By David Kaye (BonaireTalker - Post #53) on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 1:01 am: |
(I started to post this to a thread supposedly about accommodations at the Plaza, which had wandered off into truck rental info, but I thought it might be more useful to post it here, in its own thread.)
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By Richard (BonaireTalker - Post #22) on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 10:28 am: |
One concern that I have always had is whether a U.S. credit card will cover your collision damage waiver in Bonaire. Next question is whether the Bonaire rental agency recognizes this coverage from a foreign agency. Even if you could get the U.S. card issuer to eventually cover a claim I suspect that you would have a major hassle getting off the island until you had covered any damages on the spot.
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By Robert Fishman (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #158) on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 10:43 am: |
Richard,
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By David Kaye (BonaireTalker - Post #54) on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 10:42 pm: |
Okay, let me try to be more precise about some of the differences among the types of insurance you can choose for your vehicle rental in Bonaire
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By David Kaye (BonaireTalker - Post #56) on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 10:58 pm: |
In the post above, I forgot to thank Jake Richter for bringing AmEx's Premium insurance plans to the attention of the BT community in this thread: http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/32/184087.html?1105767306
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By Robert Fishman (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #159) on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 11:07 pm: |
David,
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By David Kaye (BonaireTalker - Post #57) on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 11:32 pm: |
Robert,
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By Scott Phillips (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #128) on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 10:57 am: |
One further note based on my experience with Amex Premium Car Insurance. Once enrolled, every time a car rental charge appears you are charged $19.95 and the coverage kicks in. However, if your rental car on Bonaire is part of a package (for example, Buddy Dive's Drive and Dive, or similar packages offered by other resorts), there is no car rental charge per se on your Amex card, and the insurance will not kick in. What you need to do is to charge the resort's package deal to your Amex card, and then call Amex to explain to them that this charge includes a car rental and that you want to be charged the $19.95 and have the insurance kick in. Both times I have done this it required some persistance and patience while on the phone to Amex, since the operators generally did not understand what I was trying to accomplish. Ask for a supervisor, and be patient as you are transferred from one person to another for what seems like an eternity.
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By Toby and Sandy (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #8) on Monday, February 21, 2005 - 1:34 pm: |
David:
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By David Kaye (BonaireTalker - Post #64) on Monday, February 21, 2005 - 4:49 pm: |
Thanks, Toby and Sandy.
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By Mel Briscoe (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #5) on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 3:27 pm: |
Not to disagree with my good friend Scott Phillips, but I just called AMEX on another matter and then asked about the Premium Car Insurance, and was directed to 1-800-326-2078, where I spoke with Nathan, in the company in Ohio that is actually the car insurance affiliate for AMEX. According to Nathan, all-inclusive packages like Dive-and-Drive at Buddy Dive do NOT require a special call to AMEX to tell them you've rented a car, nor does the charge need to be put through in advance of using the car. That is, you just rent using the AMEX card, everything goes on account, and if there is a problem and AMEX gets this huge bill from Buddy Dive, then they call Buddy Dive and get copies of all paperwork and evidence it really was an AMEX change, and it proceeds from there.
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By Scott Phillips (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #134) on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 7:12 pm: |
Not to disagree with my good friend Mel Briscoe (the man responsible for a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday sung to me on my birthday in 2003), but I somehow wonder if taking that approach might turn into a battle with AMEX. My thoughts are that AMEX would not want to cover you under those circumstances, since you were never charged for the insurance ahead of time. If they allowed this policy, then no one would ever pay the $19.95 unless they needed to file a claim, and they would never make any money! I've personally gotten a LOT of conflicting info from AMEX on this, so who knows!
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By Mel Briscoe (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #6) on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 7:21 pm: |
Not to disagree with myself, it does seem that this whole thing is getting complicated and perhaps not worth the efforts. When I come with a group to Buddy Dive, the customers pay my Local Dive Shop, which pays the travel broker, which pays Buddy Dive. Even if the customers pay the LDS with AMEX, what does that have to do with Buddy Dive and a truck rental? Since it is $10/day x 7 days = $70 to purchase the CDW directly from Buddy Dive, and $20 for the week from AMEX (if it were possible), the savings (for my trips) are only $50....
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By Purple_twins (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #7) on Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 10:18 am: |
Does anyone know how this is arranged with European creditcards. I called Visa in the Netherlands and they claim the cdw is not covered by a Dutch Visa card. I'm not sure with Mastercard, but maybe someone already has experience with this?
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By carter farrell (BonaireTalker - Post #17) on Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 1:33 pm: |
To the best of my knowledge european cards do NOT cover any car insurance nor is there an option to do so. This is definitely true for AM EX sweden. Generally our "fringe" benefits are much less than Americans enjoy. This is true even for DAN insurance!
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By Ron Myers (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #120) on Thursday, April 28, 2005 - 8:28 pm: |
As of today (4-28 2005) the Amex premium is still available, and saves me a couple hundred $$ for my trip.
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