Other Car Rental Programs/Partners (ie. Alamo, Enterprise, Sixt) - Enterprise rental - LDW CDW

Hi, my car was damaged in a minor fender bender. So while it is in the shop getting repaired, the insurance company (travelers) gave me 3 day rental. "Travelers" is the other party's insurer as they were at fault. Anyways, I have this Kia rental and I declined all extra insurance coverages. Now, I am wondering if I am adequately covered here. I figured my own company (AAA Texas) will cover me for liability claims for this rental, but what about the LDW/CDW coverages? I did put my AMEX SPG card when I got the rental, but the rental charges are paid primarily by Travelers. Can anybody shed some light on this and what corrective steps should I take to make sure that I am fully covered? My guess is that even though I put my AMEX card down when taking the car, because the rental was not actually paid by me, they will not cover me for stuff like theft.

I had this same exact issue happen to me with Hertz. I rented and Travelers was paying the bill. When I returned the car they accused me of damaging it (even though I did not). I asked for them to cancel the direct bill to Travelers and to put the charges on my AMEX. The manager refused and I had to call Corporate twice to get this done. Travelers reimbursed me by check, but explaining why I cancelled the direct bill was a hassle.

In the future, I will not accept direct billing - I will always pay via AMEX and have the insurance carrier reimburse me.

Szymon

Hi, my car was damaged in a minor fender bender. So while it is in the shop getting repaired, the insurance company (travelers) gave me 3 day rental. "Travelers" is the other party's insurer as they were at fault. Anyways, I have this Kia rental and I declined all extra insurance coverages. Now, I am wondering if I am adequately covered here. I figured my own company (AAA Texas) will cover me for liability claims for this rental, but what about the LDW/CDW coverages? I did put my AMEX SPG card when I got the rental, but the rental charges are paid primarily by Travelers. Can anybody shed some light on this and what corrective steps should I take to make sure that I am fully covered? My guess is that even though I put my AMEX card down when taking the car, because the rental was not actually paid by me, they will not cover me for stuff like theft.

Ok, i'm gonna provide 2 version of my reply. The short version and the long version...

Short Version:
Call your credit card company and insurance company and find out what your card / policy cover because many companies have different level of coverage based on what you have.

Long Version:
I would highly recommend calling your insurance company and talk to an adjuster about what is covered and what is not. The reason is often time it comes down to the type of policy you have purchased. Let's go over some senerios...

If your insurance to cover rental cars, keep in mind, if something does happen, you will still end up filing a claim with your policy and pay what ever deductable you have with your policy.

If your insurance does not cover rental cars, than your pretty much on your own.

Now with your Ameircan Express card. This also comes down to the type of card you have and if you had opt to get any extra add ons for your credit card. You would need to call American Express and find out exactly what your particular card covers on rental cars and what are the requirement.

Often time with American Express and other credit cards, the basic rental coverage is secondary which means you will need to file a claim against your own insurance policy and than the credit card company will often time pay for what your insurance policy does not cover such as your deductable. The big catch here is that the 100% of the transaction MUST be done with that same credit card. What that means is you should pay for the rental with your credit card and than get reimbursed by travelers.

In the end, the best person to talk to about your situation is YOUR insurance company and YOUR credit card company and make sure you ask the right questions such as...

Your Insurace Company
What does my policy cover on a rental car?
(Do not ask does my policy cover rental cars because they can say yes and yes could mean anything such as only cover liability claims or covers only the car or both. If you ask WHAT DOES my policy cover, than they should, ideally, tell you what it covers on a rental car)
What happens if something happens?
(Find out what you would have to pay or what your responsible for before your policy will pay for the repair of the rental)

Your Credit Card Company
Does my card cover rental cars?
How much coverage do I have?
What happens if I need to file a claim?
Does the entire transaction need to charge to my card?

The Car Rental Company's Damage Waiver / Liability Protection / etc...
The biggest advantage of rental car company's coverages is basically less stress for you and less worrying about the rental car. But keep in mind, Damage Waiver ONLY covers the car you are renting and does not protect you against any liability claims if you were to hit someone else. Also the Liability Protection only helps you if someone file a claim against you because you hit them but does not cover the car you are renting. So be careful on what you purchase from the rental car company should you decide to go that route. Most often, you should be able to just purchase one type of coverage and not the other. Like you can just get the Damage Waiver and not the liability insurance / protection. Again, this is YOUR call.

What it comes down to is CALL your insurance company AND American Express and find out what your policy / card covers AND find out what happens if you need to file a claim. If your still unsure and still want to be fully protected, than go ahead and purchase the coverage from the rental agency themself because often time there is no deductable if you need to file a claim.

For those that stumble on this post with similar question:

This pretty much apply to all rental car agency and watch out if you decide to purchase rental car coverage from a third party provider. Most often time the information they provide to you may me inaccurate. For example, I saw a company selling rental car coverage for almost $25 a day for what basically was Damage Waiver and it stated that most rental car companies charges $30/day for damage waiver. Sounds like a great deal right? It's not, if you actually called the rental agency up and get the price of the damage waiver, as I did, I found out it would of cost me less than $10/day for damage waiver so had I not did my research and purchased the 3rd party coverage, I basically just threw away $15/day.

In the end:
Once you do your research, and something does happen, you at least know what you are responsible for, if anything. It is alot better than not knowing and just go off a general assumption on your coverage and when something did happen, you get stuck with a huge bill or something bad like that.

Thanks for your reply. The only thing I can do now (I already have the rental car paid by third party) is to hunker down and not drive the rental car unless I absolutely have to. But I will make sure that I know where I stand for my next rental.

Thanks for your reply. The only thing I can do now (I already have the rental car paid by third party) is to hunker down and not drive the rental car unless I absolutely have to. But I will make sure that I know where I stand for my next rental.

I didn't mean to scare you into not driving your rental, but I'm sure its not to late to find out how much coverage you have.