Car Rental Insurance - loss of use clause

[BobH]

I am aware that personal auto insurance provides coverage for car rentals. You are responsible for paying deductibles and are restricted to the coverage limits of your own policy. Sometimes your credit card will cover the deductible amounts depending on your credit card agreement. Recently I learned from a friend that did not take any car rental insurance that you can be held liable for money that the rental car company does not earn due to "loss of use" while the car is being repaired. This points out that the issue of taking or not taking car rental insurance waivers is not a simple one. You may have an uncovered liability and can not rely on your own insurance for everything. I am not advocating paying for expensive car rental insurance - just wondering if anyone has found a way to cover themselves for the possibility of the car rental company trying to recover money for loss of rental use due to an accident. My friend was hit in Florida while driving a Budget rental car and Budget made an attempt to recover loss of use damages but fortunately dropped this part of the claim. Loss of use coverage is part of the insurance CDW that you can buy but to get it you must be snared into an expensive insurance premium charge by the rental caar company. Has anyone else found a way to fill this gap in your liability without buying the CDW? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[disneyberry]

some Gold or Platinum credit card holders have car rental insurance which does cover loss of use charges.

i know that Platinum Mastercard holders have this coverage.
at least, when i checked in Fall 2002, that was the case.

it's what made me choose to reserve/charge my car rental to my Mastercard instead of my Amex (which didn't cover loss of use... but Amex is complicated and i think they might have loss of use coverage for some types of cards, but not others).

in any case, scrutinize the fine print for your credit card benefits, and call them to double check.

i don't have any suggestions for non credit card options though...

 

[BobH]

Good suggestion. I'll check my credit card. It is a Gold Mastercard but I don't remember seeing anything that specifically referred to loss of use.

 

[DebbieB]

I was just reading through the enclosures with the new Disney Visa. Loss of Use is included with a Platnium Card.

 

[denisenh]

I am interested in this as well. Article from web search.....

American Express and loss of use article from The Boston Globe

 

[seashoreCM]

Different credit cards have slightly different terms as to what they cover. Check the fine print.

Once in awhile a renter has successfully avoided the loss of use charge by determining that the rental agency was not sold out of cars on those days. That is, if there were other cars sitting unrented in the lot, the rental company did not have a case regarding loss of use. You would probably need an attorney.

Also you might be able to, if worse came to worst, negotiate that the loss of use charge should not exceed the daily or weekly rate you paid, whichever was less.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[BobH]

I checked the fine print of my Gold Mastercard contract and unless
they haven't changed the rules lately I do have coverage for loss of use as disneyberry was so good to point out. The article regarding loss of use in the Boston Globe that denisenh posted was also very informative - thank you. I also decided to dredge up a rental contract from National that dated back to last May and I also had a rental contract with Avis from a few weeks ago.
The National contract stated that they had the right to recover loss of use damages no matter what their "fleet utilization" was at the time an unfortunate customer had an accident leading to the rental car being out of service. The Avis language was a lot friendlier and stated that Avis would be owned for loss of use based on "reasonable downtime or as specified by law" leading me to believe you might have a beter chance fighting the loss of use charges. I also would be interested to know if any states have actually put limitations on what the car rental companies can collect. Avis language implies that some states may have done this. I haven't found any car rental websites that actually state the language of their rental agreements but I wish they did that way you could makle a more informed choice of car rental companies. I guess it pays to have the right credit card and to follow the old saying - "buyer beware."

 

[safetymom]

I carry rental car insurance through my automobile insurer. It doesn't cost much every month to be covered. I travel a lot so it is worthwhile for me. These types of issues are covered on my policy.

 

[DVC-Don]

In another life I was an auto insurance claims rep. Back then they covered this stuff, but not now I believe. When we did, we would ask the rental company to send us a log of all the vehicles at the station in question and the log of which were out on rentals on what day. The loss of use claim was always dropped then. We would pay for the damage once one of our folks verified it, but I do recall any loss of use claims paid.

 

[BobH]

The Avis rental contract I had specified they would only try to recover "reasonable" charges for loss of use or those permitted by law. Do you know of any state law or regulations that limit what the rental car companies can charge for loss of use? Thanks.

 

[cindala]

To make yourself feel more at ease, first call your insurance agent, and ask them about you coverage concerning loss of use.

Make sure to take a copy of your declarations page from your auto policy on vacation.

Call your credit card company to also check if you are covered for loss of use.

I would bet in most instances you are covered, but it pays to double check.

 

[BobH]

Insurance agent said there is no "loss of use" coverage on my personal car insurance policies. I checked the credit card insurance and I am covered for theft and loss of use with a Citibank Gold Mastercard. I am just very interested in how the rental car and insurance industry tick so I can be a more informed consumer. The points made by people answering this post are well taken. It appears that the best protection involves a combination of personal auto insurance and credit card inurance. The last part to the puzzle as far as I can see is whether any state laws or regulations exist that outline limits of liability for the car renter if they are not in possession of the correct credit card. This issue interests me because I have young adult children who can rent vehicles but they do not have the luxury of qualifying for a Gpld Credit card like dear old dad. Therefore they are at greater risk in a rental situation if they want to avoid being ripped off buying a collision damage/liability waiver that has its own set of fine print. Just because someone buys the coverage from the rental company still doesn't mean they are "covered."
Thanks for all the help.