A caveat for those of you who trust in Diners to be your primary rental car insurance. Diners has quietly devalued this service in three ways:

1. They will no longer pay the Administrative Charge that a rental company or its designated third party claims service firm may charge. This just cost me $150.00.

2. If the rental company refuses to provide certain paperwork, such as a Fleet Utilization Log that supports a Loss of Use charge, Diners refuses to pay that portion of the claim. Worse, they may no effort to try to get the paperwork. This can translate into hundreds of dollars you must pay.

A claims service firm just told me that a Utilization Log is confidential information. When I called the rental company directly, I was told that it was not confidential, but rather, they did not know how to supply one. Diners' response: Tough luck, I have to pay, then. Multiple calls and letters produced virtually no cooperation between the two parties.

3. Diners normally pays a discounted amount of the Damage Charge. It is up to you to negotiate with the rental company or claims firm that the discounted amount actually is the full amount that will be paid, OR with Diners that they pay the full amount. In my case, I did get Diners to pay the full amount.

In the past, the Diners Rental Car Insurance program has served me well, with quick, 100% payment of claims submitted. But no more. I compared the fine print of the 2001 T&C against a 2007 version, and they have indeed made the program less beneficial.

I put this in the same category as the airlines that have imposed rapid redemption fees on award tickets. "Free" isn't free anymore.