Last month, my husband and son traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio to watch the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament. They rented a car through Hertz for the duration of their trip. Unfortunately, while driving back to the airport on the last day, a rock hit their windshield and cracked it. Thankfully, my husband had booked the rental car with his Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) card, which is known for having great rental car insurance.
Timeline and Process for Car Damage Claim with Hertz and CSR Card
August 14: Windshield damage occurred on the way to the airport. My husband pointed out the damage when he returned the car. Hertz told him he would receive an email with the estimate. When my husband said he’d be working with Chase for the claim payment, the Hertz rep told him that usually credit card companies don’t cover tires and windshields.
August 26: Hertz called and emailed my husband with the estimate of $545 for the damage. My husband called Chase, and Chase instructed him to go to eclaimsline.com to file a claim. He had to upload documents from Hertz as well as photos of the windshield. He then sent the completed claim number back to Hertz.
September 6: Chase paid the entire claim amount to Hertz.
That’s it!
Overall Thoughts
I don’t like renting cars on vacations, as I prefer to use public transportation whenever possible. But, some locations almost require a rental car. I’m glad my husband remembered to use his CSR card for the car rental, and we plan to always use one of our Chase Sapphire cards for future car rentals. Check out this article on WalletHub for a ranking of the best credit cards that offer rental car insurance. CSR is at the top.
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
@Snuggs5500 No, this story is not a sham, and I’m not patting myself on the back. My point was that we don’t deal with rental cars very often, so I’m glad this situation worked out well. Thanks for reading.
Hoe relevant is your “preferred choice” of transport in an article presumably about the CSR auto insurance coverage and experience? Or was the story a sham so you could pat yourself on the back?
Sorry, just my impression.
It seems all those rental car insurance benefits that come with a credit card (particularly from Chase) all seem to state their coverage is secondary, where primary insurance is essentially mandated by law (everywhere in US I have ever been to).
The simple, straightforward process that was also quick and got them to pay the benefit without hassle sounds damn near like a fairy tale based on my extensive experience with many issues over many years, especially Chase and their products.
That being said, did you and/or your husband have no primary auto insurance and that is why they covered with the protection? How is it they did not exercise their “secondary insurance” clause since this seems like the typical loophole when these kinds of protections are offered.
@Brian We have primary insurance for our personal cars and did not elect additional coverage on the rental. The CSR rental car insurance is primary with no deductible. See this info: https://www.chase.com/personal/credit-cards/education/basics/chase-sapphire-rental-car-insurance-guide
The moral of this story is don’t believe anything the Hertz rep tells you. Their job is to get the claim paid and will lie to you to make that happen. That being said, from my experience, once you have all of the documents you need from Hertz, if it was a a relatively small amount of money relative to your credit limit, it is probably easier to just go ahead and pay it and have Chase reimburse you.
Thanks for sharing, that’s a good data point for any future claims.
@Aleks It’s one of those benefits we hope we never have to use.