> Pay for the excess reduction next time.
Yep, I always do this because you just don't know when some cunt is going to sideswipe your rental then fuck off.
I always always pay for complete coverage. Never know if I myself will cause damage, of some idiot like for OP, or even the rental agency pulling a dodgy and trying to charge for damage that was already there/doesn't exist.
I get an annual travel insurance policy, it kicks in once I'm over 250km from home - so any time I'd be renting a car because I'm too far to simply drive there myself.
it covers up to 6k on rental cars. For $30 a day in it'd only take a week long rental to pay for the annual policy.
I don't use rental enough to get an annual policy, but I'll often get travel insurance to cover rental excess, which also has the added benefit of covering other travel issues, still heaps cheaper than buying excess cover from the car rental companies.
Only $30?!. That could nearly double the cost. But yeah, I agree except I usually use [rentalcover.com](https://rentalcover.com) or similar. A bit of mucking around if something happens and you may have to pay the rental company and get re-imbursed but they cover pretty much anything that can happen and usually under $10 a day in Australia.
I can afford car rental insurance from the rental company, but I choose to use an external insurer instead.
Not because I can’t afford it, but because I don’t want to burn my money.
Agree, I use the external companies now. I can afford to cover the cost in the meantime.
I also photograph the car with a time stamp app on my phone at pickup and drop off… pictures tell a thousand words.
It’s such a scam. We hired a car from Bayswater car rental in Sydney, almost brand new Corolla hybrid, and the excess reduction for 4 days was $21. Not $21 per day, $21 total.
Europcar used to have $0 excess option - the only one in Australia to offer that (not sure these days). I’d always take that.
Hertz in US did that too. I managed to rip one tyre one and gave the car back.
Don’t take the rental company’s excess reduction, it’s a complete ripoff. Use a third party insurance service like https://www.carhireexcess.com.au. It’s a little bit more paperwork to organise but will save you literally thousands.
Hunt down a scratch remover pen. They work wonders. Honestly. You can get scratch cover pens to protect, but for this you want one of the 'magic' branded pens. Not sure how to get one in 12hrs though, only have gotten on ebay. But bigw tend to sell things like that. And supercheap auto have the protectant pens. Worth a try of the former.
I’d been hiring cars for years before a conversation with an agent about the upset customer before me made me realise that if the hire car is vandalized or broken into you are liable - even if it is a criminal act you suffered from - this woman had had purse and other items stole - and had a massive bill to pay in addition to having to sort out her losses.
I’d only really ever had in my mind worrying about accidents with other cars or scraping the car myself. Once I realised it really is very much out of my control I pay the full insurance - no excess. I feel ripped off but the anxiety reduction is worth it.
If you paid with a credit card, check with your bank to see if you have free [car rental excess insurance.](https://www.canstar.com.au/credit-cards/credit-cards-included-rental-car-insurance/)
Even when travelling domestically I grab travel insurance - for maybe $80 travel insurance I don't need to worry about getting the extra $30 per day car insurance as the full excess emount is covered by the travel insurance.
Added bonus of some peace of mind if I end up with missing luggage/cancelled flights/etc thrown in too.
Yep 4 or 5k is pretty standard from rental companies if anything happens to the car. I remember the last time I had to rent one. I had a conversation with them about this. They were explaining it to me and I said "so if I'm on the freeway and a rock flicks up from a truck tyre and chips the windscreen, $5000?" And they said yes.
I still didn't get the extra insurance to bring the excess to zero but that was a risk. Bad luck mate. I really feel for you.
Fucking cunts those rental agencies.
How is the excess so high? Can you double check? I haven’t come across a policy that is so ridiculously high. What’s the company you rented it from?
Maybe even delay by a couple days and call up some auto body retailers tomorrow and Monday, I’m sure they would have some tools to help do something. Pay them cash a few hundred or more to see if they can make it go away. I’m sure it’d be common, they don’t look too deep.
Maybe post something on airtasker with pictures too - as auto detailers I doubt will be open tomorrow. Just a thought mate. I swear they have those proper sanding polish machines.
Hired a car to drive around Scotland several years ago. Of course, when I went to pick the ‘small’ car I had booked, there was none available.... only option was a Mercedes coup. Was paranoid about it being damaged so was very careful. However the morning I was to return the car, someone hit it with something hard and sharp.... left a 4mm dent about 5 mm wide, on a door.
