Renting a car with miles. What did I do wrong?

[corinne76]

Our last trip was over 2 yrs ago, but I do remember using Capital One miles to rent the car.

We still paid, like, $300

Is that normal?

I think I was stupid and added insurance, but other than that, ????

I have enough miles to cover the car again, and I want to avoid paying a lot extra. Please educate me

 

[Bud Ice]

See what the free rental covers. Extra time, miles, insurance, and gas add up.

Also make sure that wasnt just a hold charge. Many companies will leave a hold for insurance reasons.

 

[corinne76]

Thanks for your reply. So if I did pay all that extra for other stuff, I would have paid a heck of a lot for the rental had I not had the miles huh?

 

[Geemo]

I know miles are nice to use but we find Costco rental cars to be very inexpensive sometimes.
You might see what the Costco rate would be and save the miles for something else.

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

Check out Priceline, if you have a little time you can usually get cars pretty cheap.

 

[sherilaine]

Using miles to rent a vehicle only covers the cost of the rental - all additional fees and I believe taxes have to be paid in addition.

I work in the insurance industry. If you own a vehicle and have insurance for that vehicle - you can obtain from your insurance broker or agent a copy of an endorsement which will protect you for physical damage to a car you rent. It essentially extends the physical damage coverage you have on your vehicle to a vehicle you rent while on vacation - there is a maximum limit but it is usually adequate at anywhere between $50K to $75K, but this is something you can discuss with your insurance professional as all policies and I am sure perhaps even states may be different as I am from Canada so only know the details here. Also, many credit cards include benefits for renting vehicles and will provide coverage of up to a certain limit of say $50K if your rental vehicle is damaged. So check your credit cards and if you have one, use it to rent the car, as it only applies if that credit cars is the one you use for the rental.

Car rental companies have insurance for the third party liability on their vehicles - they can not try to transfer that onto the renter of the vehicle - the only thing you can be held responsible for is damage to the actual vehicle you are renting - but they make a lot of money when people buy insurance for this risk - and they will push for it. I just checked my Costco rental I have and the loss damage waiver is something like $29 a day, which is nuts as the coverage to extend your own personal insurance is about $30 per year. However, for people who either do not have their own insurance or have a credit card with this benefit, they would have to buy this.

 

[disneyfirsttimer18]

How long did you have the rental?

We rented a car for a week while my car was in the shop. We paid $232 total for the week. We paid for a full size car, they put us in a SUV at no extra charge.

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks for your reply. So if I did pay all that extra for other stuff, I would have paid a heck of a lot for the rental had I not had the miles huh?

No way to know.

This year, be sure to compare cash rentals with mileage rentals.

I just checked my Costco rental I have and the loss damage waiver is something like $29 a day, which is nuts as the coverage to extend your own personal insurance is about $30 per year.

Nice to have that option! From the dis I've realized that Canadians have very cool insurance options that Americans don't seem to have.

As far as I know the LDW covers the cost the rental agency incurs while their damaged vehicle is being repaired. I have really decent auto insurance and mine does not and cannot cover that.

 

[sheetz]

I'm not that familiar with the Capital One program but it sounds like the miles you redeem have a specific dollar value and any extra costs over that come out of your own pocket.

 

[corinne76]

Thanks everyone. I'm pretty sure we had enough miles to cover the cost (about 7 days i think) but still paid a lot. I'll look into other options and compare. We do not have Costco unfortunately. I can check Priceline. Any other suggestions?

 

[firefly87]

I would check the car rental company websites directly and see what their rates are. (like Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Hertz, etc) Then I would search online for coupon codes for each individual rental company. We decided to rent a car to drive down to DL rather than put the extra miles on our car a couple years ago. I ended up finding a 40% off coupon for the car we rented!

 

[endy]

I don't think you need a Costco card to check the prices. You might find that it's worth it to get a Costco card for the savings after you compare directly with the rental sites.
Last week I was looking for a 10 day rental from LAX. It was something cheap like $279 all in for a mini van. The mini van was cheaper than a compact car.

 

[Niltiac]

Car rental companies have insurance for the third party liability on their vehicles - they can not try to transfer that onto the renter of the vehicle - the only thing you can be held responsible for is damage to the actual vehicle you are renting

I realize this isn't what the overall discussion is about, but I feel the need to comment on this in case anyone gets the wrong idea with this. In the US at least, this isn't quite true. I work in a law firm representing renters through this coverage in personal injury lawsuits. Most states require a minimum level of liability insurance be provided by the rental company, but not total coverage. So if someone is injured and they go after you for more than that coverage limit, technically you (or possibly your personal insurance company) are on the line for the remainder. That said, most cases do settle at or below policy limits because plaintiffs don't want to mess with trying to recover from individuals, but that's not guaranteed.

