Chase Car Insurance

[David Hoadley]

Now that storm season is winding down, I have a couple of insurance questions regarding rental cars.

For awhile, I didn’t buy their insurance (and know many of you don‘t), because my regular carrier covered it. However, after a couple of storm related mishaps, I wound up in an unpleasant bind between the rental company and my primary carrier, who was slow to process. I began to get stern warnings from the rental company that I was too slow, that their claim was with ME! --and not my carrier, and demanded immediate payment! Telling them that I had repeatedly asked my carrier for prompt reimbursement made no difference. Never mind that I had used their company for decades. Now, it was as if they had never heard of me!!

What steps can a rental-car company take to secure payment, if a primary insurer is too slow for them? Can it garnish wages (pension in my case), sue for damages or negligence, degrade my credit rating, or take any legal action against me?

As a consequence, I have returned to buying rental insurance (usually for a 5-6 day trip), to avoid that aggravation and repeated threats. It is almost worth it for the “peace of mind.” When there is a mishap now with their coverage, I just report it at the rental desk and walk away. It is that easy!

Have any of you had a similar experience, and how did you handle it?

- - - Also for those who have made several claims for hail damage, has anyone had their primary insurance cancelled or incurred a steep premium hike because of repeated claims for the same loss? I am super cautious about driving close to a storm base for this reason. I don’t want to establish a loss-pattern and risk losing my coverage.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Boris Konon]

Up until about 2005 , if acts of nature or things out of your control damaged your rental
vehicle, you were not responsible for damage I believe. Like say there was a fire at a hotel
you were staying at and your car was damaged, you were not obligated to pay damages. Why
this all changed I don't know, but I recall rental companies telling me when you rent a car now,
you need to treat it like it is your own car concerning any damages, claims, and deductibles if
you did not get the coverage they offered.

What I do is always use my American Express card. They have rental insurance built in, and
after 2005, they added premium car rental protection for $24.95 per rental so that for acts of
nature or things out of your control, you are covered very well. With this coverage, a claim can
be filed through them first as your primary provider. Even though an American Express card
has a $95 annual fee, as long as you have the rental for more than 3-4 days, it is paid for
by avoiding the coverage costs offered by the rental car company.

I've never had any damage issues with cars I have rented over the years, but having the peace
of mind that you are covered goes a long way! You are much more likely to get damage from
a non-weather related thing anyways. All those miles on the road?, no contest.

 

[Todd Lemery]

I don't know how far and insurance company can go to recover costs, but I ALWAYS get the insurance when I rent a car for chasing now. I used my own insurance for a couple of claims and my insurance agent told me if I did one more I would be dropped. It was an easy decision for me

 

[Stuart Wilson]

I'm in the UK Boris so obviously the law will be different to here.

But in terms of your contract with the rental company as far as they are concerned YOU are liable. It's irrelevant to them how you plan to finance the repairs to the vehicle. I have no idea how they would go about extracting the money from you but over here an unrecovered debt would be passed to a debt recovery firm who are experts in getting money out of people. Ultimately they can apply to the court to come and take goods to the value of the debt. It would most certainly affect one's credit rating but I don't think they can claw the money from your employer.

 

[Robert Forry]

David, I don't believe they'll garnish wages or your pension, or go after you via your credit rating, but I know first hand they'll hound you to death (in my case, by phone, letters, e-mail). I know that first hand and the damage wasn't even chase related!! Since then, I've always bought rental insurance (work/chase related), regardless, just for the peace of mind.

 

[Steven Heicher]

One thing to check... see if your credit card provides rental coverage. If I use my credit card for my rental, the CC company covers it. Though, if you really want peace of mind, go ahead and get the rental's coverage they offer.

 

[David Drummond]

Be sure and check just how much your credit card will cover as well. I recently found out my Discover Card would only cover $24,000 on rentals and I was renting a $45,000 vehicle (2015) with less than 3k miles on it while my car was in the shop. I certainly took out the damage waiver insurance the offered when I discovered that. Had the vehicle been totaled in an accident I still would have been on the hook for over $20,000!

 

[James Hammett]

If you have full coverage on your own vehicle(s) you should be covered regardless. Credit cards are good for gap coverage in case your personal insurance is insufficient. This article goes into a bit more detail: http://www.vox.com/2015/7/8/8911279/rental-car-insurance

I wouldn't sweat the threats from the rental company. Your insurance carrier would probably issue a check faster than the company could act on any legal recourse. I have heard of rental companies charging for "loss of use" in the interrim so it may be worth looking into whether that's binding and whether your insurance would cover it.

