Loss-of-use policies – what’s the truth? – Cover Your Car Hire Excess

Mr. Tamminga from Tucson, from the US has rented a car with Dollar for a family reunion. Luckily he had done his homework and knew that it would be unnecessary to buy extra insurance at the car hire desk because he had his insurance for his own vhicle plus the extra coverage provided by the credit-card issuer.

When he picked up his rental car a Dollar sales rep told him that he’ll be still charged for the loss-of-use if anything happents to the vehicle and maybe he won’t be covered by the credit-card company. That’s why Mr. Tamminga bought the insurance – just to be on the safe side.

What’s the truth?

Not all car rental companies will charge you for loss-of-use: Hertz, Avis and Budget do it. Enterprise says that some of their branches do, some don’t, it depends. (This is the situation with car hire companies in the US.)
In most states the auto insurance providers won’t cover the loss-of-use. Only Alaska, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Texas require insurers to cover rental-car loss of use.
Credit-card providers: Visa is pretty generous and covers it but Discover and MasterCard don’t . American Express takes everything on a case-by-case basis. They can also request fleet utilization logs which means that the car rental company has to prove how long a vehicle was being repaired. Many car hire firms don’t want to share such an information, claiming that it’s a trade secret so that also means the car rental company won’t pay for the loss-of-use. Very twisted situation indeed! Some car hire companies will charge you for a month repair time when it have should taken only 3 days. You might not be in the position to verify this with an independent mechanic and you have to take the company’s word. You might ask for legal advice but when the cost of repair is “only” $100 or $200 it doesn’t worth it.

What’s the advice? What can we do in a situation like this?

We have to do our homework: always check your personal insurance policy and check with your credit-card issuer as well.
If everything is covered but the loss-of-use take the chance but it has to be your own decision.
If you want peace of mind go for the extra insurance you can also go for car hire excess insurance which is cheaper and you can book it online in advance.

There are excess insurance for car hire companies who are offer covers again loss of use charge. Ie. worldwideinsure and questor insurance both will cover loss of use if chatged by the car rental company.