Car Rental accident insurance is probably the most misunderstood and debated subject for those of us who rent cars. Car Hire companies will always offer and most times with much gusto for you to reduce your liability should you be involved in an accident, this fee is most often refered to as Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and they will insist that it is in your best interest to take this option.
Of course it is hard to comprehend that it is good for you how can it possibly be good for them. The basic problem is that at approximately a thousand dollars per annum per vehicle to insure comprehensively a rental car it is in no way viable to take up this option. Instead it is a cheaper and a more profitable option to create a high excess which encourages every rental car customer to take up the collision damage option if sufficient people do so then it become a major profit factor for the car rental company. As a matter of interest in Australia today the legal precedents for liability in a car accident lies with the owner of the car unless the driver is acting as an agent for the car rental company and this is highly unlikely.
The bottom line then is that you must be absolutely sure of what your preference is with regards to CDW before you begin to make your booking. If not you will almost certainly be convinced by professional car rental staff to incur this extra cost. You dilemma is do you drive around as strange town in a foreign car with a high excess or bow to the companies wishes and pay the extra daily cost. If you are a regular renter it will not take long to realise that the extra costs will before to long surpass the potential excess payment.
One of the major misconceptions with car hire excesses today is that a number of people believe that their credit card insurance will cover them in the event of an accident. Many credit card companies will NOT cover the excess if their client has been offered excess reduction by the credit card company. You must be absolutely positive that you have it in writing from your credit card company that you would be covered in the unfortunately event of an accident.
At the time of booking is when you should be considering the CDW options and not at the desk on collection of your vehicle when you will be in a hurry or tied from travelling and easily influenced by the sales staff who will be selling the insurance options as best they can.
Next we have the situation where the unthinkable happened, a car accident. Assuming no one was hurt, in which case an ambulance should be called as soon as possible, the first objective will be to approach the other driver or drivers and collect their full particulars. This will include sighting their driver’s license and noting its full details. A tip here is to confirm that the address on the license is in fact their current address. If the accident has occurred in a busy location you may need to move the vehicles but it is always best to leave them if possible unless the police instruct you to move the cars. The police will need to be called depending on the severity of the accident or if anyone has been injured.
When a car accident happens it defies explanation but tow trucks arrive instantly from nowhere. All tow truck drivers – operators receive commissions from panel beaters for any work that may be channelled in their direction. The other problem is you will need to confirm with the car rental company their requirements at this point and whether or not they wish the car to be towed and by whom. If the car is towed by the first tow truck at the police’s request the cost of the tow is very high and will eventually have to be borne by someone. Whether or not you advise the police seems to be a matter of the severity of the accident. This is very difficult for a layman to determine as if there is no personal injury then how does one assess the extent of the damage involved.
Try to work with the car rental agency to sort out all the details and a course of action to follow. The normal procedure is that you would have to pay the excess and that would most likely be actioned on your credit card even before you got back to the office. Then you would set about recovering your money once fault had to determined.
Do your homework when it comes to insurance and car rental and be reassured that there are only a very few collisions. Drive Safely
Want to find out more about Car Rental #1, then visit Teresa Burrows’s site on how to choose the best hire car #2 for your needs.