Dietxanadu

The silver pig as been in the body shop for the last 3 weeks, and I have been driving a rental car. My insurance is picking up the cost as part of my policy. And also covering the rental car under my insurance policy.

But there is one small area that my insurance does not cover. It seems that while my insurance will pay for any damage, it will not pay the rental company for any lost of profit that the car mite have earned. It seems that the rental car company can go after me for the lost profit. Don’t know if it would be gross or net profit. But with the slim margins that rental car companies make, I would guess they would go after the higher amount. Of course it would be best for them the longer it takes to get the car repair.

Anyway after my insurance rep mentioned this to me, I took the added insurance that the car rental place offered. But it seems that it is not really insurance (maybe because they are not license to sell insurance).

Anyway everyday they send in a charge for the insurance ($15.00 plus tax per day). But while my bank puts a hold on the money, the rental car company does not complete the payment (having my bank send the money to there bank). The last time I spoke with the car rental company about this all they would say is that I have a current un-paid amount of X dollars that needs to be paid off when the car is returned.

I have no ideal why the rental car company does not just take the money.
Any thoughts you mite have on this are most welcome.

Diet

photo guy Loc: Chippewa Falls, WI

They are a bunch of rip offs like politicians. They are just money hungry in my opinion.

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

If your insurance is paying for the rental car there is no loss of profit suffered by the rental service. This makes no sense to me. Something is missing here.

Dietxanadu

It was in the paper work I got when Heartz rented the car
to me. And my insurance rep back it up.

alienmurphy Loc: Alaska

Your bank would have nothing to do with this.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

It appears that you took extra insurance on top of what's covered by your insurance company and the rental car company is keeping a record of it so they can be repaid.

Why is that hard to understand and why would you take extra insurance not covered by your insurance company?

pigpen

If they forced you into a lot of coverage.......DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT!!!!!

KimParks Loc: Kenosha, WI

My insurance company has the same policy. We went without a rental car but we have 2 vehicles so it really made no difference. There was too much gray area. Good Luck. If you were involved in an accident however and it was the other drivers fault then you could recoup any out of pocket expenses from the other driver (I think). This might be worth checking out.

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

I don't understand the following

"But there is one small area that my insurance does not cover. It seems that while my insurance will pay for any damage, it will not pay the rental company for any lost of profit that the car mite have earned"

Did you have an accident with the rental car?

Dietxanadu

No, but if I did my insurance would pay to have the rental
car repaired. But the rental company could still go after me
for the lost profit that the rental could have made.

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

I believe that you're referring to is called "Diminishing Value".

And I believe that if you purchase the additional insurance coverage from the rental company they are no longer able to claim there is a loss in value if in fact repair work had to be done.

Every state has it's own insurance laws so the rules do change based on where the rental contract was signed.

Diminishing value is not recoverable in every state when the recourse is from Your Own Automobile Policy (you are called an insured). However there are some states like Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia that Do enforce restitution to the owner and must be paid by the insurance company that writes your policy.

However, when the owner of the car is a claimant, not an insured, they can demand and sue for reimbursement under Diminishing Value rules.

But I do believe that if a car rental company sells you their extra insurance coverage they lose their rights under a Diminishing Value Claim. Most car rentals companies are self insured. That means that they maintain liquid funds for payouts in the event of a law suit.

They are not licensed to sell insurance so the monies they charge for additional protection for you is questionable as far as coverages.

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

Okay! I get what you're talking about and yes indeed if you wreck the rental they can try and recover any lost income as a result of the vehicle being out of service due to an accident you had while operating it. Our auto insurance does not cover that kind of claim and so we would be liable for that part of the claim. Check your policy and if you're not covered you'll have to make the call as to buying addtional coverage based on the data you collect that impacts you and your situation.

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

I don't think so. The risk of down time while repairs are being made is one of the risks that a auto rental business has to take.

How could they possibly prove that they had a customer for that particular rental at that exact time anyway. Very difficult to claim what they could have earned unless they could show the court a real crystal ball.

A basic point of law is that liability has to end somewhere.

"Diminishing Value" is different. The ease of selling and value of two identical vehicles will differ when one has had body damage even though it has been repaired.

Wouldn't you want to pay less for a vehicle that has been in an accident vs. one that has never had body work? Diminishing value is the amount that your vehicle will lose upon the sale because of prior damage.

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

Diet, just ran this by a lawyer friend and he smiled.

What state are you in?

Even if you didn't purchase their insurance coverage they can't legally charge you for down time. Next they'll be asking you to pay for their cruise ship tickets they couldn't use because they had no car to get to the pier!

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

It doesn't matter if your driving the unit or if it's sitting in your drive or in the body shop you will be charged for every day they don't have use of the car. Maybe it varies state to state can't say but check with your insurance agent just to be safe. There is a specific term for this but I can't recall what it is. We ran into this very issue a couple years ago. We ended up adding a rider to our auto policy for the time we had the rental at about half the cost the rental agency wanted. If I recall correctly it cost us like $15.00 for the week we had the car.