I admit it – I did a stupid!
A momentary lapse of attention when backing out of my space, and I scraped and dented the passenger side of my Hertz rental car on an under-building garage’s support column in Miami, FL.
Now what?
Anyone have any experience with this?
Any suggestions?

 

"Well we have a blue Ford Escort for you Mr. Seinfeld, would you like insurance?. Jerry: Yeah you better give the insurance, because I am gonna beat the hell out of this thing!"

I have a Sears Mastercard that I use for my car rentals. If you make the reservation and pay with the card, Sears covers me anywhere in the world-accidents, theft, ect. AMX only covers 100 miles across the border.

I take it you didnt get the insurance? Check with your insurance company and the credit card you put it on.

 

I didn’t purchase the supplemental insurance from Hertz.
I have State Farm Insurance and the car was rented on a VISA through Bank of America.
The damage is all cosmetic - no functional issues.

What I was looking for – suggestion wise:
In what order to contact whom?
Any specific steps to take?
Things to say/ not to say?
Do I need to ask for an independent appraisal? Isn't Hertz going to charge the equivalent of a new car for repairs?
Any other words of wisdom? (Other than "Watch out for that column!)

 

don't know about Hertz, but Thrifty tacks on full rental charges for the days the car is in the repair shop (or unavailable for renting) I've not had to deal with this before, let us know how it turns out

 

Can a dent wizzard get it out? I hate renting cars b/c of the extra insurance. I alway get ins b/c you never know. They will charge you a pretty good premium for the repair, guaranteed!

Independent appraisal? Useless.

If you call to add insurance they will need to inspect the car first.

Call you CCs companies and see if they have car rental insurance protection. Have it added and call Hertz. Tell them your CC Co called you and you are maxed out and if they can please use other other CC instead.

 

I've used several different insurance companies over the years and every time I've rented a car, the rental agency has been able to tell me in advance whether or not my insurance covers the rental car so that I would know whether or not to take out supplemental insurance (Some did and some didn't).

About all you can do now is contact your insurance agent and see if your auto policy covers the damage. If it does cover the damage, then take into account that your rates will probably go up as a result of any claim. Then calculate whether it would be more cost effective to pay for the damage out of pocket or claim it on your insurance.

If you have a history with the rental company and have rented from them a lot, you may be able to use that in getting a little better treatment. It really depends on who you're working with.

 

Check with Visa. I believe that they cover such things when you rent a car using their Gold card. Perhaps they have changed it to all their cards. Worth checking.

 

I work in a department with 7 guys where we rent cars 2-3 times a week. I think we are running about 1 minor accident per year average right now. If you were on business, your company should cover it. If you are self employed, it will be deductible as a business expense. Otherwise, check with your credit card company to see if they cover it. If not, give it to your insurance company, and always rent cars with an AMEX. They cover all damages to rental cars.

 

AMX only covers 100 miles into Mexico. At least since Dec of 2006, I dont believe its changed. Sears Mastercard covers anywhere in the world. There is always that fine print.

 

my $0.02 becareful, hertz would not only charge for damage repair but also loss of rental income during the repair... the later could be a lot more as than the former as it might take them a while to fix.

 

If you used your Bank of America VISA/ATM card, you may be out of luck. I would get it looking the best you can, polish the scrapes out, return it very dirty and in the dark, and cross your fingers ;-)

 

I've got the same card, do you have to pay additional for that coverage?

 

CC companies that provide rental insurance are typically a back-up to your regular insurance company. That is, if you go to your CC company, they will hand it to your ins company and only pay only what your ins company doesn't cover. Your ins company likely has a provision for insuring rental vehicles.

OT, but rental companies make tons of $$$$ on selling their insurance as the coverage is WAY overpriced. $30 to $35 a day for about $5 worth of insurance that you probably have already. Wish I could get a piece of that action!

 

Follow-up on the CC aspect:
The Bank of America VISA doesn't cover anything (rented on that card), but my other CC (also on file with Hertz) will cover as "secondary insurance".
So I plan to pay with the secondary card when I turn it in to get that coverage.

Unfortunately a simple dent removal will not do the trick - there's some scraping through the paint...

The key thing - do I wait until I turn it in and see if they notice it? Or do I report it now? Do I call my insurance now or wait for Hertz to say "excuse me sir, we noticed you damaged that car..." and THEN start the endless phone-calls?

 

Clean it up as best you can, maybe run to the autoparts store and get some touchup paint and try to feather it in (Langka, etc.). See what happens. If they have an after-hours drop, use it.