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Amex Platinum insurance pays me again – this time for car hire

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Last August, I wrote a piece about how American Express Platinum travel insurance had paid out for a medical bill we incurred in Singapore.  This was the third time that Amex had paid me over the years – and on every occasion I had failed to follow the rules about what to do if you need medical attention.

I wrote in that article that:

“I can’t remember ever hearing of someone who was given a hard time by them over a claim”

Predictably, a number of Head for Points readers then came forward to say that, in fact, AXA had given them a very hard time processing a claim on their Platinum Card insurance.

Just after New Year, I needed to make a claim on the car hire part of the insurance.  To spoil the suspense, I will tell you that AXA / Amex agreed my claim very quickly and the full sum is now in my bank account.

First, some background.

Amex made some nasty changes to the insurance on the Platinum card in January 2012.  What was comprehensive, no-worries cover became a bit of a game, with flights and hotel required to have been paid on an Amex card in order to qualify for some of the smaller benefits.  The upper age limit dropped from 80 to 70 which meant that my Mum’s supplementary card on my account was now useless.

(It is worth noting that Amex never changed the insurance on the Business Platinum charge card.  This has an identical annual fee and very similar benefits.  If you value the travel insurance benefits of Platinum and have your own business, you may want to consider switching to Business Platinum.)

The car hire part of the insurance has no restrictions, however.  The insurance brochure is very clear – you can ignore anything that the car hire company tries to sell you.  Irrespective of how you pay for your rental, you are covered.

Just after New Year, we hired a car for three days to head out to a countryside hotel as the kids were not due back in school until 6th January.

When the car was returned, Hertz claimed that there was a scratch to the alloys on one of the wheels.  This was true.  Whether it was there originally or not is a different question – I do not check rental cars to that level of detail and the car was picked up from the windowless basement of a multi-storey carpark – but to be fair to Hertz this would not be atypical of the way I drive ….

On the other hand, this was the same branch of Hertz where an employee asked me for a £50 bribe or he would claim that some old damage on the car, not on the original report, was fresh.  He doesn’t work for Hertz any more.

I was fairly convinced Amex would pay so I dropped into ‘couldn’t give a ****’ mode.  This was quite amusing, at least for me, as the staff clearly expected me to put up a big fight and could not understand why I signed off everything they gave me without comment, negotiation, complaint or question.

Finding the online claim form for car insurance damage was tricky.  However, once I had tracked it down, it was easy to fill in the details.  The only annoying aspect was that Amex wanted a copy of my driving licence.  One trip to Ryman later and I had a little package for the post box consisting of the claim form (printed from the website), the Hertz bill, the rental agreement and my licence.

I didn’t hear anything for a couple of weeks, until I received an email saying that my claim (£103) would be met in full.  The money turned up about 10 days later.

Overall, the claims process was very smooth and went off without a glitch.  AXA accepted my claim without question (although it would be hard to deny a claim, given the wording of the policy) and paid promptly.

The moral of the story?  The Amex Platinum car hire insurance does what it promises it will do.  Which, in the world of insurance, is not always the case ….

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Comments (118)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mr Bridge says:
    5 Feb5 February 05:11

    I had a thought about this and a comment I made yesterday, and another readers question, asking if supercard would allow users to link to amex.

    If this would happen, is using the supercard classed as paying with amex, after all its amex who take the money out of my account, and they still get the commission if not the fx fee.
    I guess its the same as using a travel agent!

    • C Y S Yuen says:
      5 Feb5 February 05:31

      Cam’t answer this question I never managed to even get registered, even today!

    • Mr Cinnamon says:
      5 Feb5 February 05:39

      No one can answer this. Currently you can not link Amex to the Travelex Supercard and it is pure conjecture that this may, or may not, happen in the future.

    • John says:
      5 Feb5 February 06:24

      I suspect Amex would treat it the same way it treats paypal. I haven’t paid for car hire by paypal though.

  • Paul says:
    5 Feb5 February 05:25

    I am with you Raffles. Best bit of plastic in my wallet. The fee is outrageous but I have never had an issue with a claim. Not yet had to claim on car hire but in one year alone claimed 3 times for a family of 4 thanks to volcanoes now and bag mishandling.
    I often stand by baggage belts in foreign airports almost wishing the bags would not arrive!

