blsnk

What options are there for insurance when redeeming points other than a personal insurance policy or the rental company's own CDW? With a personal insurance policy even with a separate rider it's still my policy so if anything happens my rates will probably go up won't it?

view-with-a-room

PREMIUM CAR RENTAL PROTECTION
An insurance product offered by American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

No cost to enroll and no deductible
Flat rate of $24.95* per vehicle rental for up to 42 consecutive days of coverage** when you use an enrolled Card
Up to $100,000 in primary theft and damage coverage (liability not included)

DJMeatBall

I get that same offer from Amex every few months.

The O.P. is asking about what to do with points redemption rentals. Aside from some taxes and fees, the cost of the rental is done with points and not with the "enrolled card". So it's very likely that if an Amex claim examiner looks at the rental contract (which you need to send in with the claim form) and when they see that you set it up with points, they will totally deny the claim.

I hate to say this, but for my own points rentals, I usually suck it up and pay whatever LDW/CDW fee the Hertz station is charging.

magendim

A lot of premium credit cards such as Visa Signature (which is what I use) include CDW coverage at no extra charge on rentals provided you pay for the rental with that card. Just be sure to read the limitations on the respective card.

I also have no problem with my own car insurance covering things and always have that to fall back on (that's what the heck I pay all that insurance premiums for). Many years ago I had a rental car from Alamo stolen in DC. Filed the police report, notified my insurance and they covered the vehicle damage (they did find the car but it was trashed) and there was no effect to my insurance rates. I also filed a homeowners claim with the same company on some personal items in the car...

CTNYC

I think what is being asked is what if you use points to pay for the rental (ie. You technically won't be using your credit card to pay for the rental) which I agree is somewhat of a gray area.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"So it's very likely that if an Amex claim examiner looks at the rental contract (which you need to send in with the claim form) and when they see that you set it up with points, they will totally deny the claim."

Really? So will they refund the $24.95 they automatically charged to your card when the card was used to pay for the associated taxes and fees? Or will they deny coverage and keep the $24.95?

DJMeatBall

I do not know for certain, but I suspect that if you look very carefully at the lawyer-friendly weasel words in the Terms & Conditions, it says somewhere that "entire rental must be paid for with the card for coverage to be valid".

But again, I'm not 100% certain. It's just how I believe things are.

Why not rent a car on Hertz Gold Plus points and then purposefully knock a dent in it and report back to us how your claim experience with Amex/Visa goes?

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"if you look very carefully at the lawyer-friendly weasel words in the Terms & Conditions, it says somewhere that 'entire rental must be paid for with the card for coverage to be valid'."

I think you will find that the language you quoted only applies to the free LDW coverage offered by many credit cards. I suspect Amex is more than happy to take $24.95 per rental for their Premium coverage -- even on mostly free rentals -- as long as something is still charged to a registered Amex card.

A simple call to Amex should be able to confirm this. Others have previously posted that use of a free-day or dollars-off coupon does not void the Amex Premium coverage, even though such a coupon would void the free Amex coverage.

Of course, if the rental were totally free, with no taxes or ancillary fees to be charged to a registered Amex card, that would be another matter.

docbert

Most (but not all) of these are Secondary coverage, so you need to claim against your own car insurance first - at least in your home country. The standard Visa Signature insurance definitely fits into that class.

I just checked the paperwork for my Amex coverage and I can't see any such phrase. This is *paid* coverage, not the free coverage you get with most cards.

Also if you happen to live in California, the Amex coverage is only $17.95.

As for those other cards, check the find print and you may find you're covered - some will cover redemption bookings as long as the taxes/etc are paid on the card. But again, most of these are secondary coverage, not primary coverage - generally it's only the Amex Premium coverage (ie, the paid one) and a few of the very high-end cards that provide primary coverage.

Lemma

I know this thread is more than a year old, but I found it doing a Google search trying to find out the answer to the insurance question as I have an upcoming rental booked with Hertz points and I thought I would share the results of my research.

I found some comments on a blog post about Amex denying claims in this situation. It wasn't clear whether that was the free or the premium option, but this made me a bit concerned even though I wasn't planning to use Amex to pay for my rental.

I ended up speaking with someone at Chase who confirmed that when redeeming loyalty points with a rental car company's program, paying the taxes/fees with my Southwest credit card would be sufficient to trigger the insurance, even if points were used for the entire rental. This was not a front-line CSR, but someone in the relevant department that the first CSR I spoke with transferred me to, and she put me on hold for a minute while she confirmed the answer. YMMV, as I have nothing in writing confirming this. However, it occurs to me that Hertz point redemptions show up as a promo code, so it could be argued it's just a discount, and that you did pay the "entire cost" of the rental with your credit card. The fact that the cost was lower due to your point redemption doesn't change the method you used to pay. I wouldn't like to have to fight this battle though.

Anyone actually had to file a claim on a rental booked with points? If so what bank was involved? I am tempted to stay away from Amex in general for renting cars based on the reports I have read about their claims process.

sard

Another problem is, when you use points there could be a 0 charge (no taxes or fees)
In that case there is nothing to use your credit card for.

Perhaps not filling up the gas tank and then using the card to pay for the gas will be enough of a charge.

TerryK

I recall that I paid taxes and fees for Hertz point rentals.

sard

My experience, if you rent from an airport you will be charge an airport fee, which then will cause you to pay taxes and so on.

If you rent from a local Hertz (for example, a place in the city) then the rental charge is $0 and there would be no tax on $0 so you pay nothing (assuming you fill up the gas so there is no charge for anything)

TerryK

You are right. I always rented from airport for redemption. I only rent from city locations in NYC which are nearly impossible to book with points.

cestmoi123

Huh? I book NYC Manhattan locations very frequently with points. They've made them premium periods for every summer weekend, which is annoying, but it's definitely doable.