That sucks, man. There are so many drivers out there driving around with no insurance, it's a wonder this doesn't happen more often than it does. And it happens very often. I pay extra to be covered if I'm hit by an uninsured motorist. You pretty much have to these days. Everyone should check their policies. The extra cost is very minimal. Same with rental coverage.
She had insurance! HER insurance paid for my rental. However, said insurance did not pay for the "optional" insurance that you are supposed to get on rental vehicles.
Consider yourself lucky...I got into 3 wrecks within' the first 3 years of living in DFW - NONE of them were my fault and NONE of the other drivers had any insurance at all. It went' on MY insurance each time and I had to pay the deductible. If I didn't have such a great agent, they would've cancelled my insurance.
That was actually my second time I got screwed. The first is when I parked my brand new car on the street at a house party in Denton and a truck backed up out of an adjacent parking lot all the way into my car denting the side and then took off. That was my first year in D/FW in 1995. Then, this last one with the old b*stard happened Feb 2010 right before my dog was diagnosed with cancer. The penalties for driving without insurance are not tough enough. Those people should go to jail immediately if they have no insurance and are caught driving. They cause the wrecks and screw everyone else around them. Then, the insurance tries to go after them and gets nothing out of it...other than maybe suspending the license of some really old person who shouldn't be driving anyway. I certainly hope he got more penalties than that. I heard they try to ruin your credit, too. I certainly hope both got a taste of the crap I did. When God asks them if they did the right thing in their lives and then they say yes, I hope he recounts these times and calls em on it. lol
It sounds like you may have been talked into taking the insurance by an overzealous rental rep. I should know because I was one 15 years ago. You don't have to take the rental insurance. They are taught to present it to you like you do without actually saying it. I still remember the shtick I used to use - worked like a charm. Since it was optional to take it (your liability covers the rental car) I can't see any way possible to recup the money you spent on it. FYI, I do like to take the insurance if I rent a car for the weekend. It's totally worth it to not have to worry about anything happening. But for a month? That's way too long to take it out. 2 days tops for me. I would never have even offered it to you if I knew your car was going to be in the shop for an extended period of time. That's pretty slimy of him to do, actually. If that's the way it happened.
When he offered it , the eta on repair time was not known. To be completely honest ,I declined rental car coverage on my insurance when I got it 2 years ago (young and strapped for cash).
You might have gotten that confused with purchasing insurance that pays for your rental car if you're at fault while hitting another car and damaging your own. You quite possibly have liability insurance on any car you rent. Check your dec pages or your memorandum of insurance or call your agent. You might have purchased duplicate insurance for the hell of it.
The coverage you bought from the rental car company is not the same coverage that you had under your individual policy. You bought a different type of coverage all together that covers the 'loss of use' of the vehicle if it is involved in an accident (to reimburse the rental car company if you wreck it and they can't recoup revenue on that vehicle because it's in the shop) and the comp & collision coverage that you did not have under your liability policy [how i'm understanding your current coverage]. You have absolutely no recourse to recoup this money. You have to carry comp & collision on a rental car because they're newer and there is typically a lein against them and you are probably not in a position to cover the damages on a cash basis on the new vehicle if you wreck it. Typically, this coverage can be extended from your own policy if you carry it which you do not. Regarding the loss of use, you do not have to carry the loss of use coverage that comes with the rental car coverage but it is not a bad idea. As an agent when my clients ask me if they should buy the rental car coverage that's avail, I advise them of the loss of use issue and it is up to them at that point. [this is moot here, since you don't carry comp/collision, just a feature of the coverage you bought] If there is any issue here it is the fact that the place you took the car to took so long to get it fixed. Otherwise, you were just screwed for rolling with the cheapest coverage on your own vehicle.
This pretty much sums up my situation. The best place to take my car was the actual dealership. I did not know it would take so long (parts had to be shipped in). This totally sucks!!
Uninsured motorist claims are "no fault" claims so typically, most insurance companies don't hold those claims against you.
This, and the $250 deductible is for a UM claim is a state standard. You don't have to buy comp and collision for a rental whether or not you have that coverage under your insurance. You just don't have to. You can, and you should I suppose, but you don't have to at all. Now, whoever wrote earlier that purchasing this optional upsell insurance from the rental company is only a good idea if for a couple of days...he is correct. The biggest reason is no deductible. Someone dented your car while you were on a weekend vacation, no big deal b/c you paid $15/day on a $10/day rental. If you don't buy it, and you don't have comprehensive coverage, then you pay that out of pocket. If you don't buy it, and you do have comprehensive coverage, you still have to pay your deductible.
