cop wants to see my insurance papers, I’ve got 'em—in his language.
He ain’t too likely to be impressed by the little card in my wallet with the phone number of my insurance company back home.
Yep, every situation is the same, and I can’t do math, and I drive like shit. That’s exactly why I made the decision.
Or I see enough accidents each day that I decided a few days of additional coverage would alleviate any issues with my insurance if something out of the ordinary happened while driving a shitty subcompact… Can you argue it was a waste? Sure.
I routinely decline the additional insurance, but was unfortunate enough to be the victim of a hit and run while I was renting a car. My parked rental was hit, and the only damage was to the rear lens cover for the brake light and turn signal.
I dutifully made a police report and checked with the bank where the accident occurred only to find they did not have CCTV of that part of the parking lot. There were zero suspects and I presumed I was on the hook for the damage.
I returned the car and filled out a stack of forms for the rental company and they said they would send a bill. And then I reported the matter to my credit card company which offered free secondary insurance. I and then I waited. Never got a bill from the rental car company. Never heard more about it from them. The cc company closed the claim after about a year of inaction.
I wouldn’t count on being so lucky. And not sure I wouldn’t still have needed to file reports with the rental car company even if I had bought their overpriced insurance. But if I knew it would get me out of that hassle while I was on vacation then maybe a reasonable charge would be worthwhile, not so much for covering the damage but more for letting me get back to enjoying my vacation.
I now take a 360 degree video of all rental cars when I get them and when I drop them off, after Enterprise tried to get me to pay some bullshit damage claim.
I returned the car, the employee inspected it, and 3 hours later I got a call saying there was damage and I’d have to pay. They emailed me some really poor quality low resolution black and white photos that supposedly showed this damage.
I pointed out that I had dropped the car off 3 hours ago and the employee who inspected it didn’t notice anything at the time. I said that unless they had video of it during the 3 hours I didn’t have it showing that nothing else caused the damage, it’s their problem.
The guy on the phone said that he had called only a half-hour after I dropped it off, but the call didn’t go through because my phone had been off while I was on the plane. At that point, I knew he was lying, since although I dropped the car off at an airport, I didn’t get on a plane, and my phone had been on the whole three hours. I had no missed calls.
They eventually dropped the claim.
Your regular car insurance should cover you in a rental. I just called my company and they said it is absolutely transferable.
I was driving a Budget rental last year and a truck kicked up a rock that put a star crack in the windshield. Upon return, I noted it and the guy said they’d be in touch about it later. Fine. I get that I’ll be on the hook for a crack repair or whatever. I informed my insurance company as a heads up.
Nothing for three months. Then an outrageous bill that included $100 for “Emergency Roadside Service.” I called and tried to explain that there was no such service; that I had brought the car back to the rental place. They refused to adjust the bill. My insurance rep called them and she reported back to me that in all her years of working insurance she had never been involved with a company as hard-headed and refusing to discuss a situation as this particular Budget case. She felt so sorry for me that she waived my deductible. So it ended up costing me nothing, but it’s still a scam.
I love my insurance company.
I hate Budget.
Yes, but one thing that it generally won’t cover is loss-of-use charges.
And, apparently, more rental car companies are trying to charge for loss of use these days, in order to claw back some money, especially since fewer drivers are paying for the damage waivers. Sometimes you can get out of, or bargain down, loss-of-use charges, but not always, and in some states courts have said that a company can charge for this “irrespective of its actual lost profits.”
Other states, including California, place legal limits on loss-of-use charges.
I get Enterprise about once a month for work (at airports) and only about half the time do they ask about insurance to which I respond no thanks. Only once did the agent try to press for information about who I have insurance with. I responded that company policy is to always refuse supplemental insurance. He dropped it then. I’ve been fortunate enough to never have had to deal with a hard sale. Or even a pre-rental inspection. knock on wood
About ten years ago I called my State Farm agent to verify that my car insurance covered me when driving a rental. I expected him to say, “sure, no problem, you’re fully covered,” but he informed me that they don’t cover loss-of-use charges. Fortunately I have a credit card which does cover that.
