V-Flyer

Afternoon all,

After around 7 months away from Amex I have just applied for a new Amex Platinum card, I'm pretty sure it will arrive before my trip to Miami in 2 weeks.

Do any of you wonderful people know if the hire car insurance covers a hire car purchased with another card or do you only receive the benefits if you hire with the Platinum card? (I have already pre purchased my hire car on my Virgin Amex card)

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks
Dominic

Amex requires you to charge the full rental on the card, and to forego any insurance as offered by the rental company.

And you still have to watch your statement carefully - I've (today) had to raise yet another dipute with Hertz at AGP for charging of insurance on my rental last week ( despite my Amex being on my PC file and me reminding the agent at pick up).It happens on every rental there ! .
I have to say though that the cover is excellent .As I invariably get several dings/scrapes and dents on my trips to the C del S it's saved me a fortune over the years.... .
DL

How do you book the car hire online? Every time I've booked it always adds the insurance and theres no option to delete it.

Am looking at re-applying for the AMEX to save on hire car insurance among other things.

chumba wrote:How do you book the car hire online? Every time I've booked it always adds the insurance and theres no option to delete it.

Am looking at re-applying for the AMEX to save on hire car insurance among other things.

For US bookings I alter the setting to the USA site- for European bookings I find it doesn't make much difference to the price which includes basic insurance but means I just decline all the additional insurance options and still get maximum cover.
If you want a ( re) referral drop me a PM
DL

Thanks for the replies,

It looks like I'll have to fork out for the insurance unless I can cancel my reservation and re book.

Dominic

Hi DL,

Always wondered how difficult any claims via Amex would be. Is it just a case of giving the hire company amex's details or is there more involved ?

Thanks

David

David wrote:Hi DL,

Always wondered how difficult any claims via Amex would be. Is it just a case of giving the hire company amex's details or is there more involved ?

Thanks

David

Hi David,
My rentals are generally with Hertz and I've never had to do anything - I've had plenty of dings / dents etc and on each return to the depot they've looked at my invoice, smiled and said it was covered.
It's just a shame that some locations ( AGP being the major culprit) try and charge me for the insurance after the rental despite my card being on file and me reminding them at every pick up ! A call to Amex removes the charge but sometimes it' a pain to have to chase them .
DL

I've had the Amex Plat for several months now and exclusively use it for car hire insurance both in the UK and in the US.

Any rental place I've ever used doesn't care what card you use to place the online booking, or what optional services you choose, including whether to accept or decline their CDW policy. The only thing reserving online seems to do is lock in the base rate of the vehicle and the date/time you return. Everything else like insurance, sat nav etc will be tacked on when you pick up.

I show up and make sure I mention what card I want to pay with. When they ask if I want insurance at 12.95 a day I kindly decline and say Amex will pick it up.

My frustration is that, if we have to queue at the rental counter to sort out the CDW exclusion, it means a key perk of Hertz Gold (comp'd via Platinum) ie. "get in car and drive off" benefit is unusable. I have been seriously impressed in recent years at being able to bypass the rental counter and go straight to my waiting car, equally though I don't want to be paying for unnecessary CDW given that Amex covers it. I may try phoning the local Hertz depot the day before I next collect a car in USA and see if I can pre-arrange removal of the CDW. Any other thoughts / tips anyone?

Thanks
James

zenithar wrote:Amex requires you to charge the full rental on the card, and to forego any insurance as offered by the rental company.

Does that include CDW where typically it's included in the cost in a UK hire? I've always used my Amex but never asked for any insurance to be removed. I always assumed the Amex part would cover me for the silly £600/£1000 excess the rental companies have..

McMaddog wrote:

zenithar wrote:Amex requires you to charge the full rental on the card, and to forego any insurance as offered by the rental company.

Does that include CDW where typically it's included in the cost in a UK hire? I've always used my Amex but never asked for any insurance to be removed. I always assumed the Amex part would cover me for the silly £600/£1000 excess the rental companies have..

No the Amex insurance guidance booklet is really clear in saying that we should decline all insurances and, if we get flack at the counter, get them to call Amex. I for one would love to chop my rental bill in half by eliminating the CDW but, at the same time, don't want to lose the benefit of avoiding the walk up counter!

Vegascrazy wrote:My frustration is that, if we have to queue at the rental counter to sort out the CDW exclusion, it means a key perk of Hertz Gold (comp'd via Platinum) ie. "get in car and drive off" benefit is unusable. I have been seriously impressed in recent years at being able to bypass the rental counter and go straight to my waiting car, equally though I don't want to be paying for unnecessary CDW given that Amex covers it. I may try phoning the local Hertz depot the day before I next collect a car in USA and see if I can pre-arrange removal of the CDW. Any other thoughts / tips anyone?

Thanks
James

Are the kind folks at the airport tollbooth like exit stations able to modify the pre made agreement before you leave by removing the CDW? They always seem to double check everything there, including pre-existing damage, at that time as well.

Vegascrazy wrote:No the Amex insurance guidance booklet is really clear in saying that we should decline all insurances and, if we get flack at the counter, get them to call Amex. I for one would love to chop my rental bill in half by eliminating the CDW but, at the same time, don't want to lose the benefit of avoiding the walk up counter!

Thanks for the guidance James - must admit I'd always thought that meant decline offers to give them a wad to upgrade to zero excess, not to remove insurance that I always thought was mandatory if it comes with it. You live and learn on here!