Chase Car Insurance

[Adam Ploessl]

If you have full coverage insurance on your own car, most insurance companies will only cover damages to the rental up to the value of your vehicle. Loss of use is binding when you sign the rental agreement. Had a friend that went through it all after a massive hail storm. Had to end up paying all out of pocket because his hail photos were on the local news with his name and "Storm Chaser". Insurance adjuster must have done a google search and when one insurance declined it for that reason, the rest followed.

 

[Warren Faidley]

Then again, if someone purposely drives a vehicle into large hail, water or other storm-generated damage, should the renter(s) not bear total responsibility? Not trying to make a judgement here on anyone, but wondering why this has not been mentioned. If I owned a rental car company, I'm not sure I'd appreciate having my property trashed. You can total a vehicle with extreme hail or water damage and for most high end SUV's that's a 30k bill. There may be some wiggle room if you are using a rental for business and / or have full coverage. Thoughts?

 

[Dan Robinson]

I see hail damage as one of the costs of chasing. It's going to happen eventually, no matter how conservatively you chase. Warren is right in that insurance isn't supposed to cover that kind of thing. If there is one place in the entire USA that has a storm producing baseball sized hail, and a chaser drives thousands of miles to be there in that exact place and time (or within a couple of miles of that hazard) for the purpose OF the storm, it's not going to appear accidental to the insurance adjuster if they choose to investigate it. I won't criticize anyone for renting a car for a chase trip, as I know there are few other realistic options available for someone coming from a long way away. But I think there needs to be a realization that hail damage is increasingly not being covered by LDWs for rentals, and especially if the adjuster investigates. When you rent for a chase, you risk having to pay for any damage out of pocket no matter what insurance you have. It's a gamble nowadays to rent from what I can see, especially if you don't have the money to pay for that kind of damage on the spot.

In 21 years of chasing, I've never made a claim just because I consider hail damage for a chaser to best be a self-insured thing. I just figure that I couldn't get away with filing more than one such claim anyway without expensive consequences. I've owned four vehicles (three purchased new), all were covered with hail dents when I traded them in. I took the hit on the trade-in value and thus bore the ultimate cost of the damage. When I lose a window, I pay for it out of pocket. I just don't want to involve my insurance company with any hail issues.

Interestingly enough, being a chaser actually saved me from the worst hail damage on April 28, 2012 in St. Louis. I saw what was coming and got under cover 10 minutes ahead of time. I was one of very few vehicle owners in the metro that day who *didn't* file a claim. Now that I use hail guards during supercell hail threat days, I'm even less likely to suffer costly window damage.

Again, I'm not looking down on anyone who rents or makes multiple hail claims, I'm just saying that I think those things are risky to one's personal finances and/or insurability.