I’ve never gotten the hard sell from a rental agent over insurance. However, I have noticed them getting a little aggressive about wanting me to prepay for gas, and extolling how blissfully wonderful it will be when I don’t have to stop for gas before returning the car. The agent usually drops all pretense of friendliness once I’ve firmly refused to do the prepaid gas thing.
It’s free to join all of the major companies’ preferred-type clubs. You fill out your profile, and then walk right to your car without having to deal with anyone, other than the person at the exit gate. Of course this applies primarily to airports, and not local lots.
I did a rental in D.C. thru Hotwire, not my usual, but a smoking deal. Then they offered insurance for $40, all inclusive. I had never taken ins. before, but I know D.C.-more cars than parking spaces. We left the car in a garage at the Metro and someone squeezed in next to us, leaving a “rub”, no dents or scratches, just a rub on the car. If we’d seen it, we’d have rubbed it off.
So I’m not worried because I have the Hotwire ins. But sadly, I didn’t take my copy of the rental agreement with me when we left the car. And I need it for Hotwire. Sure as hell, National, ignores me repeatedly. I finally got the damn copy by going on their Facebook and Twitter and raising hell.
Long/short, of the $900+ they wanted me to pay (which Hotwire took care of in total), about $600 was Loss of Use. Fuckers
Yeah, you better give me the insurance, because I am gonna beat the hell out of this car. /Seinfeld
Yes, Enterprise is aggressive like that. When they come from behind the desk and stand next to you while describing the terrible risks of going without it, crowding you toward the contract, yeah, something is up.
Not quite the same, but another company tried to upsell me to a bigger car, and when I stood my ground, buffetted by suggestion after suggestion, they finally broke down and gave me the car for the price of what I reserved. Yeah, trying to get me to pay more for the only car you had available anyway, yuck.
^This.
The rental rep is less incentivized to harass you about upsales if you’re already in the car, the engine is idling, and the last thing between you and freedom is the driveway. (And, also, the extreme tire damage thing that keeps you from driving away without paying.) At this point, the agent’s preference is to get you off the lot and clear the line of cars waiting to exit.
And since I generally rent on business, I can also state that I’m not allowed to buy the insurance or the pre-paid gas and that ends the discussion. Also, because I’m dealing with someone at the exit booth and not at a “service” counter, their demeanor is a lot less obvious and relevant, so if they want to turn all surly after being denied their up-sell, wtf ever, I don’t even see it.
I used to get discounts by offering to show them my insurance license if they showed me theirs, but that doesn’t work as well lately since many of them have actually followed the law and licensed a bunch of their reps.
I’ve recently had to rent cars from Enterprise for weeks at a time due to an accident with my personal vehicle. I literally went from a “nobody” to a Gold Member in just six weeks. I chose Enterprise mainly because they have an office in a S/C just three blocks from my house.
The experience in picking up a car has been all over the place. Sometimes I get a hard sell on the insurance, sometimes they never mention it. (I know they have an incentive to sell it.) Sometimes they inspect the car on pick-up and return, sometimes on just the pick-up or return, and sometimes not at all.
The last two times I rented, they literally just handed me the keys after I presented my CC and license. I did not sign or initial anything at all. Overall, they have been great.
About four years ago, I rented a car from National and it was scraped by another car while sitting in a parking lot. I wasn’t present at the time, but I did call the police and have an accident report completed. The CC I rented it with had some additional coverage for rental cars and I ended up a total of $50 out of pocket. Sometimes accidents DO happen, even when you’re careful.
At the other extreme, I rented a car in Cyprus from Hertz and was told that I could either buy the supplementary insurance OR put a 10,000 euro deposit down on the car. They said this was their standard policy for non-EU renters. There was no mention at all of this policy when I reserved the car. Supplementary insurance would have added about 700 euros to the rental price.