AMEX Premium Car Rental Protection [Consolidated]

Old Sep 26, 2017, 8:26 am
  #256  
 
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Originally Posted by Biggie Fries
This is a bad glitch with this program that I and others have discussed upstream. The advice I got -- which seems to have worked -- was to generate a small charge, in my case by bringing in the tank $8 low or so. That triggered the Amex insurance charge.

This said, all this has made me (a) stop chasing "free" days; and (b) book rentals with Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa, which seems to have primary coverage for free.
This week wouldn't be a problem as its 1 day free out of 5.

What asking about is the opposite--when I pay for 100% of the trip, I'd generally be fine with my personal insurance as primary and my AMEX as secondary.--essentially I'm going to rent ~25 times/year.

Or is the $500-$600 with AMEX as primary worth the peace of mind? I assume that if I go over the AMEX primary limits, that my personal insurance would kick in?

(I've had exactly two incidents over about ~300 rentals over the years. This one and one in Italy that I thankfully did purchase the rental agency coverage since I learned that Italy was noted for being ineligible for normal carrier and credit card insurance).
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 8:46 am
  #257  
 
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for free rentals may be worth getting the car company's LDW
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 12:25 pm
  #258  
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Originally Posted by danspartan
This week wouldn't be a problem as its 1 day free out of 5.

What asking about is the opposite--when I pay for 100% of the trip, I'd generally be fine with my personal insurance as primary and my AMEX as secondary.--essentially I'm going to rent ~25 times/year.

Or is the $500-$600 with AMEX as primary worth the peace of mind? I assume that if I go over the AMEX primary limits, that my personal insurance would kick in?

(I've had exactly two incidents over about ~300 rentals over the years. This one and one in Italy that I thankfully did purchase the rental agency coverage since I learned that Italy was noted for being ineligible for normal carrier and credit card insurance).
Are you sure that using a one-free-day coupon on a multi-day rental won't void the standard (free) Amex car-rental coverage? Have you asked Amex about that specific scenario?
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 12:46 pm
  #259  
 
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Originally Posted by guv1976
Are you sure that using a one-free-day coupon on a multi-day rental won't void the standard (free) Amex car-rental coverage? Have you asked Amex about that specific scenario?
The detailed terms for each card type are posted on Amex's website FYI
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 2:24 pm
  #260  
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Originally Posted by mysterym
The detailed terms for each card type are posted on Amex's website FYI
Thanks.

It appears that the (free) Amex coverage terms changed just this month. The new coverage specifically allows use of car-rental company coupons and discounts; the old coverage used the unadorned charge-the-entire-rental language.
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Old Sep 27, 2017, 9:43 pm
  #261  
 
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Originally Posted by mia
Click here: https://www295.americanexpress.com/p...verage/home.do

Scroll down, down, down:
Just got bitten by this. Thx mia for pointing to the terms in this old post. Wish I would've read it sooner

At a minimum, that's shady as hell. I'd call it a deceptive business practice. NO notification when you get a new card that you are auto-enrolled in some service just because you happened to sign up for it on some other card you used to have.
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Old Sep 28, 2017, 4:40 am
  #262  
 
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Originally Posted by OverThereTooMuch
Just got bitten by this. Thx mia for pointing to the terms in this old post. Wish I would've read it sooner

At a minimum, that's shady as hell. I'd call it a deceptive business practice. NO notification when you get a new card that you are auto-enrolled in some service just because you happened to sign up for it on some other card you used to have.
say what? whats deceptive?
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Old Sep 30, 2017, 3:43 pm
  #263  
 
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Originally Posted by mysterym
say what? whats deceptive?
I had a Plat card. I signed up for the service several years ago (3-4 maybe?). I got a new Gold card. I cancelled the Plat card. I rented a car* with the Gold card. That service remained active on this card even though I did not explicitly opt into it with this new card.

I had to go and select an airline for my travel benefit. Think I had to opt into other services as well.

Services like this (where there are extra fees) should not be enabled per user, and should instead be per-card like their other services.

