To suggest splitting the rental damage fee?

[Wynter123]

Feel like I'm mad so please - share your opinions!

Group of 15 of us recently went away for a week in Spain - big friendship group, nice trip.

We rented a few cars while there and I was the named driver/card holder on one of them. The cost of the hire cars were split out between the entire group (3 cars total).

One day, we came back to the car park to see someone had clearly driven (very slowly!) into the back of 'my' hire car and scratched/dented it. It wasn't a huge crushing dent, but it was definitely noticeable (enough for us to notice it as we walked back...).

After returning the car to the hire company at the end of the trip, and a tonne of arguing back and forth/phonecalls/contacting the bank/researching every avenue... I've had £775 taken from my credit card by the hire company and received a bill for 'damages'.

Now - whether that is outrageous from the hire company is another matter. I have tried every avenue to argue it (trust me!) with no luck. Tried contacting the bank etc etc but no, the money is gone.

My question is: only three people in the friendship group has offered to chip in to cover the cost. When I said what had happened, a couple of people went "oh no that's awful!" but most of them said (and have still said) nothing at all.

AIBU to feel pretty distraught (and angry?) that the majority of my friends are happy for me to lose almost £800 for something that wasn't my fault and could have happened to anyone? What would you do in this situation? I don't want to create an argument by calling it out but also feel like I shouldn't really have to - is it not the normal response for people to go "of course we will all contribute?". To be honest I wouldn't even mind if people contributed £10, £20... - anything would be appreciated, but not offering anything at all feels really rude. What do you think? 😥

You could have still taken out the insurance even if the rest of your group didn’t want to. Saying that, I wouldn’t be impressed if for the sake of them not wanting to pay £50 each, I had to pay hundreds. They’re not friends.

I would go out to them and say that they all agreed not to take the extra insurance, therefore the implication was they all agreed to take the risk should something happen. Each persons share is therefore xx and here’s my bank details for you to pay in and see what happened

i would actually send a second chaser. If necessary

Then I would start taking a step back from those who don’t pay, and certainly would not be putting anything in my name on any future holidays

I’d go for a friendly message first- it could be they’ve just been distracted and forgotten about it/think you are still trying to get the charge waived or maybe a few are just hoping you won’t mention it, but don’t let them get away with that! I’d just say ‘I’ve tried everything, but company aren’t budging - and have taken £750 from my account :-( Split equally between us all that’s £50 each, so please could everyone transfer £50 to me to cover this. Thanks!’ Hopefully the people that have already paid/agreed to pay will respond saying no problem/done- which will hopefully then spur the others on!

You could have still taken out the insurance even if the rest of your group didn’t want to. Saying that, I wouldn’t be impressed if for the sake of them not wanting to pay £50 each, I had to pay hundreds. They’re not friends.

Shame the rest into paying
I’ve done this before twice got every single penny 😂

You have said a few have offered
so maybe put in the group Watsapp
blah blah damage is 775 that’s 50 quid each Attached screen shot of bill
When you have paid I will mark it on here

needs to be paid by 15 Sept as that’s when my bill is due
bank details are ….
never hiring a car again with you tight cunts

Julie £50 paid
John £50 paid
jack £50 paid
myself. £50 paid

peter
jame
bob
Jane
Harry
Megan ( I know you can afford it )
William you can definitely afford it

if you Watsapp me when you have paid and screen shot payment so I know who it’s from xxx.
tight bastards hope you have sunburned boobs and dicks

Too late I knkw now... But it is possible to get much cheaper waiver insurance before you leave UK!

Off-topic slightly but third-party excess insurance is a lot cheaper than the ones the car hire firms try to push on you and always worth taking out.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/#excess

Don’t tiptoe around the issue.

These people clearly aren’t real friends so why do you care about it being awkward? They are taking advantage of this fact, it’s very clear

As an aside you can buy excess insurance which costs about £60 for a year from independent companies. Which is much much cheaper than hire car company insurance

OP, is there anyone in the group you know well enough to ask (separately from the main group) if they’d message everyone suggesting splitting the cost? That way it doesn’t have to come from you if you feel awkward about it.
Also, FYI for future trips you can get rental car excess insurance cover very cheaply from some insurance companies (ie, NOT the rental company); we always do that as it’s a fraction of the cost the rental companies charge.
(Sorry for missing the point of your post…)

This exactly. In my opinion they are not true friends. I am outraged on your behalf.

