Tag: car rental

What If Your Rental Car Company Overcharges You For Tolls?

Paying for toll roads and bridges/tunnels has become more complicated in recent years. More and more locations are depending on toll-by-plate systems to send you a bill or otherwise use a transponder in your car to keep track of how much you owe. If you go through a toll in a rental car, the bill for the toll goes to the rental car company and eventually gets charged to your credit card. Rental car companies have turned this into another way for them to rip you off augment their revenue stream and often add huge surcharges to rentals even if you only go through one toll during your rental. We’ve written about how you can try to avoid these charges by renting from a company that charges a fair rate for their toll payment services. But what if the car rental company sends you a bill after your rental for tolls you know you didn’t go through?

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Should You Get The Three Types Of Rental Car Insurance?

In a previous article, I went over the Collision/Loss Damage Waiver (CDW/LDW) that rental car companies offer, ways you might already be covered and other available ways to purchase coverage. There are three other types of coverage that car rental companies will offer you. These policies cover your exposure to personal liability or medical expenses resulting from an accident with the rental car, and protection if your property is stolen from the vehicle. You may or may not need these types of coverage so it’s important to know what they are and how you may already be covered.

Please note that this information is for a car rented in the United States. If you are a U.S. resident and are renting outside the U.S., your auto, homeowners or medical insurance may not cover you and purchasing these forms of coverage may make sense (or even be mandatory). The same goes for international travelers renting a car in the U.S. Please note that I’m not an insurance agent nor an expert, so I suggest reading the policies including, but not limited to the parts about policy limits, deductibles and exclusions before making any decisions.

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Oh Sure…NOW The Awesome Car Rental Deals Happen!

Back in February, I wrote about the rental car companies’ sales to get their vehicles back from Florida to the northeast for the Spring/Summer/Fall season. They weren’t particularly good in comparison to the previous year ($24.95, as opposed to $9.95 in 2018), but who knows what’s going through corporates’ minds when they start sales.

Welp, apparently some other car rental companies jumped on the bandwagon because NOW the “good sales” are going on. Take a look:

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Should You Pay For The Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) When Renting A Car?

It’s easy to forget that when you rent a car, you’re “borrowing” a vehicle that costs tens of thousands of dollars from a major corporation. When renting it, you expect the car to be in great condition with no dents, dings or scrapes on it. So what happens when the car is damaged during your rental? Even if it wasn’t your fault, the rental car company is, of course, going to expect you to pay for the repairs. Rental car companies know the fear of getting a large bill for repairs makes you an easy target to purchase the “insurance” they’ll sell you for just a few dollars a day.

We’ve already written about the excessive charges for gas and the markup on tolls that car rental companies charge. Why would we believe that all of a sudden car rental companies will sell you insurance at a reasonable price? It’s not that the coverages they sell aren’t necessary, because they are. It’s moreso you may already have coverage that makes buying their insurance unnecessary. Knowing what coverage you already have allows you make an informed decision ahead of time. I’ll also share a trick that lets you avoid the hard sell at the counter. But first, what is the car rental company trying to get you to buy?

Most of the information listed below only applies to cars rented in the United States. Rentals in other countries have different rules and restrictions. Please note I’m neither an insurance agent nor an expert so I suggest reading the policies including, but not limited to the parts about policy limits, deductibles and exclusions.

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Should You Earn Rental Credits Or Frequent Flyer Miles For National Car Rentals?

I’m a big fan of National Car Rental’s Emerald Aisle program. I’ve been a member for 20 years now (Ugh, Really? 20 years?) (Note from Sharon – when did I marry such an old man? LOLOL!). For all that time and for all those rentals, I’ve never earned a single rental credit with National. I’ve earned frequent flyer miles for my rentals instead. For my travels, I just don’t rent cars often enough so it would take me forever to earn a free rental day.

National gives you 1 rental credit for each rental and if you rent a car for more than a week, you can earn extra credits. Here’s a breakdown of the earning for longer rentals since this information isn’t easily found on National’s website. It took some digging and I’m not surprised they want to keep it a secret: Continue reading “Should You Earn Rental Credits Or Frequent Flyer Miles For National Car Rentals?”