I managed to scrape my rental

[Xist]

I kind of feel beaten up twice today. Somehow my client did not manage to hurt me despite his best efforts, but for some reason Enterprise e-mailed me at 11pm. They finally have an estimate for the damage and it is over $1,500. I could purchase a perfectly-good beater for that amount!



I didn't think it was that bad. Sand, pull the metal until it is close, use just a little bit of filler, sand, and repaint. The car is less than a year old, so they shouldn't really need to blend it in.

Well, somehow this took twenty-four days, and the estimate came in. I just do not understand what the front bumper, headlamp, and fender have to do with the door. If those are right at the top I wonder how relevant everything else is. A new door is a little over $200 on car-part.com, but they show far more work than that. I would think the rocker panel would be the difficult part. They show $277.40 for that and $493.60 for the door (including the back door!)



They attached these pictures:


I don't see any bumpers, fenders, or headlights!

Since Enterprise requires using a credit card, in theory that will take care of it. I also switched to comprehensive insurance for the rental, but if paying out-of-pocket is cheaper than paying higher premiums for three years, I will do that.

According to this, your insurance can go up 44% after an accident and will stay up for 36 months. I currently pay $90 a month, which works out to $3,240 for three years. Forty-four percent of that is $1,425.60, or 92% of the estimate.

Does that include my $250 deductible?

I have a great deal of math ahead of me. This will probably delay me paying off my student loan (and credit cards).

By the way, I declined accident forgiveness, but I have it anyway. USAA said that I have been with them at least five years without an accident, but this kind of seems like a waste of a Get out of Jail Free card.

[Frank Lee]

Jeebus. Shoulda bondo'd and rattle-canned that sucka before returning it.

[Xist]

I do not have any idea how long it would have been before I could have done that, but renting for a week or two would have been far cheaper.

However, what would they have done had they discovered that I damaged their property, did not tell them, and attempted to hide it?

[Frank Lee]

Would it be any worse?

[Shaneajanderson]

I don't think a claim on a rental insurance policy should affect your regular insurance. I'm pretty sure the rental insurance goes through Enterprise itself, essentially they try to talk everyone into buying it to offset the cost of the few that end up damaging cars. Which I guess is exactly how standard insurance works too, just through a different entity.

[redpoint5]

How did that happen?

Don't file a claim with your insurance; have your CC insurance cover it since it won't go against your record then. I'd have them pull all that other junk you didn't do off the quote too. They are trying to take you for a ride.

Do you purchase auto insurance through a voice conversation? If so, that's why you ended up with extra insurance fluff you didn't want (accident forgiveness). Back when I was a new driver I instructed my agent (in person) to give me the legal minimum insurance because I needed to keep my cost down. Years later I found out he had given me something like quadruple the minimum, and when I angrily confronted him (he works like 3 days a week cause robbing kids is easy money), he said he always gives new drivers higher coverage because it's a "good idea". WTF- I don't have any assets to protect anyhow, and I won't as long as I'm paying too much for insurance.

Anyhow, that's how I discovered online policies, and I got my parents to switch too. Way cheaper, and you specify exactly what you want, with no decisions made by crooks.

You're paying too much for insurance even though USAA is a good place to get it. I'd look into why you're paying too much.

[Xist]

I declined Enterprise's coverage and momentarily upgraded my regular policy.

[Xist]

How did what happen? The damage?

I did not file a claim with my insurance, but Enterprise insisted on taking my insurance when I returned the car.

I have done everything possible with USAA on-line, but the site says that they gave me accident forgiveness because I have had them for at least five years without an accident.

[Stubby79]

Count your blessings...that would cost 3x that here!

[redpoint5]

Yeah, $1500 sounds very reasonable. Replacing the front bumper ranged from that much to as low as $1000... for a piece of plastic and Styrofoam (plus paint and clear coat).

I must have missed something because the story is disjointed and incomplete... another post perhaps?