Originally Posted by
inpd
Hi,
I'm going overseas for a 3 weeks stay in Europe. Will be renting a car for that period.
A nice perk of the Mileage Plus card is that it offers primary CDW instead of secondary CDW. I'd like to know people's experience with this if they have been unfortunate enough to have an accident.
In particularly, I've read reports that with secondary CDW, the rental company bills your card for the damages and then you have to work it out with visa to get reimbursed. This can require getting all sorts of documentation. Is it the same with primary CDW?
Thanks.
If you somehow cause damage to a rental car, and you were responsible for the damage, then you can file claims with the primary CDW. There will be a list of documents required by the CDW's insurance company, such as the accident report, police report, rental agreement and receipt, your own personal auto insurance declaration page, etc.
In addition to the cost of repairs, the rental car company may try to bill you for the "opportunity cost" (that is, rental charges for the unused time). This is where the insurance company would step in and negotiate.
Lastly, the key thing is to work with the rental car's claim adjuster so they don't just charging your credit card for the repair amount. File an accident report when you return the car would trigger the process.
If it's a charge for mystery damages, file a dispute with the credit card company until the rental car company provides the proper documentation to prove that you were the cause of the damages.