Originally Posted by
naumank
I rented a car from Hertz in Hawaii last week. The entire cost was charged to my CSR. On the 2nd to the last day of my trip, someone rear-ended my car and damaged the bumper. I filed a claim with Chase (eclaimsline.com) the night before I returned the car. I put my claim number on my incident report when I returned the car. I got an email back from eclaimsline.com today asking for additional documents: (1) Police Report; (2) A demand letter from Hertz; and (3) A repair estimate or bill.
I have a few questions and would appreciate it if someone would shed some light:
1. Is a police report absolutely necessary? A police officer showed up at the scene and gave us a card with a police report number on it. But it's not the actual police report. On Honolulu PD's website, I would need to send a mail with a check in order to request a police report. Sounds like a painful process.
2. The accident happened a week ago. I haven't heard anything from Hertz. Should I just wait for them to contact me? Or should I be pro-active to try to get the demand letter and repair estimate?
3. Is it necessary for me to file a claim with my personal insurance? If this were my own car, the other driver's insurance should pay for the damages. I would file a claim with my insurance company which will go after the other driver's insurance. But the Hertz rep at car return told me that Hertz wouldn't go after the other driver (they would only go after me). It sounds like eclaimsline wouldn't go after the other driver. Does this mean the other driver's insurance wouldn't need to pay for the damage even though it was clearly the other driver's fault?
If I read this right, you didn't file anything with Hertz? I believe the rental contract says you have to file an incident report with them.
When I had damage to a Hertz Rental, I filed the report with both the Chase insurer, as you did, and I filled the report with Hertz (I think it was called something like an incident/accident/damage report.
As for the police report, I would start by giving Hertz and chase/eclaims the police report number. You don't have to get the actual report right away; you have like a year to finish all the paperwork (something like that). What you need to do promptly in these situations is start the claims process with Chase and Hertz.
I wouldn't involve your insurance company. The point of having this coverage is not too have to use your insurance and pay your deductible (and CSR is primary coverage for CDW). You could involve your insurance company. an argument for doing do is they'll do work to make others pay as they don't want to pay the claim if they legally can get Chase's insurer or the other driver's insurance to pay.