pottingShed

Hi All,

Recently i hired a car with a well-known car hire company here in the UK on my latest visit back. Never been in an accident before, but this time i had to take evasive action from a car pulling out into the road. This meant I ploughed into an old wall at the side of the road. By the time I undid my seat belt and opened the door, the other car had made a dash for it and was not seen again. The police came and went and have said there's no further action from their part....hmmmmpppfff. No witnesses either, so there's nothing or no-one to back-up my version of events. Car looked a bit of a mess, so ot sure whether it will be written off or not.

Lucklily I had taken out full insurance with the hire company so I 'should' not have to pay them anything - I hope! Anyway, I need to complete the accident report form for their insurance company. Is there anything I should watch out for. I don't want to be made liable for anything. I've got the police reference number and will just note down the facts (dry, clear day, good vis, doing under speed limit etc etc).

Any tips? I hate dealing with insurance companies - where they can squirm out of something they usually do!

I'd like it all sorted out soon too, as within 2 weeks time I will be back in Thailand.

I've asked for a copy of the police report too.

Thanks,

PS

ElizabethK

I've had a similar situation where I've rented a car and during the time I've had it, there's been a ding on the side from a supermarket trolley which the car rental company then charged me for. I used my VISA Platinum to originally pay for the rental and they covered the whole thing.

Keep all the info from the police, and did you take any photo's of the scene? Are there any CCTV cameras around?
You said you have the additional insurance purchased from the car rental company too? This should be sufficient for you not to have to fork out any excess payments, it's why they sell it to you when you collect your rental car.

Don't worry about it, just tell it how it is/was on the accident form oh and shame on the other driver just taking off like that (I hope karma comes back to bite him in the arse one day!)

vikingsail

My take, is just standard advice when dealing with insurance companies ( I note you already have the right attitude regarding them imho).

I would keep all documents related to the rental, credit card hire etc etc. I had a similar situation in Europe a number of years ago. I had rented through Amex (deliberately) to obtain their insurance coverage. I rented a vehicle in Germany but booked it via phone and received confirmation before departing from the comfort of my US home here in the US. When I went to Germany they processed my rental and took my credit card details again ( very important little point there as you will see). On the last day of my holiday while driving to the major car rental place of business a young German man ran into the back of my rental ( I think he was a Baker) while I was stopped at a junction. It was quite comical actually because at first he attempted to feign not speaking English but I did my best Capt Mannering impression and essentially said we are not having any of that laddie! We then were very amicable.

It was all sorted out I notified the car rental company and thought that was the last of it!!

Fast forward about 18 months later and I received one of those very intimidating legal type letters (the kind spotty faced law school interns get paid to churn out boilerplate during their summers learning to be leaches on society) from American Express saying I owed about $5000 for the cost of the accident repairs

When I inquired the Amex rationale was that I had paid for the rental in Germany and was therefore not covered by their insurance which only applied if I had booked and paid for the rental in the USA. Now knowing a thing about law, insurance matters and credit card companies and their weasel ways, you will recall I did state I had booked the rental stateside. Fortunately, I was able to prove this and everything went away quite promptly.

To this day I am not sure whether this episode was a mistake on Amex's part or a slick attempt to try and recover money in the hope I had no proof where I had booked the rental? Call me cynical I know.

So this little escapade should indicate what to keep in your situation and explain why I do not trust insurance or credit card companies at all.

callowman

Leg it !!

ElizabethK

They've got his credit card number. He can leg it as much as he wants, the contract is between the cc company and the rental company

pottingShed

Thanks all for the responses. Don't trust the buggers at all, so am just a bit hesitant at providing them too much info. But I'll keep all docs for future reference in case they bill me in 12 months time.

No CCTV around, nor was I in a position to take photos at the time.

PS

Fingers crossed!