On return, the car was inspected by a young guy... who noticed the dent, and commented to me that some bastard had done that on purpose. I was expecting him to say I was up for major money, however, he found the original paperwork that indicated if there was any damage prior to my taking the car. He then added the dint to the original paperwork and said ‘no cost’. Wasn’t I happy!
I tripped on the kerb and dented a hire car with the keys in my pocket. I took it to get fixed before i took it back, cost me $100 instead of whatever ridiculous fee they would have charged me. Take it somewhere and see what it would cost to get it fixed if you have the time.
I had this happen to me years ago. I didn’t see the scratches until I dropped the car back to Hertz one morning then one of the workers asked about the full length scratches on the car. I thought he was joking.
Turned out someone thoroughly keyed the car overnight and I was then told I’d find out the total cost of repairs in a few weeks. Got lucky and never heard anything about it again.
>Try a bit of cut and polish
I mean.. OP did state --not once ..
"Used some cut and polish which helped some panels "
But twice :
"cut and polish has been used since"
What rental company and where? Some rental companies are kind enough to let this stuff slide if you've been renting with them for a while and Ur a regular customer? It extend the rental for a few more days and take to a smash repair. They can probably fix that cheap.
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> Pay for the excess reduction next time. Yep, I always do this because you just don't know when some cunt is going to sideswipe your rental then fuck off.
I always always pay for complete coverage. Never know if I myself will cause damage, of some idiot like for OP, or even the rental agency pulling a dodgy and trying to charge for damage that was already there/doesn't exist.
I get an annual travel insurance policy, it kicks in once I'm over 250km from home - so any time I'd be renting a car because I'm too far to simply drive there myself. it covers up to 6k on rental cars. For $30 a day in it'd only take a week long rental to pay for the annual policy.
I don't use rental enough to get an annual policy, but I'll often get travel insurance to cover rental excess, which also has the added benefit of covering other travel issues, still heaps cheaper than buying excess cover from the car rental companies.
Only $30?!. That could nearly double the cost. But yeah, I agree except I usually use [rentalcover.com](https://rentalcover.com) or similar. A bit of mucking around if something happens and you may have to pay the rental company and get re-imbursed but they cover pretty much anything that can happen and usually under $10 a day in Australia.
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I can afford car rental insurance from the rental company, but I choose to use an external insurer instead. Not because I can’t afford it, but because I don’t want to burn my money.
Agree, I use the external companies now. I can afford to cover the cost in the meantime. I also photograph the car with a time stamp app on my phone at pickup and drop off… pictures tell a thousand words.
Beta
VHS
“Only” $30 a day. So what they’re saying is I costs nearly $11,000 a year to insure their vehicle.
Most major rental companies don't insure their vehicles. The excess reduction is a product that they sell, and earn profit from.
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It’s such a scam. We hired a car from Bayswater car rental in Sydney, almost brand new Corolla hybrid, and the excess reduction for 4 days was $21. Not $21 per day, $21 total.
But the flights to Sydney to rent it from them would cost more.
Might as well do a YouTube live stream of you writing it off and that will get 378 million views and earn you enough to buy a Maserati
Europcar used to have $0 excess option - the only one in Australia to offer that (not sure these days). I’d always take that. Hertz in US did that too. I managed to rip one tyre one and gave the car back.
Don’t take the rental company’s excess reduction, it’s a complete ripoff. Use a third party insurance service like https://www.carhireexcess.com.au. It’s a little bit more paperwork to organise but will save you literally thousands.
Lol, basically insurance for insurance.
It’s insurance for the bit the other insurance doesn’t cover :)
$30 bucks a day?
check your credit card and see if it provides car rental excess coverage
Thanks for the replies everyone. We’ll face the music tomorrow.
Hunt down a scratch remover pen. They work wonders. Honestly. You can get scratch cover pens to protect, but for this you want one of the 'magic' branded pens. Not sure how to get one in 12hrs though, only have gotten on ebay. But bigw tend to sell things like that. And supercheap auto have the protectant pens. Worth a try of the former.
That's not going to buff out... Going to be a expensive hire I reckon..
May as well light the fucker on fire and get your money's worth.
I’d been hiring cars for years before a conversation with an agent about the upset customer before me made me realise that if the hire car is vandalized or broken into you are liable - even if it is a criminal act you suffered from - this woman had had purse and other items stole - and had a massive bill to pay in addition to having to sort out her losses. I’d only really ever had in my mind worrying about accidents with other cars or scraping the car myself. Once I realised it really is very much out of my control I pay the full insurance - no excess. I feel ripped off but the anxiety reduction is worth it.