Also for future, you can buy a waiver from a different company that’s much cheaper, usually about £20)

Money Maxim do such insurance policies. About £50 versus hundreds from the hire company

and I agree that you should post a factual, short message in the group chat with your details, hopefully once the ones who previously offered transfer the money and post it in the group it shames the others into doing the same. Not that they should need shaming!
This would really taint my view of these people, they would seriously prefer you to pay nearly 800 quid than 50 themselves, how fucking selfish!

Have you only told them about the extra charge you got or have you actually asked them for a share? I do think as the driver you were responsible for the extra insurance because ultimately anything goes wrong it’s on you not the others. Even if no one was willing to pay it I would have just paid for that part myself. You shouldn’t have to of course not but it would have been cheaper than the bill. I would put in the group message something along the lines of asking everyone for X amount here’s account and sort code. Then point out you did suggest the extra insurance which they all declined so now you are where you are. I’d thank those that have already offered to contribute (might make the others think about doing it) then see if anyone transfers or offers money

Oh behave, they had insurance just not the top up waiver which the whole group agreed not to pay

“Guys,it’s extremely unfair to expect me to pay this on my own. We are all responsible for this. Here are my bank details. “

oh! And if still no response, I’d send them the link to this thread

She had insurance but not the extra insurance

They should definitely split it. Just put a message on the group that says something along the lines of ‘have argued as much as I can with the hire car company but they’re insisting we owe the £800 & have charged my card. Can you please all transfer £50 to me asap, thanks, my bank details are XX.’ and leave it at that.

They should definitely all pay. I don’t know why you have been so coy about it. I’d pop something on your group chat. Have you another close pal in the group who can back you up?

So, for example, you post that you’ve tried your best to get the cost reduced but have been unsuccessful and as it was a group cost can everyone forward X amount to me. Then get your close friend to post something saying they will forward the money straight away and of course this is a group cost etc.

Im assuming everyone used the three cars btw and that everyone was on the holiday for the same amount of time etc.

I’d definitely say something around ‘group holiday, group decision to forego additional insurance, therefore group liability please pay £xx’. The only exception? If you had parked somewhere iffy, eg car sticking out in road and got bumped. Otherwise, you are just a designated driver for the group. They should all contribute and if you were my friend and I was with you I’d be advocating that we all needed to chip in @Wynter123

So re insurance - it was agreed when booking the rental way back that we wouldn't buy the extra insurance. (I personally thought we should as I'm generally over-cautious about that sort of stuff!)

Nope. Problem is you didn’t use your words. No way would I drive a hire without it, and fool be you that you did. In response to no one else wanting the additional insurance,
“Okay, no problems, but I don’t feel comfortable driving a hire in that circumstance, and can’t afford it if someone nothing happens so won’t be doing the driving”.
So, that way, it covers you both ways, not driving and not paying if something were to happen with you as passenger. But you didn’t bother saying anything!

Of course it should be split, but if you're going to take the hit without even saying in the chat "is it ok if we all split it, given it wasn't my fault? Total cost is X so that's X per person, my bank details are XYZ" (then thanking people in the chat as others have suggested), then you are being unreasonable. You can't go through life waiting for people to offer - no one else is going to stand up for you in life but you.

That needs to be split by 15 ie. £51 each.

The others are taking the mick. Just message the whole group and say this. It's a cost on the whole group holiday and not your cost.

Are you going to message the group asking for money? I know it's awkward but you can't just think "if they wanted to pay they would have offered" - that's just a cop out i'm afraid. yes it would be nice if they offered but as they clearly afrent going to you need to be direct and ask.

put on your big girl pants and message "With hindsight we should have agreed to take out the extra insurance shouldnt we? argh lesson learned. But as we all agreed not to then unfortunately it's XX each for the damage to the car (obviously i won't be paying for that all by myself - that would be very unfair!) so here's my bank details - let me know when you've transferred so i can tick you off the list"

just type it and hit send! you can't complain about them not paying if you don't actually ask them

Did you receive a response re rental payment