I need some help from anyone who knows stuff about car rentals and insurance.
I rented a car yesterday in Cincinnati and didn't get the additional insurance. I drove to Detroit, parked the car and came back 10 minutes later to find that someone had broken the driver's back window. I called Detroit police, filled out a police report then called Hertz and took the car back to a Hertz rental to exchange it out for a new car. I filled out the incident form from Hertz.
Luckily I had majority of my camera gear with me. I had 2 iPods, a PSP, a 580EXII flash and a camera bag stolen.
How bad is Hertz going to overcharge me? I am going to report it to my insurance probably. Does MasterCard provide you any protection since I rented a car with MasterCard? Any advice would be appreciated. Has anyone dealt with this kind of situation?
If you used your Mastercard for the rental, there is probably some coverage available from Mastercard - probably limited to the damage to the rental car. Here is the generic Mastercard coverage page with phone numbers for additional info:
If you have automobile insurance, the fine print of the Mastercard agreement may or may not require that that be used first. That would be a good question for them.
I suspect you will need to look at your own automobile or home-owners policies for possible coverage of the stolen items.