    • NickS says:
      5 Feb5 February 06:17

      Also agree with you Raffles its the best card for benefits. Fee is of course somewhat outrageous but have now had three years on HFP recommendation and have claimed on the general insurance twice with no quibbling at all. One for a missed departure when the M4 was closed temporarilly resulting in my normal 40 min drive from home to LHR taking 3 hours. Had a reward club flight to Istanbul which we missed and had to rebook in economy on a flight eight hours later as no club seats left. Not only did AXA pay out with very little evidence of the temporary closure but they paid the maximum missed connex payment which meant £600 of the £700!!!! needed to fly in econ at short notice was refunded. Also luckily had the Marco Polo lounge access card (also via the Amex Plat) so at least could sit out the delay in the T5 galleries lounge even with only an econ ticket. (the club ticket of course had been cxld as missed the original flight so no longerbeligible for lounge access) Shame that marco polo perk has now gone… When working I was for many years a BA gold card holder but soon got dumped to cardboard status once no longer doing so much travelling even though I was one of the earliest adopters of BAEC in 1989 I still have noway near enough cumulative tier points to get reinstated – missed opportunity BA – as now have little loyalty other than trying to collect avios for 241s which have been quite succesful at.
      Again last month my younger son who is temporarily residing in Germany with his wife and his son had to cancel their flights home to UK to stay with us at Christmas due to our grandson having a ruptured appendix and needing emergency surgery in Germany. Luckily he has my supplementary card and despite currently living in Germany he had used the card to buy the flights home prior to reimbursing me. Again AXA settled in full the cost without any real issue other than providing some papers to prove he is currently resident in Germany.
      He also was doing much travelling from Germany to Turkey in econ and found the lounge access via the card brilliant and it bridged the gap before he became eligible to access the Turkish and Star Alliance lounges.
      Finally have also used the Plat travel service to book a couple of cruises and always get a bottle of Dom Perignon in our cabin on arrival courtesy of an amex plat deal, which while I wouldnt normally buy such stuff its very nice when you get it for nothing! So net net very pleased with Amex Plat and certainly intend leeping it despite temptation to churn for sign up bonuses!! Interesting also to note the Business Plat doesnt have the age issue re car hire as Im now retired and afraid 70 is no longer quite so far on the horizon so I may transfer it to my consultancy company?

      • Pat Butcher says:
        5 Feb5 February 09:28

        TL;DR

        • Bob says:
          6 Feb6 February 10:05

          I haven’t jumped on the Plat card yet as I still have the legacy Natwest Black card that uses AXA for it’s travel insurance benefits. I had to make a claim for a cancelled trip and they paid up with little issue (had to get doctors letter etc). Only £250 a year too – hence the reason I’ve not gone to AMEX yet but as this card is currently not available (replaced by Black account), as soon as it’s discontinued – I’ll have to weight up the £450.

  • Andrew Reynolds says:
    5 Feb5 February 05:45

    I just came back from a ski trip in France where I was strongly encouraged by the ski rep to take additional insurance out “as my insurance might only cover the medical bills not the transport off the mountain”.
    The Carte Neige apparently covers you for rescue off the slope itself and ‘apparently’ injured folk will be requested to pay in the spot without one. It sounds a complete scam as I had phoned Amex and they had said the Platinum insurance covers any expense from injury caused on piste (and off with a guide).
    But I wondered whether anyone had experienced issues reclaiming the expense?
    Incidentally although Platinum insurance covers the cardholders’ belongings for the trip – I assumed hired skis would not be covered and I did take the excess cover insurance out from the rental shop.
    Thankfully no injuries and am back at work 🙁

    • raikje says:
      5 Feb5 February 09:21

      They don’t make you pay on the spot, but they hold your skis hostage at the ski patrol office until you pay up… However, a fax from your insurance company saying they will cover the costs is sufficient in my experience. The medical part of the Plat insurance covers “transport to hospital” and “search and rescue” so I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t cover it.

      Note that you are covered under the personal belongings section for things that you hire on your trip, subject to the usual “pay for the trip with Amex” restriction, and a £500 limit. “This benefit applies to Your personal belongings which You take, purchase or hire while on Your Trip”

  • riku says:
    5 Feb5 February 05:51

    Hertz have twice charged me for wheel damage (LHR and TXL) and in both cases I think they were probably there when I rented the vehicle but did not notice them (not always easy in the dark when picking up the car). In the one case I have photos of all the wheels at the start of the rental and the scratches visible. They ignored my evidence and insisted on the charge.
    As a result I don’t rent from Hertz anymore (I had the presidents circle card) and have had no such troubles from Avis or Sixt.
    Happily both Avis and Sixt matched my status with Hertz so it’s no loss to book with somebody else.

