Heads up if you rent a car online and buy the insurance, and they don't have a car for you.

[BABAR]

Short version is if you reserve a car AND pay for insurance, supposedly pay to the counter, if for whatever reason you cancel, MAKE SURE THE INSURANCE GETS CANCELLED TOO!

Rest is long winded, so feel free to bail out now, unless really bored.

My wife went on a trip and flew Delta, I was buying the plane tickets and renting a car, was just about to rent the car through HotWire when I finished buying the plane ticket and the Delta site came up and asked me "Do you need a car?" I thought, what the heck, see what the offer is. The Delta price was about $100 less than the HotWire price. I "never" buy the insurance because my auto policy covers rental cars (yeah, makes me nervous rental company threatens that if the car is "out of service" for repairs for a wreck you get charged rental fees, but over the last 3 plus decades we've been fortunate and yet to have a problem [knock wood]). Delta's price was pay at counter, not prepay. While I don't usually get insurance, they offered it for $10 per day, which was relatively cheap, and we only needed the car for 4 days, and price WITH insurance was still less than the base through HotWire. Only fly in the ointment was that you couldn't pay in advance. Thrifty has burned us before with rentals like this, you get there and they have no cars, and they say, "well, you didn't pay in advance, so not our problem."

Wife gets to counter, they say they don't have her reservation. I went online and booked her with Payless, right next door (actually for even LESS money). Ironic that the ONE time I buy the insurance the whole deal goes south (or for the Aussies, North.)

I then called Expedia, which is the company Delta used for the car reservation, as when I looked up the reservation it said I HAD paid in advance. Expedia told me that THRIFTY hadn't charged me, but the INSURANCE was booked through AllianzTravelInsurance.com (yup, with a "z".) They HAD charged my card, and Expedia told me even though Thrifty didn't give us the car, we had to call Allianz (which was a long phone hold wait) to get insurance cancelled. After hearing 10 times that I could do everything online with Allianz (come on, really, what kind of company can't spell "Alliance"?), and actually GOING online and findings in could do EVERYTHING with the policy EXCEPT cancel it online, finally got through to somebody from "somewhere" and managed to get (I hope, I will check my credit card statement) the insurance cancelled.

So word to wise.

1. if you reserve car WITH insurance, be careful if you cancel. Car Rental Agency may refund your money, but don't count on insurance.

2. I know this has happened before with Thrifty, maybe other car companies. Get nervous if they say car reserved WITHOUT a credit card number (in this case, apparently they had mine through the Delta Flight Reservation), I think that is a "lure" to get you to the counter and IF they HAVE cars they will give you one AT the agreed on price, but if they either don't have cars (or they do, but they got better deals for people on a flight after yours) they will tell you they have no cars, soooorrrrryyyyy.


Okay, I feel better. Thank you!

 

[Tyeeking]

Good news is that since you put it on your credit card ( rather than a debit card) if the charge does show up on your next statement you can dispute it with the credit card company (service paid for not provided) and have the charge reversed.

 

[Steven]

I do research on any major purchase through customer reviews. As far as debit cards are concerned, we've had unauthorized purchases which were fully reimbursed through our credit union and were sent new debit cards having cancelled our previous ones.

 

[Tyeeking]

I do research on any major purchase through customer reviews. As far as debit cards are concerned, we've had unauthorized purchases which were fully reimbursed through our credit union and were sent new debit cards having cancelled our previous ones.

Unlike a credit card a debit card charge can be much harder to dispute for anything other than clear fraud/ unauthorized charges. The Consumer Protection laws are different for each.

 

[Azamiryou]

I "never" buy the insurance because my auto policy covers rental cars (yeah, makes me nervous rental company threatens that if the car is "out of service" for repairs for a wreck you get charged rental fees, but over the last 3 plus decades we've been fortunate and yet to have a problem [knock wood])

My last trip I asked my insurance agent about this. It's true, you can be liable for out of service fees. BUT: you can add coverage for that to your own policy. My agent set it up to add that coverage at the start of the trip and remove it at the end. I think the whole two weeks of coverage only cost a couple of dollars.

 

[BABAR]

My last trip I asked my insurance agent about this. It's true, you can be liable for out of service fees. BUT: you can add coverage for that to your own policy. My agent set it up to add that coverage at the start of the trip and remove it at the end. I think the whole two weeks of coverage only cost a couple of dollars.

Wow, very helpful. Can this be set up To kick in Automatically, or do you need to contact your insurance company every time you travel?

 

[smstachwick]

I’d just be disputing charges I didn’t individually, specifically authorize, or any that didn’t result in a meaningful provision of service or items. If they kicked up a fuss I’d be dragging them to small claims court, filing a complaint with regulatory agencies, following up with accreditation bodies, taking smack to partner businesses, the whole thing.

All the while I’d be in contact with humans on the phone reminding them that it’s so much easier for them to just refund me a fair sum and work it out between us than to put all of it in public records and get served with a court order to change their policy.

*None of that is legal advice, BTW.

The other thing is that debit cards are cool when you’re like 15 but they don’t always have the same protections that credit cards do.

 

[Azamiryou]

Wow, very helpful. Can this be set up To kick in Automatically, or do you need to contact your insurance company every time you travel?

If you want to have the coverage only when you travel, you'd have to let them know every trip. If you travel often enough that that's a burden*, you could just add the coverage to your policy permanently. I don't think it was very expensive.

*I for one find it less of a burden to deal with my insurance than the rental company or travel company or whoever they contract with.

 

[4regt4]

Expedia told me that THRIFTY hadn't charged me, but the INSURANCE was booked through AllianzTravelInsurance.com (yup, with a "z".) They HAD charged my card, and Expedia told me even though Thrifty didn't give us the car, we had to call Allianz (which was a long phone hold wait) to get insurance cancelled. After hearing 10 times that I could do everything online with Allianz (come on, really, what kind of company can't spell "Alliance"?),

Allianz is a very large German insurance/finance company.

It's pronounced "Al (as in "Allen") E (long E as in "sea") ans (or almost "ants"). Al - E - ans.

Hans.

 

[BABAR]

Allianz is a very large German insurance/finance company.

It's pronounced "Al (as in "Allen") E (long E as in "sea") ans (or almost "ants"). Al - E - ans.

Hans.

I slouch corrected!

Apparently my Last name is German, but when my Grandfather jumped off the cargo ship in New York, when he got citizenship they spelled it wrong. And you know it is easier to live with a bureaucratic mistake then fix it!