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Comment by simonebrunozzi | Hacker News Reader

We're talking about car rentals, and I'd like to tell you about my dozen or so times when I managed to book a car in Mexico and pay roughly $3-$4 a day, for 1-2 weeks total.

The short version is that I never buy insurance, which is where most car rental companies make their money on for American tourists. Everyone else buys insurance. We don't (we book with a credit card that gives us insurance, simple as that).

Every single time we have to go back and forth with the guy at the counter for 10 minutes, before he realizes that we won't buy the insurance, that our insurance is valid, and that we're going to get off with a super-cheap car rental on that day. Shurgs, gives us the keys, next customer por favor.

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Boy I hate the insurance shakedown. Enterprise did that to me the other day, and they were not friendly when I politely told them no. They wanted to know who my insurance carrier was and what the policy was. I told him it was just fine and if they don’t like it I can go to somebody else. They did end up renting me the car, but I felt like I was being treated like a criminal.

Another time: I was behind a couple at Hertz and the employee at the desk made those people call their insurance company on the spot to verify coverage. Ridiculous.

While they are also trying to sell you their overpriced insurance I can totally see why they want to check that you have the insurance that covers >$20k of their assets if you crash into another car in an unfamiliar city.

A lot of people don't have comprehensive coverage on their own vehicle, or have a personal vehicle that is of lower value than the one they are renting. I'm not excusing the rude/hostile tactics that some rental places force people to endure (for which they should not get repeat business and be open for legal action) but I can see some reasoning for them to check insurance policy details before handing over the keys.

If you rent with most credit cards, it comes with insurance. Most insurance policies have a rental provision. Would you rather provide that information electronically, or be forced to call your insurance company at the counter? I think it’s an intimidation tactic and unreasonable.

Ridiculous? Would hand your car keys to a stranger who couldn't produce insurance documents?

If that's my line of business, why am I not responsible for insuring my business assets?

Think about it for a second instead of asking crazy questions. The drivers of your cars need to be incented not to wreck them. If you bore sole responsibility for insurance, drivers would take your vehicles to the racetrack, steal parts from them, go off-roading, engage in demolition derbies, drive recklessly, report them stolen, leave them in random places... and plenty more completely irresponsible behavior. Good luck finding an insurer for your "business assets."

>Every single time we have to go back and forth with the guy at the counter for 10 minutes, before he realizes that we won't buy the insurance, that our insurance is valid, and that we're going to get off with a super-cheap car rental on that day. Shurgs, gives us the keys, next customer por favor.

Irish car rental agencies have found the way around this, which is that, if you have valid insurance other than theirs, they'll happily rent to you, so long as you're content to have a significant portion of the car's entire value charged (not preauthorized, as much as they say that's what they're doing) to your credit card and refunded upon return.

If you have the credit limit for it, and it's refunded upon return, who cares?

Rental cars in Mexico don't come with legally required liability insurance, and your own liability insurance from USA doesn't count. Your credit card doesn't offer liability insurance, just collision and damage protection.

I don't know if they tried to explain this to you and failed, but at the end I guess they just let you drive without legally mandated insurance and take the risk. I personally wouldn't take that risk in Mexico (or any other foreign country).

I used to say no. Up to a point when I rented a Qashqai in Belgium and caught a flat tire in London on Saturday. £280 and 6 hours later it was all sorted but that one tire was more expensive than the whole rental.

Or let me tell you about a van I once rented. Ended up stranded in a tunnel under Jena in Germany and ADAC came via Enterprise - €440 for towing on top of €680 rental.

My understanding is that you are legally required to carry third-party liability (TPL) insurance in MX, but credit cards only provide collision/damage insurance.

Do you have a CC that explicitly covers TPL?

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