The situation: I had a minor accident a couple of months ago, where someone else hit me. Clearly their fault. Now I am finally getting it fixed, and I need to rent a car for a week. The problem is that I don’t have rental reimbursement on my insurance policy.
Has anyone had any luck getting the other driver’s insurance to pay for this? How exactly would that work?
When we contacted the other guy’s company they treated it as a matter of course that they would hook us up w/ a rental car.
I’ve done it three times. Each time, I had to ask for it from the guilty party’s insurers. They won’t just offer it, apparantly. However, if your claim is already settled, you are likely SOL.
Actually, our insurance company contacted the other guy’s company. Our insurance handled the most of it.
Incredibly painless. We were even able to get cash instead of getting the car fixed.
I did. Got rear-ended by someone, no rental coverage on my policy. I insisted on getting a rental, as my car was brand new and I wasn’t about to drive the shop’s ugly, run down beater because someone else hit me. It took some pushing, but I did get it. And then I got it again when I had to have the rug replaced because no amount of cleaning would get it out - but that took a hell of a lot of fighting - over an hour on the phone before I think the guy finally just gave up trying to convince me they wouldn’t cover it.
Just for clarity - I got it from the other guy’s insurance. Might not have been clear from my post.
Make sure you contact the other guy’s insurance compay before you rent the car. Many insurance companies have special deals or kickbacks with a particular rental company.
I was once rear-ended in New Jersey on the way to Massachusetts, and rented a car from the only place open at the time to get home. The other driver’s insurance would only pay for an Enterprise car, so I had to drive all the way back to New Jersey ASAP to return the first car and pick up another. So I had a second day of my vacation ruined, had to spend 10 hours on the road for no reason, pay gas and tolls out of pocket, and in the end, the Enterprise car ended up being $20/day more expensive.
Thanks all. I had no idea, until someone mentioned it in passing at work, but they didn’t know the details. I had figured I was just screwed out of that money.
So I guess I need to pursue this. Hope it’s not too late!
The only thing I’m confused about is how you deal with the other insurance company… I’ve only dealt with mine on this so far.
You need the claim number from the other party’s insurance company. I believe I got this from calling their 1-800 number. Either that or my insurance agent found out the claim number from them for me. Then I went to Enterprise (the company the other party’s insurance used) and gave the the claim number, they made a phone call then told me the daily limit they’d pay and what vehicles they had ready.
It really seemed, as you might think, all in a day’s work for all of those folks. Of course, it absolutely sucks and is way out of the ordinary for most folks. Good luck SmackFu
Just for the sake of completeness, how would this work (or not work) in a no-fault state?
Pennsylvania is no-fault and that’s how it worked for me.
BTW, this took a nasty turn for the worse, since it turned out the other driver’s insurance was expired even though he had what seemed like a valid insurance card.
So are you screwed? Your insurance company? Any details you can share?
Well that sucks just about as much as it possibly can! But your company’s taking care of your damages right? Except your deductible? If it’s any consolation, your insurance company does have a group of highly trained gorillas whose sole purpose in life is to collect money from folks who cause accidents. In the best cases, this is simply a matter of contacting the guy’s insurer and politely requesting subrogation payments. They get your deductible back for you this way. This dude not being insured only means that the gorillas will be contacting him directly and making discreet overtures for the money that was spent on your repair, as well as your deductible. So, all is not necessarily lost, just delayed a bit.
As for the rental, you want to check to see if you are owed for Loss Of Use (LOU) incurred during the period your car was unavailable to you as a result of the accident. Call your insurance claims department and just ask 'em how LOU/Car Rental is handled in your state. In some states (i.e. Wyoming) you are not owed LOU if you did not actually rent a car–the idea being that nobody owes you for an expense you did not incur. In other states (i.e. Colorado) you are owed LOU.irrespective of actual car rental expenses incurred, for the period your car is unavailable. In any case, it’s a debt that would be owed to you by The Dude so you’d have to collect it yourself by either politely requesting the payment directly or though small claims court.
But yeah, your situation sucks more than it had to because of this clown. I’d be more inclined to see if he can be punished for driving without insurance. You’d get nothing but satisfaction from that, but hey, if you have to be inconvenienced, why not him as well?
My car is already fixed, and my insurance company paid the bulk of the repair, though I am out the deductible. So I figure they’ll try pretty hard to get their $2000 back, and my money with it.
(The insurance company did send the notice of non-coverage to his finance company, and that can’t be good for him either. I did get a bit of satisfaction out of that.)