On Sunday, June 9, 2013 8:55:52 PM UTC-7, 2G wrote:
On Saturday, June 8, 2013 5:30:24 PM UTC-7, wrote:

On Saturday, June 8, 2013 6:33:40 AM UTC-5, GM wrote:



The same scam is being used by US-rental agencies in touristy spots like FL or CA. My brother visiting from Germany got ripped off big time there. They made him pay for the 'CDW' which his insurance company in Germany would have covered.







Next time, check with your own car insurance company if they cover you abroad. Some do.















Uli























On Friday, June 7, 2013 3:05:03 PM UTC-4, wrote:







North Americans! or anyone renting a car in Germany, business is done differently there.































I just had the most terrible experience at Munich Airport. I took my wife back to Germany for the first time since she emigrated in 1954. I treated us to a 16 day Dollar Rent A Car reservation for "an Audi A4 class" car. 506 euros, what a deal, I used the Visa/Expedia travel rewards site, and then phoned Visa for confirmation my gold card covered the usual insurance waiver issue we normally get scammed on.































On arrival, I got scammed.































Very clever actually. Dollar and Thrifty and Buchbinder are represented by Terstappen GMBH, an agency deal, at least in Munich airport, and Frankfurt maybe. They instantly present contract terms not in your confirmation or on their web site requiring you to have a letter from your credit card's insurer that states your specific card number is covered in Germany. Simple stuff to do from home, but in an airport 6 hours ahead of home, with no German money and no German language help? 5 hours later I rented from Enterprise next door. Great people, 880 euros though. Dollar had lowballed the rate to get ranked high in the search.































So I got them their letter.































Then, the scam starts. Without a Visa logo on the letter they refuse to let you use your gold Visa to insure the car, and they pitch their daily insurance which costs more per day than the vehicle itself. 506 euros became 957 euros. I declined. The insurance company is NOT Visa, so they cannot legally display the Visa logo on the compliance letter. Terstappen GMBH knows this so they sell a lot of insurance to unwary travellers. No logo, no car. You're stuck. They show you plastic covered sample letters from Visa USA and Mastercard USA. I guess Visa self insures, but in Canada the Visa card is insured by a different company totally and cannot use the trademark Visa logo.































My bank branch has supported me 100%, but the bank itself is so fragmented into separate companies which are not allowed to interact that a simple fix to the insurance letter is just impossible to get.































What was most upsetting was I used Visa's own travel rewards site to book with Dollar, but then Dollar refuses the Visa card. Who would have guessed?































So, be forewarned, do not assume you can flash your Visa like at home when travelling in Germany and using Terstappen GMBH for car rentals. Be more clever than me and do something to assure you can use your gold card insurance coverages on the car.































Loved Germany. Great people, great food, fantastic beer, and beautiful country. The driving is a joy since everyone knows how to do it well. Even got :58 in a DG505.







Get a rental car through Kemwel when traveling in Germany. They work with reputable large rental car companies and I never had a problem declining special insurance.



Herb



AmEx has an interesting plan where you pay $25 per rental (not per day) for complete coverage, not secondary coverage:



https://www295.americanexpress.com/p...verage/home.do



Tom

But the "complete" coverage does not cover liability.....