By my last count, I've driven in 29 different countries and have rented vehicles in 28 of them, so I have a fair bit of experience in this regard. I know enough to always go with the company website if booking in advance rather than using 3rd party like Expedia or Priceline (those bookings almost never work out), I look at the rental car ompany's Term and Conditions before booking (lots of important gotchas there), I make sure to carry at least two credit cards with me in case the rental company puts a big hold on the booking card for a deposit, I know what my credit card will cover and what it won't in case of accidents, I check the fuel gauge before I leave and make sure to fill it to the same level before returning, I toss out my car trash before I return, and before i leave the lot I do a complete walk around taking pictures\videos of every inch of the car with the agency in the background so it's obvious the images were made before leaving and not after returning. If you do these things and you don't get into an accident, you are insulated from 99 percent of all rental disputes.
But renting in Mexico is and always has been tricky because there is an industry -wide policy of being very vague about what insurance is mandatory and what insurance is included in the quoted rate. Most of the time declining additional coverage and using a Visa or Mastercard with a good international rental benefit will get you into your car without a hassle throughout Mexico. But if you've been lured into a booking at some sort of silly rate like $5/day, you have basically set yourself up for a big argument when you finally reach the agent at the counter. They cannot possibly make money at that small rate, so they try to make it up by upselling all sorts of insurance coverage. The problem is that you don't know if what they are telling you is accurate, and the counter agent can't let you drive off without being fired for letting a car leave the lot at a loss.
If you rent in the States, your regular auto policy provides third party liability insurance (TPL) for paying others when you cause an accident that involves other vehicles, people, property. Your decent credit card when used for the rental booking will mostly take care of damage to the rental that you or anyone else causes (basically you are reimbursed for damages caused by theft or collision). The problem is that outside the US your regular auto insurance means nothing. By Mexican law, every car rental must have a minimum of about US$5,000 in TPL. It's really cheap at that low limit, so **most** rental companies include it in their rates already. If you know that minimum TPL is included, you could just go with that coverage, and I've done it many times though I was super careful when I was driving. If you are risk adverse, you can always buy supplemental TPL which every rental company offers, which should be about $10 to $20/day to boost the limit to $37,000 or so (the price of a brand new car). Your credit card should have an Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver benefit (known as CDW) included so you shouldn't need to buy more (though you might have to pay the damage to the rental now and be reimbursed later).
That's all true if the rental company isn't trying to upsell. If they are intent on selling you more, they can (a) claim that you have to buy the TPL as it wasn't included in the rates but that the **only*** TPL they sell is for coverage of 5 million pesos (you'll be paying a lot more than $20/day), (b) TPL is only available as part of a comprehensive and very expensive package with all sorts of things you don't need, and\or (c) claim that they don't accept your credit card for the CDW and so they won't rent the car to you without you buying that big package.
What does all of this have to do with Avis? I'm going to Tulum soon and booked on Avis' website. I then sent a email to Avis' corporate office to ask if (1) TPL was included in the Tulum rate and if so, how much coverage was available, (2) if a credit card company CDW benefit would be remove the need to buy collision ins. from them, and (3) whether I could get the car without buying any supplemental coverage of any type by using my premium Visa card for the CDW and just agreeing to go with the minimum TPL required by Mexican law. After two weeks they came back and said such questions can only be answered by the agents at the Tulum airport location.
That's not customer service; that's the corporate office aiding and abetting the Tulum office to make all sorts of crazy demand to someone who has just gotten off the plane after many hours of travel and who just wants to get to their hotel so they'll pay anything for their rental.
Avis get 2 stars for at least answering. I cancelled immediately and have found another agency who was upfront about all of these things on their website.
Nick in Palm Springs read more
