Our MasterRental (and Thrifty Rental Car) Experience

When we hired a car to drive through the Outback of Western Australia, we never thought that we would have to face the consequences of our decisions made when we initialed the dotted line to reject the collision damage waiver (or CDW). But all that changed that one fateful morning of 17-June 2006 when a kangaroo hopped right in front of our car on the Brand Highway (Hwy 1) just a little over an hour north of Perth (you can read the related travel blog here).

Here is what happened in terms of the financial aftermath of the incident... (if you don't want to read through the article, I've provided a table summary and how it compared to the car rental insurance)

HOOPS AND HURDLES

Thrifty Rental Car already charged $2750 AUD ($2028.67 USD given the current exchange rate at the time) to my credit card. There was also an additional foreign transaction fee of $60.86 USD, which would not be covered by anyone.

By now, we managed to get a hold of a phone number to call Master Rental directly (via internet) since my Advanta card didn't have a number to call if we were outside the United States (only an 800 number was printed on the back of the card).

When we finally got home, I received the anticipated letter in the mail a few days later. This letter had their toll free phone number, email address, fax, and snail mail contact as well as a request to fill out the claim form and to submit MasterCard billing statements showing transaction charges and credit limits that pertained to booking this trip.

Naturally, I filled out the form and emailed them scans of both the Master Rental Claims Form as well as all pertinent billing statements involved in charging to the Australia Trip. Providing the billing statements was tedious since we booked with a travel agent and they booked on our behalf so I had to give them everything, including the initial deposit and all subsequent payments to the travel agent.

The reason they wanted the billing statements was to show that I indeed used their credit card for all of the car rental expenses.

I then followed up on weekday mornings before going to work to ensure they received the required documents. But given the way they handle the paperwork, I couldn't actually confirm with them that they received anything until at least 48 hours later. So, I waited the requisite time period and then followed up with a call.

At that point, they said they got the email attachments and now needed Open and Closed Rental Agreements as well as an appraisal of the damage estimates and a Rental Company Incident Report.

Some of these forms I didn't have available to me right away. For example, I didn't have the Closed Rental Agreement in my possession. So I made a long distance inquiry with the Thrifty Rental Car asking for a copy of the Closed Rental Agreement. It wasn't easy since I wasn't sure if I had to call the branch in Perth, Broome, or their headquarters in Darwin. Either way, I would get transferred to the right person (sometimes after being disconnected and trying again) and eventually got what I was after.

At that point, I emailed MasterRental and got them the forms they requested. I followed up later and then was told they didn't receive one of the requested forms.

I knew this was ridiculous because all the forms were attached in the same email. But not wanting to belabor the point, I just resent the material again and followed up 48 hours later.

ERRONEOUS CHARGES

This time, I was being charged $4003.76 AUD (or $2915.94 USD after the exchange rate) plus $87.47 in foreign transaction fees. I was quite alarmed by this apparent double-charge so I immediately started making long distance calls back to Australia's Thrifty Rental Car to inquire about it.

After several calls were made, I was eventually told that the original $2750 AUD charge was erroneous and I would be refunded that amount. I was then told that I was actually financially responsible for the "Additional Single Vehicle Liability" of up to $4400 AUD.

Their manager informed me that $2750 is for a multi vehicle incident (an incident where another vehicle is involved and clear information details on the vehicle is obtained) and $4400 is for a single vehicle incident (single is an incident relating to tree, animal ,rollover type incident where only one vehicle is involved). That was why I was charged the greater amount.

As I hawkishly checked my credit card statement, I saw 4 different refunds of $728.30, $436.98, $519.26, and $333.81 (all in USD after the exchange rates). I had been warned that they had to give the refund in chunks because of some limitation that prevented them from providing a lump sum refund.

When all was said and done with this ordeal, I netted a loss of $71.18 since I was dinged for the multiple foreign transaction charges and the strengthening dollar after I was initially erroneously charged. So I wasn't totally reimbursed for the erroneous charge, but there were bigger issues to contend with so I didn't put up a fight nit picking about this.

The financial aftermath (in US Dollars) of the erroneous charges by Thrifty...

Pros and Cons between Car Rental Insurance and Credit Card Insurance

How would this have compared with the Car Rental Company's Insurance?
Realize that we might have still been financially responsible despite this insurance because it could've been argued that we drove too early in the morning. Moreover, it is assumed that excess liability is reduced from $2750 AUD to $385 AUD. We were liable for the additional single vehicle liability of $4400 AUD. Still, we'll play this numbers game so you can compare how the numbers match up assuming we were covered

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