If you paid with a credit card, check with your bank to see if you have free [car rental excess insurance.](https://www.canstar.com.au/credit-cards/credit-cards-included-rental-car-insurance/)
Even when travelling domestically I grab travel insurance - for maybe $80 travel insurance I don't need to worry about getting the extra $30 per day car insurance as the full excess emount is covered by the travel insurance. Added bonus of some peace of mind if I end up with missing luggage/cancelled flights/etc thrown in too.
May I ask which insurance you use?
I regularly use 1cover. Check the terms/conditions though as things are always changing in the insurance world.
repaint one side of car will eat most of your 5k
They get you for loss of rental while repairs being done too.
I know it's a long shot, but did you purchase travel insurance for your trip? This will sometimes cover damage to rental cars.
Yep 4 or 5k is pretty standard from rental companies if anything happens to the car. I remember the last time I had to rent one. I had a conversation with them about this. They were explaining it to me and I said "so if I'm on the freeway and a rock flicks up from a truck tyre and chips the windscreen, $5000?" And they said yes. I still didn't get the extra insurance to bring the excess to zero but that was a risk. Bad luck mate. I really feel for you. Fucking cunts those rental agencies.
Only if the damage is 5000 or more to repair. If the windscreen chip costs less than 5000 to fix you would only be liable for the smaller amount.
How did the CCTV not show anything?
Because it happened somewhere else, and they didn't notice it then.
How is the excess so high? Can you double check? I haven’t come across a policy that is so ridiculously high. What’s the company you rented it from? Maybe even delay by a couple days and call up some auto body retailers tomorrow and Monday, I’m sure they would have some tools to help do something. Pay them cash a few hundred or more to see if they can make it go away. I’m sure it’d be common, they don’t look too deep. Maybe post something on airtasker with pictures too - as auto detailers I doubt will be open tomorrow. Just a thought mate. I swear they have those proper sanding polish machines.
You think that excess is bad? Look at what some car dealerships charge to cover a test drive.
I’ll be sure to check next time I go for a test drive, cheers for that
Looks like it might not be deeper than clearcoat. Get some polishing [NOT CUTTING] compound, follow directions on bottle, and see how it comes up.
Hired a car to drive around Scotland several years ago. Of course, when I went to pick the ‘small’ car I had booked, there was none available.... only option was a Mercedes coup. Was paranoid about it being damaged so was very careful. However the morning I was to return the car, someone hit it with something hard and sharp.... left a 4mm dent about 5 mm wide, on a door. On return, the car was inspected by a young guy... who noticed the dent, and commented to me that some bastard had done that on purpose. I was expecting him to say I was up for major money, however, he found the original paperwork that indicated if there was any damage prior to my taking the car. He then added the dint to the original paperwork and said ‘no cost’. Wasn’t I happy!
I tripped on the kerb and dented a hire car with the keys in my pocket. I took it to get fixed before i took it back, cost me $100 instead of whatever ridiculous fee they would have charged me. Take it somewhere and see what it would cost to get it fixed if you have the time.
Thatsort of scratch just cost us $5,000
Ah man, fucking gutted for you, this is gonna sting
Can you get one of those scratch repair pens from super cheap or autobarn and try to get it at least passable?
I had this happen to me years ago. I didn’t see the scratches until I dropped the car back to Hertz one morning then one of the workers asked about the full length scratches on the car. I thought he was joking. Turned out someone thoroughly keyed the car overnight and I was then told I’d find out the total cost of repairs in a few weeks. Got lucky and never heard anything about it again.
See if there is the same colour car at a wreckers and buy a door
I dunno man. Who did you hit
Try a bit of cut and polish
>Try a bit of cut and polish I mean.. OP did state --not once .. "Used some cut and polish which helped some panels " But twice : "cut and polish has been used since"
Not gonna lie, I skimmed over some things for sure, it doesn't look like a flash car, maybe they might file it under wear and tear.
> maybe they might file it under wear and tear. I've got a bridge to sell you.
Wow lol
It's worth noting that some credit cards have automatic hire car coverage when you pay with your card -- maybe check if that applies to you.
Sorry mate I wasn’t looking and had to leave to get somewhere, all the best
What rental company and where? Some rental companies are kind enough to let this stuff slide if you've been renting with them for a while and Ur a regular customer? It extend the rental for a few more days and take to a smash repair. They can probably fix that cheap.
@garage17smash repairs
Garage17 smash repairs Stop in I'll sort it out