 

[sherilaine]

I realize this isn't what the overall discussion is about, but I feel the need to comment on this in case anyone gets the wrong idea with this. In the US at least, this isn't quite true. I work in a law firm representing renters through this coverage in personal injury lawsuits. Most states require a minimum level of liability insurance be provided by the rental company, but not total coverage. So if someone is injured and they go after you for more than that coverage limit, technically you (or possibly your personal insurance company) are on the line for the remainder. That said, most cases do settle at or below policy limits because plaintiffs don't want to mess with trying to recover from individuals, but that's not guaranteed.

You are correct, in every jurisdiction the rental company has to provide the MINIMUM required third party limit. Here in Canada we'd not sell a commercial insurance policy with less than $1,000,000 Third Party but I have found that in the U.S. these limits are laughable - like $200,000 - like that is going to make a dent! However, if you do have your own insurance, and honestly you should not rent a car unless you do, sorry but it's true, you should have at least a $1,000,000. I know that when I pull up to the Budget rental place at LAX and I have $5,000,000 in liability insurance, I am okay to rent a vehicle in the heavily litigious country I am renting within. Now mind you that is only about 3.5 million USD these days though.

 

[Niltiac]

However, if you do have your own insurance, and honestly you should not rent a car unless you do, sorry but it's true, you should have at least a $1,000,000.

Right, I think we're saying the same thing in different words. If it's over that minimum limit, someone (you or your insurance company) can be held responsible.

Here in Canada we'd not sell a commercial insurance policy with less than $1,000,000 Third Party but I have found that in the U.S. these limits are laughable - like $200,000 - like that is going to make a dent!

$1,000,000 is usually the limit you pay extra for here. Life in Canada sounds nicer the more I hear about it... until you bring up that exchange rate, that is.

 

[corinne76]

I realize this isn't what the overall discussion is about, but I feel the need to comment on this in case anyone gets the wrong idea with this. In the US at least, this isn't quite true. I work in a law firm representing renters through this coverage in personal injury lawsuits. Most states require a minimum level of liability insurance be provided by the rental company, but not total coverage. So if someone is injured and they go after you for more than that coverage limit, technically you (or possibly your personal insurance company) are on the line for the remainder. That said, most cases do settle at or below policy limits because plaintiffs don't want to mess with trying to recover from individuals, but that's not guaranteed.

I'm confused. Does this mean I should add on insurance from the rental place? Feel free to dumb it down for me

 

[Niltiac]

I'm confused. Does this mean I should add on insurance from the rental place? Feel free to dumb it down for me

Sorry, I didn't mean to make it confusing. I think it depends how comfortable you are with risk. Chances are the rental company will cover some, and you should check with your own insurance company because they might cover you in addition to that. There's always a chance that if someone is injured badly they might go after more than the rental company covers, and that's when you would want the add on liability insurance (if you don't have any other applicable insurance to pick up the slack).

But then you might think of it this way: It's unlikely you will be in an accident and injure someone with your rental car. If you do, they're not necessarily going to be injured badly enough to exhaust your coverage. If they are, there's still an excellent chance that they will settle for the amount you're covered for to avoid the time, cost and effort of going after you for more. But of course, there's always the possibility of a worst-case scenario, and some people are more comfortable with that risk than others. Most people will never be in the situation to need it. I definitely suggest checking with your existing auto insurance first because it could be that you have plenty of coverage already.

 

[Khokhonutt]

Talk to your insurance agent about your coverage. Insurance laws vary from state to state, and obviously country to country. I know my auto policy covers the rental as if it were my car. The one thing I've heard they can try to ding you on is loss of use (the money they could have made while repairing the car you wrecked, assuming you're at fault). The credit card I use for rentals has coverage that covers that loss of use, basically anything over and above what my insurance wouldn't cover.

As far as rental costs go, make sure you check all of your options for the place you are renting a car. We use rentals for long trips and at home, my go to rental company is Hertz. They are the only ones in our area with a no questions asked unlimited mileage rental and they're the best price for my circumstances. When we traveled to Hawaii, I found a big difference in rental costs, there we ended up using Budget.

Also try to think of every organization you belong to and check for discounts through them. I get discounts from Sam's club, NRA and work, for example, and the discounts through each vary significantly.

 

[sherilaine]

I say talk to your insurance agent or broker - they are securing your coverage for you and only they know the limits and exclusions of that coverage - picking up the phone and talking to them is all that matters - as no one here knows the details of your exact coverage.