Due to a funeral I have to bop down to Platteville, WI next week. I don’t trust my car enough to make the drive and I have NO desire to ride with my mom for the 6ish hour drive.
So I’m renting a car for the first time ever.
I get a discount through Avis, and they’re somewhat close. However, I’m looking at the online booking and it’s asking me about whether I want a loss damage waiver, personal accident insurance, and additional liability insurance.
I don’t know - do I?
A coworker told me to make sure my insurance covers me for both MN and WI. What?
I know - for some of you renting a car is NBD. I don’t have much green and spending it on additional ‘benefits’ is stretching it.
You’ll notice that all the insurance products are quite expensive. Check with your insurance agent to see how you’re covered if you rent a car. Also, most credit cards pick up the Loss Damage Waiver. So, check with the credit card company that you’ll use to rent the car.
Car rental companies make most of their profit from selling extra coverage.
I have only hired verseas and Hertz was great every time. However, a lot of the insurance was already covered by the overseas insurance I had taken out.
This doesn’t help you a great deal, but as the previous poster said it may be worthwhile to check other angles.
It was also worthwhile filling the car before returning the car rather than having the rental company fill it at higher fuel prices.
Yeah, they will absolutely gouge you for bringing it back with an empty/partial tank.
After my car accident, my personal insurance was completely sufficient to cover my rental. Your insurance may vary.
I’m not sure how long you’ll be needing this car, but you might find it cheaper to rent for a week, instead of 3 or 4 days (or maybe not, but wouldn’t hurt to double-check).
Ditto this. If you have insurance for your own car, you are almost surely covered by it. Check to be sure, because the renter’s insurance may cost as much or more than the car.
Try real hard to get a car with unlimited miles per day, or at least a higher limit than you can even imagine driving. If you go over a mileage limit, you’ll end up thinking the scam insurance rates were a bargain.
Insurance is where car rentals make serious money. They charge a LOT for insurance. I rent a car probably twice a month for work travel. My company has its own rental insurance, so I always decline. It’s a steep fee if you decide to get rental insurance through the rental company, but on the other hand if you wreck the car that could cost a lot. If you have car insurance on your own it might cover rentals. Check that out and decide if the steep fee is worth it. It’s kind of a gamble.
It’s pretty standard that you have to tell the rental company what states you’ll be in with their car.
Your insurance should cover you, check to be sure. Then check with whatever CC companies you hold cards with, a good number cover the difference bewetten the policies if you rent the car using their card.
Note that a $30/day rental can easily turn into 3X that with insurance and other fees. Read the fine print.
Once when I rented a car, they said my auto insurance wasn’t enough for some reason. It was cheaper to go online and increase my own coverage (for the next month) than to pay their rates for a week! Of course I had to be sure the increased coverage took effect before I got the car, so that meant coming back the next day for it.
Not sure if it was already said as this is a “quick post”, but be sure to go over the car from bumper to bumper (and roof to hub caps/tires) for dents, scrapes, and bruises. Do not assume anything is too small. Let the guy tell you. And even if it is big enough to bother you, make them note it. (Most small things can be buffed out, so they don’t care.) Some places (esp. airports) won’t go with you, so you do it yourself and keep your own records…and note the agent wouldn’t walk down the car with you.
Inside, note the gasoline gauge level. Even if you forget at first, do it before you drive off and say something if not properly noted. Also, any dash lights that won’t go out are worth asking about to save yourself from needing roadside assistance, in the least.
Last, I am leary of dropping the car without a rental car rep being present at check-in. I have been burned by damage after hours, and my insurance man told me of an (extreme) open-and-shut case where the rental car was undoubtedly spray-painted on the spot after return and the driver was STILL responsible! I even take pictures of my rental car, but I have been burned too many times in this lawyer-driven world. (Still, I bet no defense is full-proof.)
Yes, call me anal…but at least I’m not paying to pretty-up someone else’s car!
Oh, and note which side of the car the gas tank is on AND ask how to release the gas tank door! It’ll save you some headaches at the pump! Make sure you know where the release is for the hood of the engine, too!
Double check the mileage on the rental agreement when you pick up the car. I had a dyslexic rental agent tranpose a couple of numbers.
No sir, I didn’t drive 1500 miles since yesterday.
Oh yeah!
I have a debit/credit card. I told them I wanted to pay cash, and they said I still needed to use my card, but could pay cash when I turned it in.
So, rented it for one day on Friday, turned it in, paid cash, and when to my hotel.
Then I tried to take money out of my account using my debit card - it was maxed!
The rental company had taken out $300 deposit (my daily max on my card) and when I called them, they said, “that is standard policy. The $300 will be refunded to you next business day (Monday).”
So even though I paid them cash, they still held onto the $300 deposit over the weekend.
