Help with car accident!

[evaready51]

This is exactly why we buy the rental car company's insurance. We once had an accident and we ending up paying out so much money, for an accident that wasn't our fault. I hate that extra $20.00 a day but it is peace of mind that if something happens I can just walk away.

 

[mareed]

This is exactly why we buy the rental car company's insurance. We once had an accident and we ending up paying out so much money, for an accident that wasn't our fault. I hate that extra $20.00 a day but it is peace of mind that if something happens I can just walk away.

I'm not the OP, but we ended up paying about $180 for the loss of use fees for an accident that wasn't our fault and the other person's insurance covered the actual repairs. We always decline the insurance and figure that an occasional incident where we end up paying like we did is OK given that we average 30 days of rental cars a year for the last 6 years. If the insurance is $20/day, that means we would have paid out $3600 for insurance. I'll take the $180 we ended up paying, and hopefully we don't have that happen again for another couple of years!

 

[homeboycartel]

Thanks for all the advice! I'm going to try calling my insurance (Allstate) back (for the 4th time), but I really don't think they'll do anything else. When everything happened they seemed to be really on top of things and very helpful. They sent me a letter saying not to worry and that they were "investigating" or whatever, then I never heard ANYTHING from them. When I got the bill from Dollar saying I owed the $700+ I called Allstate and that's when they told me they made the $56 payment. I was really upset that they never sent me anything after the initial letter. This has never happened to me before, but I would think Allstate should send something out saying what they were billed, what they covered, etc. They also told me that they don't cover all those other fees (admin, loss of use, appraisal). They weren't very helpful at all. The local office in Hawaii is VERY helpful, but because everything was done in Florida, the local office isn't handling it. I'll try calling them again though . . . maybe they'll be able to tell me some basic stuff that may help me. If that doesn't work then I'll try writing a letter to Dollar - and I'll be PERSISTANT! Anyway, thanks again for all the help!

Oh, and the charges weren't added to my credit card bill because the case wasn't settled yet. First I went thru my insurance, then when I found out they only covered $56, I went to MasterCard . . . so Dollar was waiting.

Thanks again! I'll keep you guys posted as to what happens.

I am a manager of a claims branch of a large auto carrier in California. Most policies specifically exclude payment for admin fees and or loss of use.

My advice, and this is what I instruct my customers, is to write them a firm letter advising them the admin fee is not your responsibility to pay them as there is no service rendered; it is a cost of doing business and your contract with them was for services and nebulous admin fees were not a service you padi for. Moreover, unless they can provide documentation they lost income during the down time for the vehicle repairs they cannot, legally, prove a loss of use was incurred. It is a different standard than for personal autos as personal owners typically have between 1-3 vehicles in their household available for use as substitute transportation, whereas a national rental agency has thousands, and therefore, the loss of use for a small parking lot accident is impossible to document as there is none!

Good luck and keep us posted!