What To Do When You Ding A Rental Car

And Let’s Assume You Didn’t Get The Insurance Because Who Gets The Insurance?

Here’s a fun hypothetical for a Monday morning! Say you rented a car for the weekend to drive out of state. (“Like a borrowing a book from the car library” is how you explain this to your child.) You did the whole song and dance upon picking it up wherein the employee points out pre-existing scratches and you smile and nod and he then presents you with a piece of paper that affirms your mutual agreement: dings here, cuts here, everything fine over there.

Do you want to purchase insurance against accident or damage? the employee asks.

No, thanks, you say. Your credit card covers rental car mishaps.

Almost immediately upon receiving it, you scratch the car. So, when you get to your out of state destination, what do you do?

A) Nothing. You scratched the car. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. When you return the car, the employees will see the scratch, charge you probably $800 to fix it, and you’ll submit a claim to your credit card insurance and hope for the best. Perhaps the employees won’t even notice the new scratch among all the older ones!

B) Fix it yourself. Find a reliable local place that can guarantee a quick turnaround, even over a weekend (and perhaps even over a holiday weekend, like Chinese New Year). What are the odds, after all, that, rush job or not, the garage will charge more than the rental company? Drop the car off and then pick it up the next day, all buffed and ready.

Technically you should know that the rental company does not encourage Option B — they may indeed go so far as to prohibit independent repairs to their fleet — but then, they would, wouldn’t they? It’s in their interest to charge you, or your insurance, as much as possible for any damage. Still, if you’re a strict rule-follower, your only real option is A.

So, what say you, friends? Take matters into your own hands or not?

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