    • NickS says:
      5 Feb5 February 06:25

      had similar experience at TXL with Avis clearly on look out for unmarked damage on return that was there on departure. As soon as they saw my car approaching they were over it like a rash with search lights etc and claimed something I must have done! At time did claim through Insurance4carhire with no fuss other than acres of paperwork, but would now us my Amex Plat Insurance – yet another benefit of the card that saves c £100 per year in annual fees.

      • Aeronaut says:
        5 Feb5 February 08:23

        Good to hear insurance4carhire works too.

        • Rich says:
          5 Feb5 February 09:04

          It does. He’s right about the paperwork though. It took me over three months to settle a claim after Hertz charged me an outrageous amount for a scratch at BCN.

          The stumbling block was that they wanted to see a copy of the Rental Agreement, which I didn’t have (because Gold/5* members just have a single master agreement on file). Eventually, after much emailing back and forth, they accepted a letter from Hertz confirming this.

          I’d probably buy policy again, since they did pay up without complaint, but it wasn’t a great experience. With slow response times and robotic, unhelpful answers it was a bit like banging my head against a brick wall.

        • PierreR says:
          6 Feb6 February 00:18

          I used to have a policy with iCarhireinsurance.com and had to claim because of damage on a Europcar hire, which either was already there or was done while I was away from the parked car. They were very efficient and processed my claim in just 10 days.

          I then switch to insurance4carhire because of the cheaper policy but thanksfully didn’t have to claim yet.

    • Callum says:
      5 Feb5 February 12:58

      On the other hand, Hertz didn’t charge me a cent for scratching and putting a minor dent in a newish Dodge Challenger. (I spent the whole rental period worrying I was going to scratch it, then hit a bollard while leaving a car park on the way to return it!)

  • Stu R says:
    5 Feb5 February 05:53

    Having briefly worked for Hertz as a car returns agent, having been made redundant back in 2003, (and before getting a proper job less akin to a traffic warden) I can tell you that their staff are targeted to find £x of damage per month and if they do, they earn a bonus and commission thereafter.

    A chap I worked with set his own personal target of finding £1,000 damage per week! At least you now know why they’re so keen!

    • harry says:
      5 Feb5 February 08:00

      Den of thieves. I got stung for £300 for scratches I didn’t cause a few years ago (to be fair can’t remember the car hire co) – and ever since have been a bit OCD about pre-rental checks, photos, post-rental inspection sign off etc.

      You can buy very cheap insurance to cover damage, which leaves you free to decline the rental co’s own expensive insurance.

    • Aeronaut says:
      5 Feb5 February 08:28

      I’m curious about how the other car hire companies work in this regard.

      When I hire it’s most often from Europcar, and I can’t think of having had any substantive problems with them.

    • Morgan says:
      5 Feb5 February 11:32

      Wow! Simply astonishing – that is an outrageous conflict of interest!

  • Maciek says:
    5 Feb5 February 05:57

    I am still waiting to hear back after submitting my medical expenses some 3.5 weeks ago. No email, no letter, no communication at all.

    • Nick Burch says:
      5 Feb5 February 10:05

      Check your spam folder – my Amex Plat AXA claim was silent too, until I discovered their emails about it had been marked as spam + hidden!

  • Mycity68 says:
    5 Feb5 February 05:59

    Hi Rob, two questions

    Can I have both the Business Amex Plat and the Personal Amex Plat at the same time and get the bonus on both?

    Also is the dollar or the euro Amex plat insurance limit still at 80?

    Thanks

    • Alan says:
      5 Feb5 February 07:20

      Yes, the ICC Amex still has the higher age limit – it also doesn’t require spend to be made on the card 🙂

    • Tom C says:
      5 Feb5 February 07:24

      Yes, you can have them both, as I had did at one stage too. I ended up getting rid of the Corporate Platinum though, as the personal one has more benefits for me and it seemed overkill to pay twice.

    • Rob says:
      5 Feb5 February 09:07

      No bonus – although some people seem to get lucky, Others do not.

      The insurance docs should be downloadable from the IDC website, never looked as I only have a Green one.

  • John says:
    5 Feb5 February 06:31

    I have rented from Hertz in SYD 5 times in the past few years and due to my poor driving skills as well as difficulty of getting where I need to go (gravel roads), I’ve always created some sort of minor scratch. However nothing has ever been said nor have any charges shown up afterwards.

    The same cannot be said of European Hertz.

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