I’ll never forget the intrepid car rental employee in Anchorage who, when I turned down the optional

"The latest gimmick is to give the customer a false choice with the question, 'Do you want the full insurance cruise ship health ratings or the basic?' the implication being that the insurance was required," he says. "I've heard this line essentially word for word from three agents at two rental companies in the past year."
"Think of it this way," he told me. "If someone buys a loss-damage waiver cruise ship health ratings and is involved in an accident and the car is totaled, it [costs] cruise ship health ratings you less than $100. Without the [insurance] you lose a $25,000 car."
Some states also limit how much a car rental cruise ship health ratings company can charge for insurance. New York, for example, caps a collision-damage waiver policy at $9 a day, which is hardly enough cruise ship health ratings to cover even a small ding in the rental, according to Barton.
If insurance is hardly profitable, then why push it? Numerous car rental insiders have told me that they're evaluated based on how many optional extras are sold with the car, so maybe insurance is just one part of the company's cruise ship health ratings overall strategy of earning so-called "ancillary" revenues from a car.
I'll never forget the intrepid car rental employee in Anchorage who, when I turned down the optional insurance, showed me large photographs of uninsured cars that had been damaged on the Alaskan roads.
"It's always helpful when a consumer knows before renting cruise ship health ratings a car what his or her credit cards might cover or own insurance coverage is and if it transfers cruise ship health ratings to the rental vehicle," says Laura Bryant, a spokeswoman for Enterprise.
It's one thing to play word games or use scare tactics when trying to sell insurance, but quite another to lie. But that's what Fran Hoshiko claims happened cruise ship health ratings to her when she rented a car in Las Vegas recently.
John Healy, an analyst with Northcoast Research, said insurance generates profit margins of up to 80 percent for car rental companies. It s a very profitable transaction for them when they upsell you on a product like that, Healy said.
Is it possible that the statistic cited by Mr. Barton is correct. Perhaps.  But its completely meaning as he is comparing applies and oranges.  In a traditional insurance transaction, yes, collections must exceed payouts.  But, last time I checked, car rental companies don t let you rent cars for free.
What Mr.  Barton is failing to acknowledge is that built into the car rental fee is the cost of repairs for normal wear and tear.  Above that the customer is liable and we know how aggressive car rental companies are in collecting for damages to the car.
So to detemine the profitability of insurance we must add 1) the portion of the rental fee that takes care of normal wear and tear PLUS 2) the money paid by customers for repairs PLUS 3) the insurance collections MINUS the total repair costs.
Of course it s profitable, just as their ding scams are. Now, not all car rental cruise ship health ratings agents are bad apples, but in my travels I ve encountered a few. One obnoxious guy in San Diego wanted to know what my deductible was, claiming it was part of the form he had to fill out.
Mr. Barton is full of unmitigated B.S., if the insurance wasn t profitable, they wouldn t sell it.  Period.  I ve never heard of a SINGLE operator saying the insurance isn t a profit center; I m sure if they thought they could spin it that way, they would.  Routinely.  Because they ve been hassled about insurance costs by consumer organizations since the dawn of time.
That said, my corporate contract (which has excellent cruise ship health ratings rates and is also good for personal travel) includes the CDW/LDW, and it sure is nice to just be able to drive off and not care what damage the car has or hasn t sustained from a previous renter.
I fell for the What s your deductible? line at an Enterprise location once. When I gave the amount, I was told that if the car was returned with damage, my credit card would be immediately charged the amount of the deductible, with the details to be sorted out later.  Whatever.  I returned the car with no problems, but I still wonder why anyone would feel the need to implement such a policy I don t see how it protects the company any more than the standard terms. Maybe it s just the agent s last argument for buying the insurance?
In fairness to Enterprise, and despite the many complaints that appear here, I have never had a problem with them, beyond saying a few polite No s to the up-sell pitch. In fact, most of the agents are very low-key and personable.
However, I have also taken to traveling with a FlipVideo camera that I use to walk around the car, showing me pointing out every ding or questionable area.  The advantage of video is that you can also capture the agent telling you Oh, that s no problem.
Car rental companies can be difficult. They know most of the time we just got off a plane and are in a hurry. What bothers me is renting in another country. cruise ship health ratings I go to Panama often and have walked away from counters that share their name with the companies here. I refuse to pay for insurance when I even carry a letter from my AE Platinum Card that says I do not need to buy it. They push so hard and tell me they will not rent to me. Its amazing when I lean over to a competitor and ask out loud do you have cars? Things change and the hard sell goes away.
