Originally Posted by
Often1
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If there is a significant accident with real liability, e.g. where a third party is seriously injured, the first thing that will be checked is whether the driver fraudulently obtained the vehicle. If so, coverage will be denied under most policies.
This is completely incorrect. First, using a discount code is not "fraud" - it might be ethically out of bounds by some definitions, but it is not fraud. Second, I have never seen a private insurance policy that states coverage is denied if using a discount code for a car rental that you were not entitled to use. In fact, I discussed this scenario in depth with my insurance broker and they could find no evidence whatsoever in their policy language that would deny coverage, nor would they even know or care what discount code you are using or how you rented the car, or how you paid for the car, as long as you didn't steal it, use it for commercial purposes, drag-race with it, or use it as part of a criminal activity (ie, no bank robbery get-away cars).
Now would the insurance carrier providing the coverage to the code owner through EHI deny coverage? Probably they would, but that's irrelevant for someone who has their own insurance policy. This is only a risk for someone who does not carry their own personal policy.