(* Actually, it turns out that I had 2 rentals...one before the Plat was cancelled and one after. Only got billed for this service for the rental I made after cancelling the Plat card.)
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Old Oct 24, 2017, 9:33 am
  #264  
 
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There is a glitch in AmEx Premium Car Rental Protection computer system.
System will charge you $19.95 EVERY time there is a transaction on the card related to the SAME rental (i.e. changes, adjustments, additional fees, etc.). Check your statements for multiple $19.95 charges. AmEx will refund, but you have to ask. Other than that, it is a very good protection with excellent customer support.
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Old Oct 27, 2017, 7:41 pm
  #265  
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Originally Posted by alextchap
There is a glitch in AmEx Premium Car Rental Protection computer system.
System will charge you $19.95 EVERY time there is a transaction on the card related to the SAME rental (i.e. changes, adjustments, additional fees, etc.). Check your statements for multiple $19.95 charges. AmEx will refund, but you have to ask. Other than that, it is a very good protection with excellent customer support.
It is not a glitch in the sense that is how it always worked (past 10+ years). Pretty much any car rental charge will trigger it and yes you have to call in to get it removed.
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Old Nov 2, 2017, 2:51 pm
  #266  
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Originally Posted by guv1976
Thanks.

It appears that the (free) Amex coverage terms changed just this month. The new coverage specifically allows use of car-rental company coupons and discounts; the old coverage used the unadorned charge-the-entire-rental language.
I used to keep the premium insurance in part due to the murky language regarding entire rental, as the coupon more than offsets the one time charge. Due to this language change (as of 9.1), it clearly spells out that coupons dont void the coverage. Wise to drop the premium coverage?

Have a platinum card so 75k more than covers my rentals and no primary insurance so the free becomes primary anyways..
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Old Nov 2, 2017, 4:11 pm
  #267  
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Originally Posted by Cityflyer10
I used to keep the premium insurance in part due to the murky language regarding entire rental, as the coupon more than offsets the one time charge. Due to this language change (as of 9.1), it clearly spells out that coupons dont void the coverage. Wise to drop the premium coverage?

Have a platinum card so 75k more than covers my rentals and no primary insurance so the free becomes primary anyways..
Then you can probably dump the Premium coverage -- except in cases where the length of the rental exceeds the time period allowed under your free coverage.
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Old Dec 13, 2017, 9:30 pm
  #268  
 
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Originally Posted by guv1976
Thanks.

It appears that the (free) Amex coverage terms changed just this month. The new coverage specifically allows use of car-rental company coupons and discounts; the old coverage used the unadorned charge-the-entire-rental language.
First time renting since the policies were changed. It says:

You use Your Account, American Express Membership Reward Points and/or American Express Pay with Points to hold or place a deposit at the time the rental is checked out and to pay for the Entire Rental from the Rental Company. Coverage will not be activated if You pay for any portion of the Rental Vehicle by some other means.
The definition of "entire rental" is

Entire Rental means the full rental cost for a Rental Vehicle, less any applicable Rental Company discount/coupon applied to the rental rate, charged to an eligible American Express Card and/or combined with American Express Membership Reward Points or American Express Pay with Points programs. Entire Rental does not include fees on a Rental Vehicle defrayed in full or in part with loyalty points from the Rental Companies or Common Carrier Frequent Flyer Miles.
Its late here but anyone know how to decipher that? So is there coverage if one uses free rental days (i.e. apply their Hertz points)? Does some charge need to hit the card (i.e. taxes)? If the standard/included insurance will not work when using points, will the Premium insurance work?

Thank you FT

Last edited by mysterym; Dec 13, 2017 at 9:50 pm
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Old Dec 16, 2017, 2:13 pm
  #269  
 
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Originally Posted by mysterym
First time renting since the policies were changed. It says:



The definition of "entire rental" is



Its late here but anyone know how to decipher that? So is there coverage if one uses free rental days (i.e. apply their Hertz points)? Does some charge need to hit the card (i.e. taxes)? If the standard/included insurance will not work when using points, will the Premium insurance work?

Thank you FT
Answer is that it is unfortunately not compatible with free days from using rental car company points.

Last edited by mysterym; Dec 17, 2017 at 8:23 am
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Old Dec 16, 2017, 2:24 pm
  #270  
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Originally Posted by mysterym
Answer is that it is unfortunately not compatible with free day coupons.
That is overly broad.

If you use a third-weekend-day free coupon on a rental, and pay for the first two days, Amex should cover you. But if all days of your rental are paid with free-day coupons, then I would expect you to be out of luck. And if you use rental-car-company "points" rather than coupons, it sounds like you'd be out of luck too, unless the points somehow get converted to a coupon first.
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