dracjimm

My current employer does not receive preferred rates from Hertz, so I use the CDP from my former employer which gets me better rates. Are there any negative implications (for e.g., in case of accident, where both my former & current employer recommend declining LDW & collision insurance due to self-insuring)? What about when using this CDP for vacation rentals?

MSPeconomist

How about the ethics of doing this? It is wrong. Also, doing this probably would not reflect well on you with your current employer and if this is not the case, I personally would not want to work for your current employer who I assume is reimbursing your actual costs and sees your bookings and receipts.

AAA Hertz CDPs are usually pretty good if you are a AAA member.

cordelli

Aside from the fact you are using a discount code you are not authorized to use, there could be an issue if there was damage to the car or an accident depending on what the coverage they had as part of the CDP.

Some companies are OK with using their discounts for personal rentals, some are not. I don't know of any company who extends the benefits to ex employees.

Joshua

With CDPs without built in CDW and LDW, the risk seems to be very low. Most company CDPs permit personal/vacation travel (hence the "official company business" check box on the reservation screen). A few CDPs permit retirees or former employees to specifically use their CDP; IBM comes to mind, for example, with retirees permitted.

With CDW/LDW, there has been a report here and there of problems getting any insurer or credit card to pay for damage to a rental car, since the CDW/LDW was entered in to fraudulently.

Hertz and the companies who own these CDPs seem not to care. From Hertz's perspective, they get business that probably would have gone somewhere else. From the company's perspective, their total revenue relationship with Hertz goes up for each rental on their CDP. I would be delighted if all of FT booked travel on my CDP, for example. I'd have a lot of Hertz business rewards points. And my CDP permits employees, family of employees, contractors, and more to use our CDP for personal travel. (Although I think the terms of my CDP prohibit me soliciting non-employees to book, so please don't go find my secret CDP and do that!)

den1k

I agree with all the above. Hertz provides the CDP in garner as much business as possible. In theory, the more rentals using a CDP would give company more leverage to negotiate a better CDP arraingement in the future. My employer lets us use our CDP for personal use including family members.

The issue of CDW/LDW coverage is another story. When I was involved in a minor accident, I had to get an officer of our company to write a letter stating I was on company business.

nidem

As I see it, that is the higher cost

spades097

It is the higher cost until the one time you get in an accident and your insurance company tells you that you're up the creek since you misrepresented yourself during the rental process.

Dave Noble

Absolutely; misrepresentation on the rental will likely be fine as long as everything goes ok; as soon as there is an incident, then there will be problems; also, if it is a major company, don't consider lodging any complaints about locations with customer relations since they will often inform the company of the outcome of complaints and when they come back stating that the person isn't an employee, there can be repercussions; I have seen this situation occur when someone I know continued using a discount code long after leaving

Often1

This may slide in a small fender bender with a couple of thousand in damage. But, if there is serious personal injury, both your own carrier and any excess you purchase through Hertz will do a deep dive to determine whether there's any basis to deny coverage. And, voila. You've "saved" $10-20/day on a rental and now you lose your house, your savings and whatever else is lying around.

Even if it were ethical, which it isn't, it's a foolish thing to do.

ijgordon

It won't slide if you're trying to have the damage covered by the terms of the CDP. Even for a small fender bender, there's a process they go through.

Ditto here. I was somewhat extensively interviewed by phone regarding the incident (small fender bender), and they did require a letter from our corporate travel department.