jkruege12

I rented a Dollar Rent a Car through Travelocity for Frankfurt, Germany last August, 2011. When I got to the rental counter at the airport I found out they would not take my VISA card for the car insurance. They would only take Mastercard with a letter with my name on it from Mastercard with the insurance rules on it. They would not let me rent the car without buying their CDW. I had to rent a car so I had to take the insurance. I checked with the other car rental places but they wanted too much money for a last minute rental but they also would accept any card and the insurance coverage from that card. In my research Dollar was the only car rental place that would not take the VISA insurance. They also will not take 3rd party insurance, ex: Travel Guard. I had two other couples at the rental desk that had the same problem. I also met a couple later that Dollar would not take Travel Guard as 3rd party insurance. This rental cost me $600 more money for the insurance that VISA will cover for free.
I did read the fine print on Travelocity's website but missed the part about not taking VISA for the insurance. I emailed and called Dollar with my problem and all they said was this is out policy and they would not help me out. After much looking I also did find this policy on Dollar's website so VISA told me they could not help me.
This is mostly a warning to people to " READ the FINE PRINT " I have traveled to Europe many times and this is the 1st time I got taken on my travels.

Thanks for reading this, I hope it helps someone.....

Melnq8

Huh. Did you ask them why? I'm just curous what might have precipitated their refusal to deal with Visa.

I assume you had to buy the insurance because you didn't have a letter from Mastercard?

I find this interesting because I routinely use my Visa card for car rentals. I used to use Mastercard, but they require that you decline all insurance...some countries, like Australia and New Zealand, have CDW built into the rental costs so it's impossible to decline all of it.

Thanks for posting this. I haven't rented in Germany for ages, but it's good to know what's going on.

qwovadis

Good advice many CCs do not have built in rental ins

Usually for me Amex MasterCard BUISINESS cards only.

Always wise to check with rental agency to see if they take

Your particular card. Do not think you were "taken"

Just that Visa cards generally do not have cover.

Melnq8

I've always had insurance with my Visa and Mastercard qwovadis, although it could well vary with the level of card.

jkruege12

reply to your response. My VISA is a platium card. It has Insurance coverage. I've used it many times for car rentals. Dollar will not accept VISA's insurance if you are from the USA. They will accept VISA if you are Canadian. No clue why. They told me VISA does not pay off if there is damage to the car. If you think about it, if there is a crash that excedes your VISA limits it's up to the person to take care of the difference and VISA willl take care of that difference. I also seen a note where a person had a $50000 limit for insurance and Dollar wanted a $75000 limit so they still would not accept the card..
I probably was not taken by Dollar but there pratice of not accepting VISA is not right. VISA told me when I disputed the charge that they could not help me because the fine print had the rules but Dollar was not being a good company.

pdx

Wow, this is good info, jk12. And a bummer. We've always used the VIsa as insurance coverage. Dang. We'll probably stick with autoeurope if this is the way it's going to be from now on. Thanks again.