Always Do This When Renting A Car
If you ever rent a vehicle, whether through big names like Alamo, Budget, National, Hertz, moving companies like U-Haul, or even person to person car rentals like Turo, ALWAYS make sure you take videos and photos of the entire vehicle before you leave the lot AND during drop off.
Car rentals are one of the most common expenses for business and personal use, especially when traveling. The number one tip I can share is to always ensure that you take a video and photos of the entire vehicle before you leave the lot as well as after you return the vehicle. This includes both the exterior and interior of the car.
Things to highlight for your records:
The dash showing fuel level and mileage
Car interior
Each side of the car including multiple angles
Each tire including tread
Any damage on the vehicle no matter how small
Windows and Windshield
Other noticeable things like cigarette/smoke odor
Why Is This Important?
It comes to no surprise that there are some shady car rental locations/hosts out there. Doing this one simple thing that should take you no longer than 3-5 minutes can save you hours and possibly hundreds to thousands of dollars down the road in false insurance/damage claims.
You may have just returned your rental car and gotten home from your trip. Months later, you may get a letter in the mail demanding money for a damaged car rental. If you have no proof to deny their allegations, you may be out of luck. But if you are prepared, you have a much better chance of fighting the false claims and saving yourself time and money.
How Common Are False Claims?
From personal experience, this hasn’t happened to me (yet). However, I do come across these stories very often and even a large company like Hertz has been on the news recently for shady car rental related things. What do all these victims have in common? No proof of the vehicle’s condition after dropping it off.
This may occur more often if you’re renting a car out of your home country as a tourist. That’s simply because they’re hoping that it’s easier for you to pay up than try to fight a claim overseas.
What Else Can You Do?
If you used a credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve, you have primary car insurance automatically included with your credit card as an automatic benefit. You can make a claim through them to settle the damage claims.
Note: Credit card car rental insurance have some stipulations I want to mention. They do NOT cover person to person car rentals like Turo. It’s best to ask your personal car insurance carrier if you’re covered or purchase additional insurance in the app. In addition to this, they’ll only cover certain vehicle types (exclusions may include exotic cards and moving trucks) and for up to a certain amount as well.
If your credit card did not have any car rental protections, you can reach out to your personal car insurance carrier to see what steps you need to take to make a claim. Of course you should weigh the benefits of reaching out to them versus paying off the claim if it means a small out of pocket cost or an increased insurance rate.
Do you have more tips? Let us know on our Facebook page or email me here.