THE SCRATCH HEARD ROUND THE WORLD

Last weekend, our two-week car rental came due. We called Avis to ask for an extension, but the cost they quoted us was more than two times the cost of the initial rental. No worries, we thought. We booked another car online for half the price and scheduled the pick up for the same time as the original car drop off. We book through the USAA website, which is automatically discounted 25% and covers the loss/damage coverage the rental companies offer. …or so we thought.

So we dropped off the rental and smugly handed over the keys…ready to trot off and retrieve the next rental car and commend ourselves on the hundreds of Euro we were saving by virtue of our quick thinking! When the check in clerk made his rounds to check out our car and pointed out a one inch scratch in the paint, below the left front headlight. Can you see it here?? Just above the gray plastic piece?

Seriously, this thing was a minor scratch…but they saw it and we were liable. The man ran off to the computer and did 3 minutes of research and came back with a report that indicated that the cost of repair would be….884 EURO!!! HUH?? Which of course, they wanted to charge our credit card for immediately! We nodded and reacted with calm surprise. We asked what the next steps would be, signed the slip admitting our responsibility for the scratch and shuffled toward the pick up desk, dragging our tails behind us.

We called USAA immediately after leaving the garage (if you don’t count the 10 minutes it took us to figure out that we needed to dial a “+1” before the US number) and explained the story. Turns out the USAA website link we used does NOT cover your deductable, but the major costs and liability, big whoop. So in actuality, the claim went directly to our car insurance, as it would have regardless of how we booked the car. Our hundreds of dollars of savings passed quickly before our eyes. Frankly had we bought a black sharpie and colored in the white plastic showing through the scratch, none of this would have happened.

Save the day – we realized that the credit card we used also had rental car coverage and it DOES cover the deductible. So, assuming the credit card insurance comes through, we’re back in business! The lady I spoke with today with the credit card insurance policy said that she had a call just yesterday where the German rental company found damage while SEARCHING UNDER A RENTAL CAR. Now this is a thorough culture!!! Let this be a lesson to you all – if you rent a black car, especially in Germany, buy a black sharpie and don’t be afraid to use it!