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Rental car accident & loss of use

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dc9mm

Junior Member
Iam located in NY state

Hit a elk in Yellowstone Park WY. I was driving a rental car a small SUV. My auto insurance is paying for car repair but i was told by a collection agency the car rental company uses that they want $2820 in "loss of use" $94 a day for 30 days. I used a platinum mastercard for the rental but Mastercard wants a fleet log. From what i have found out no car rental place will ever provide that so its mastercards way of getting out of paying any loss of use charges.
I puchased the rental online at hotwire and the total rental cost for 7 days was only about $270. Thats $38.57 a day not $94.

So if i refuse to pay, what exactly can the car rental place do? This occured in late september which is when yellowstone park becomes a ghost town. The car rental place at this time of year wasnt even close to being out of cars.

If they sue me do they have to do it in NY were iam located?

When i spoke to women from collection agency i said they sure werent out of cars at this time of year, she said its loss of revenue were the car could have been used by staff or in a promotion and since it couldnt iam on the hook for the $2820.
 


ecmst12

Senior Member
Mastercard won't pay because it's a bogus charge, and you shouldn't pay either. Tell them to prove they had a financial loss due to that car being out of service (meaning they had no other cars to rent those days and had to turn business away) or you are not paying a dime.

$94/day is probably the maximum retail charge that they have on that car, if absolutely no discounts or promotions are applied.
 

racer72

Senior Member
Read the agreement you signed when you rented the car. You likely agreed to the loss of use. I rented a car a few weeks ago, the loss of use clause was buried in the small print. It cost me $13 for additional coverage to cover this just in case I was in an accident.
 

dc9mm

Junior Member
Read the agreement you signed when you rented the car. You likely agreed to the loss of use. I rented a car a few weeks ago, the loss of use clause was buried in the small print. It cost me $13 for additional coverage to cover this just in case I was in an accident.
Iam sure there is alot of stuff in the contract. That doesnt mean its a legitimate charge. Yes i could have refused rental but i beleive now that all car rentals have this clause in it. Plus i had allready PAID for the car rental through Hotwire and it wasnt refundable. I didnt see this clause on Hotwires web site so i actually entered a contract when i paid hotwire online.

Iam just wondering if anyone else has had expereince with this. If i refuse to pay if they dont prove they had actual loss of revenue what will happen? Do they sue me? If so can they file a suit in WY even though i lve in NY. Accident was in WY.
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
They will threaten to sue you but I highly doubt they will actually do it. And if they do, I don't think they can win.
 

dc9mm

Junior Member
They will threaten to sue you but I highly doubt they will actually do it. And if they do, I don't think they can win.
That's what iam hoping is its just a threat but if they sue iam curious if the court will require them to show some type of proof they had loss of use. Right now they just took the maximum allowed by law, the 30 days and there $94 a day rental fee and said there you owe us that. I will post what happens over the next few months. I did change my credit card number they had on file so they couldn't just put a $2820 charge onto the credit card.
 

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