ASSumptions

[bankworking]

Long-time SC signs in to speak with someone about a problem. (Is that the start of a joke?)

Somehow, I have never sat down with this customer, but three of my co-workers tell me they will NOT sit down with him. There was an incident a few weeks ago where he managed to talk the manager of underwriting (note that underwriting doesn't normally talk to customers directly) into giving him a chance on a 14k car loan despite some major credit issues, and he got pissed at a co-worker for not giving him the loan at $15,600 when the loan had all sorts of notes on it like: NOT TO EXCEED $14,000. and SPOKE WITH MEMBER AND HE UNDERSTANDS THE CONDITIONS. Notes that were all written by the manager of underwriting. Who was not there to try to talk to at 5 minutes before close because underwriters get to leave at a decent hour, especially underwriting managers.

Anyway, today's issue.

Customer got a credit card with us. Our website, in advertising our credit cards mentions that some of our cards include "auto rental insurance". Sooo... without any effort on his part to find out what that actually meant, customer used his credit card to pay for a rental car... and didn't insure it. Later, he gets a speeding ticket in said rental car and cop finds out he has no proof of insurance, so he's off to the judge to either show he was insured or lose his license.

So SC is coming in to speak with us (again apparently...he tried a different branch the day before) to either get proof of insurance or a letter stating that we told him he was insured and we were wrong.

Let me explain a credit card's "auto rental insurance". It is a supplemental insurance coverage that could, if you get into an accident while in a rental car, cover damages to that car that your primary insurance does not cover. In some circumstances, it could also refund the rental fee. That's about it. If that doesn't sound like much, you're right. But it is free. You get it automatically if a covered credit card is used to pay for the rental car.

Notice that nowhere in that description is any mention of liability insurance.

Our state requires liability insurance as basic state minimum. It doesn't care if you get your own car fixed, just that the other person has some protection if you get in an accident. And if SC had ever bothered to read the credit card details... oh, but wait. His credit card details held no mention of auto rental insurance? Well, that's because he requested a mastercard. Our agreement with mastercard does not include rental car insurance, only our Visa's have that insurance.

But our website advertisements said...

Uh-huh. Our website mentions that we have credit cards that include rental car insurance with a note to see terms and conditions for details. Terms and conditions 1) only have the rental insurance on our visa's and 2) even if he had a visa would not cover minimum insurance requirements for the state. It is a FREE SUPPLEMENTAL INSURANCE. What do you seriously expect?

But I was smart. I knew SC was going to take this up the chain as far as he could go, because I did a quick review of his account and that's what he always does. I took it to management myself, going over to corporate and making certain my communications cc'd the manager of underwriting (who is the one who keeps making exceptions for this customer). I got one of the big-wigs to write out a statement that I could give to the member basically explaining what the insurance (that he did not have) covers and that it very specifically does not cover proof of insurance requirements. In nicer terms, stating that he was sol.

And he's to call them directly if he has any questions.

Successful passing of the buck.

Idiot.

[sirwired]

FYI, what the SC needs to be doing is calling the rental company. Liability insurance is on a per-car, not a per-driver basis (although in the case of personal-owned cars, the record of the drivers affects the rates.) The rental company is the one that holds the basic liability policy, and you don't have to pay extra for it. In fact, I'm not sure it's even possible to buy liability insurance if you don't own a car, and it's not possible to register a car (rental agency or not) without it.

Really, I'm surprised the cop wrote him a ticket for the "no proof of insurance", unless of course, the SC failed to present the rental agreement. (While the rental agreement isn't proof of insurance, all rental cars have minimum liability, so it's just a certified mail letter away from the ticket getting dismissed.)

On top of that, if the SC owns a car himself, his regular auto policy should ALSO cover liability (and possibly collision) for rental cars.

[PepperElf]

to be honest i'm kinda surprised the rental company even let him rent.

i've rented in states that had mandatory insurance policies etc and the rental agency gave customers 3 choices:
1) present auto insurance proof
2) call your insurance company for proof of account*
3) you pay for insurance from them at their rates

if you can't do any of those your don't get to rent.


* note, always make sure they get the RIGHT account though. In my case, my insurance agent had both a "Pepper Elf" (me) and a "P. Elf" (someone else). So at least once my rental ended up on P. Elf's account, for which I was rather annoyed.

(note my real last name is rather long and somewhat unique... i honestly hadn't expected someone else in the same city to have the same first/last combo. even in the Navy there was only one or two other sailors with my last name, it's that unique)

[wolfie]

On top of that, if the SC owns a car himself, his regular auto policy should ALSO cover liability (and possibly collision) for rental cars.

Only case I know of where your regular policy covers liability on rental cars is when it's a long-term rental due to your car being in the shop to repair collision damage. Covering collision on a rental car is more common - you can get a rider for your policy (around $50/year) that covers the equivalent of LDW (around $20/day).

Reminds me of a situation when I was working in computers. I frequently took business trips that lasted 2 weeks or more, and the beancounters would routinely reimburse the LDW on the rental car. When I bought my own car, I asked whether I'd be able to expense that rider on the first trip of the year when I rented a car and didn't get the LDW. They didn't have an answer, but would get back to me. After about 6 months of status checks, I gave up on getting an answer. Should be a "no-brainer" - $50/year vs. 2 week blocks of $20/day, but that's a MiM issue (and a "no-brainer" in another sense of the term).