I got a car rental. I scratched it at two places in parking lot. I have a auto insurance that covers rental, deductible is 500$. I have rental for next 1 week. What should be my next steps? I am new to United states, can somebody please guide on next steps? 1. Should i get it fixed by myself at local garage and then return rental? 2. Should i just contact my insurance and tell them about what happened? What would be the next steps here? Since i did not get hit from other person, can they deny insurance? 3. Should i just leave it as such and return to rental company once rental period is over? How will they charge me? I have booked through budget (or Avis). Please share your experience. Looking for genuine suggestions which can help me avoiding financial loss. Thanks for reading through this. Bad day for me.
If only cosmetic scratches, apply touch up paint & clear coat, probably ~$30 on Amazon or local dealers/auto supply shops
I added the image. Can this be fixed by touch paint and clear coat?
Nope. Now don’t panic. This is what insurance is for. Did you purchase loss damage waiver? Check your contact for “LDW” or “Loss damage waiver”. If yes, just drop the car off when it’s due. If not, give them your insurance details. Do not pay them anything extra. Leave it to your insurance to talk to both parties.
You can fix it with a touch up paint. Just get some sand paper and a touch up paint from Amazon. (They are sold together) . Apply carefully. Probably the dent can't be fixed but you can fix the paint job and hope they don't notice.
What credit card did you use ? I am assuming you have explicitly declined rental insurance, so your rental protection from Credit card will kick in. I hit a deer once and busted the entire front bumper. I returned the car to the rental place, took pictures and told them to contact AMEX on file. Everything was taken care of by the credit card company.
My credit card will not cover it. I have auto insurance which covers rental (non owner car insurance). Deductible 500$. Should i contact insurance company myself or ask the rental company upon return to connect them?
In that case, like others have suggested try to lighten the scratches as much as possible, then return the car. If they contact you with damage (most probably they wont as these scratches dont seem that bad), play dumb and give them your insurance to deal with. Just in case list of CCs that cover rentals https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/cards-rental-car-coverage/
What city did u get scratched..?
Why didn’t you add a LDW when you rented the car?
OP, where did you rent the car from? I rented a minivan once from an airport and dragged the front corner along a brick wall. I just got a “greenie” (green scrub dishwashing pad) and some rubbing compound (Home Depot, Walmart or any auto parts store). Just rub some compound around with the greenie to make it look better and get it dirty again. When I returned my car it was in a dark parking garage and hard to even see it. Even then, many places don’t check for or care about scratches. All the cars end up with some.
Just turn it in and pay the fee. Not worth your time, as you must make way more per hour if you're on Blind
Post pictures of scratches
Done