Perhaps cruise ship health ratings the best way to deal with the insurance silliness is to start buying insurance and damaging cars more often.  If the selling point is the elimination of financial responsibility for accidents and recklessness, maybe an increase in damage is appropriate.
We rented a car in germany recently and returned it with 4-inch scratch on the passenger door. The rental company billed us $2,0000 for damages. I can t imagine a fix is going to cost that much, so I feel like our damage had to be more profitable to them than than a $9 policy that would have prevented them from passing the cost off to us. We believe our car insurance or credit car will cover what they re billing us for.  But I d love t see a stroy that looks into what rental cruise ship health ratings companies charge for minor damages
3.  Rent your car online where you can accept or decline the options (i.e. GPS, car seats, insurance, etc) so that when you arrive at the car rental desk, the paperwork is already filled outprinted (sometimes at franchise locations and/or small locations that may not be the case).
I rented five cars in the past two weeks from three different rental companies cruise ship health ratings (Alamo, Budget and Thrifty) and I didn t receive any insurance pitch at all from nor did they ask about my insurance coverage and etc.  I made these reservations online where I declined the insurance.
I think that Mr. Barton is full of BS.  Why would a company (i.e. rental car company) sell a product (i.e. insurance) that is not profitable? cruise ship health ratings Furthermore, cruise ship health ratings the insurance is NOT underwritten by the rental car company cruise ship health ratings but it is underwritten by an insurance company.  The rental cruise ship health ratings car company is getting a commission cruise ship health ratings from the insurance company to sell it.  Even if it is self-funded (i.e. the insurance company is assuming the risk), there is reinsurance cruise ship health ratings as well as risk management was done to determine the premium.  For example, a person may pay $ 30 for rental car insurance but the claim rate is NOT 100%. He is full of it.
In Ireland (where credit card companies exclude coverage), the agent for Avis pitched the insurance correctly, but when I said no, she continued, wrote down a figure for an Opel at 28,000 cruise ship health ratings Euros, and said if you damage cruise ship health ratings the car, we required that you buy it for this amount.  If that is acceptable, please cruise ship health ratings initial here. We didn t damage the car, but that is an interesting thing to say.  not if you total , but rather if you damage .
What I have started doing every time I rent a car is to take the front page of the days newspaper take pics with my pocket digital camera of the car inside cruise ship health ratings out.  Do that when you pick it up return it.
I find the full or basic question to be almost standard when I rent cars (maybe because I typically go to one of two companies). I cheerfully reply Oh no thanks, I have insurance! Typically the rental agents just go on to the next question but I have also witnessed bad behavior.
One particular example was at the Dollar Car Rental at BOS, it was a rainy night and they were only running one shuttle to the terminal, so a lot of passengers (including myself) were steamed at being left in the rain for 45 minutes waiting, so perhaps the rental agent was under abnormal pressure. That said, the customer in front of me was at the counter and volunteered (in a perfectly normal tone of voice) I don t need insurance and I ll bring back the car full of gas. The rental agent responded I didn t ask you anything. Awkward pause The customer replied (in a nicer tone of voice than I would have used) I was just saying that I won t be needing insurance and I will refill the gas on the car. And the Dollar agent said If you DON T want me to make MISTAKES, cruise ship health ratings then DON T TALK TO ME unless I ask you a QUESTION.
Needless to say, I think that behavior alone is enough to choose another company next time, even though I don t believe Dollar trained or condoned his fresh tone. And I think no matter how understaffed they were that night, that was the cue for the manager to send this gentleman home.
It seems to me he encounters new employees cruise ship health ratings paid by the commission rack up on insurance sales. Usually an experienced employee evaluate the profile of the renter before making a pitch sale because he don t want to waste time. I have Diner Club Card (the best car-rent coverage Credit Card) and never paid a cent to Car-Rent companies and I never had a sale pitch and they already knew I don t and never take any insurance. The frequent renter profiles stipulate that renter takes insurance or not and history of rental confirm cruise ship health ratings that.
I encountered the identical phrasing at a Kansas City rental counter recently. The counter rep mumbled and when I asked him to repeat himself twice he seemed embarrassed that he was caught . I m convinced that there are monetary gains for the employees and not a case of would you like fries with yo