 

[David Drummond]

That's not always true, I checked up on that also. My full coverage insurance will cover a rental they are paying for if my car is in the shop due to an accident. I check that when I rented it also.

 

[joel ewing]

If you have full coverage on your own vehicle(s) you should be covered regardless. Credit cards are good for gap coverage in case your personal insurance is insufficient. This article goes into a bit more detail: http://www.vox.com/2015/7/8/8911279/rental-car-insurance

I wouldn't sweat the threats from the rental company. Your insurance carrier would probably issue a check faster than the company could act on any legal recourse. I have heard of rental companies charging for "loss of use" in the interrim so it may be worth looking into whether that's binding and whether your insurance would cover it.

James, that's what I was going to add to this conversation....you beat me to it. It's true....if you or mother nature damages your rental vehicle, the rental company can and now often DOES charge your credit card for the time the vehicle is out of service. They justify this by claiming that the vehicle is not able to "earn income" while it's in the repair facility. It never ends, does it??
I have been renting my chase vehicles since '86, typically for 3 to 4 weeks. This year I again elected to purchase the Damage/Waiver policy the rental company offered, even though it added an additional $30 daily to my contract. That adds up quickly. Perhaps you'll recall the wicked supercell that parked itself over Rapid City this past spring that pitched baseball hail at folks driving on I-90....well, our chase vehicle's hood, roof and various moldings were decimated by that storm. When it came time to return the vehicle, I made sure to point out the damage their agent....as I wanted no surprises later on. He quickly verified I had the Damage/Waiver policy, smiled....and told me to have a great flight home. Done deal! To me.....that policy was worth it's weight in gold.
David H - I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you regarding your initial question.
I

 

[Warren Faidley]

Interestingly, this is one of the negative impacts of idiot chasing I often discuss that no one seems to care about or think it will ever effect them. (Not referring to you Joel).

Just make sure they do NOT know you were chasing. Many rental car companies have added additional restrictions where the insurance is voided if the damage was caused by direct negligence, which would include chasing, or so I have been told by an attorney who represents insurance companies. You can thank a handful of chasers who have abused the system for that -- some of them openly boasting about "totaling a rental car on social media." Don't forget the rental companies have a complete GPS / black box profile of your driving history. I seriously doubt they will go after you since no one was hurt and filing a claim. If that was the case, it would be a serious problem.

When I did some research for an article last year, I found out that a tour group got into big time trouble with insurance issues after a rental van was bombarded with monster hail. It seems the only insured party was the driver who was required to use his own insurance. (Stupid). Long story short, I don't know the actual resolution, but the insurance company was in the process of going after both the driver and the owner / operator of the tour for damages. The only reason I know this was because of a related issue involving an investigation into reckless driving and endangerment by the Kansas Highway Patrol who called me to help identify an entity. That is on-going -- I am assuming. This relates to a tour, not a private individual... so no worries Joel.

I don't think you have to worry about legal actions. They would send you a bill first if all levels of insurance failed. One more word of caution, the insurance companies (and data-gathering companies) now troll social media for investigations.

If you need more help, I can always ask Heather.

W.

 

[JamesCaruso]

I never take out the LDW. I try to stay away from large hail and don't chase particularly aggressively. Still, unexpected things can happen (all it takes is one large stray hailstone to fall far from the main precipitation core and crack a windshield). I guess I have somewhat rolled the dice, hoping that between my personal insurance and my credit card insurance I would be covered IF anything happened. This has worked out OK for 18 years so far. I only had an issue in one year, with a cracked windshield, a couple large hail dents and some smaller dimples. I was dinged (no pun intended) for about $600, which my credit card company covered. After that (2009), I switched rental companies, and the one I use now hasn't come after me even though one year we turned in a vehicle with a few hail dents and a very muddy interior after getting stuck in an Oklahoma ditch.

 

[Todd Rector]

In civil law, nobody can garnish your wages unless they have first sued you successfully in court and have a valid judgement against you.

 

[Dan Robinson]

It sounds like the cost of month-long SUV rentals with LDW would equal that of a used vehicle over the course of 3-4 years. I've heard of some chasers who have gone that route. I don't know what the cost of storage would be though.

 

[Drew Terril]

If I had somewhere to put it, I'd love to have one of those military utility trucks (CUCV I believe they were called) as a chase vehicle. Rugged, wouldn't be worried about it in the hail, and diesel powered, so it would certainly get better fuel mileage than a gas engine in the same size vehicle. Problem is, freakin collectors who get them to show (and end up being garage queens) are driving the prices up on those types of vehicles. Give it a few more years, us off road types will be priced out of that market by those collectors.