This is a comment I left on another bloggers site and I felt is was so good that I should leave it here for people to read.
I used to work for Hertz. After working there. I believe the only insurance from Hertz that I would ever get is the Loss Damage Waiver. I know some car locations are not picky when you return a car, but some are and you never know when you are going to be in a place that will be picky. Some places freak out over a little scratch and some only worry when there is a big problem.
That being said if you want to rent at hertz check to see if there are any discount codes. AAA will always give a 10% discount. If you say you are an alumni to a specific school you may get a discount and added benefits...like minimum age fee waived. Also there is an Employee Family discount code that I have somewhere in my apt (I am too lazy right now to get up from the computer and get the code) that gives a 30% discount with discounted insurance coverage. If you want the code just let me know.
One last thing, the cost for the insurance is not uniform. It varies by type of car rented. So if you budgeted for the cost of insurance for a small car yet were forced into a "free" upgrade, the insurance will be higher. The insurance also varies by what state you rent in. Some states have a higher cost in the Loss damage waiver than other states.
Using a credit card for insurance coverage on a rental car is a good idea for someone who does not have insurance. Just make sure you get all the details on what your credit card will do for you. The insurance that the credit card gives you is usually secondary. If you were involved in an accident, some credit card companies require you to charge everything on the credit card and keep the balance until the problem is solved, which might give you extra finance charges. Finally, credit card companies normally only cover specific cars. Thus, you should figure out what cars the credit card covers. This would offset the chance that you get another "free" upgrade into a car that your credit card company would not cover and then be out of luck if an accident happened.
Labels: cars, Credit Card, hertz, Loss Damage Waiver, rent, rental cars