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Re: Car Rental Beware (by K T.):

Purchased AMEX and though it covers you & your passenger's medical and the vehicle damage, it does NOT cover liability. Being in the Dominican Republic (DR), it cost us $600 to get out of the country + 500 pesos to get the police to write a report period (let alone in our favor)...

Even though it was the other driver's fault, they were going to sue me for their damages since their car insurance sucked a$$ and they wanted money from someone.

Amex does not have local representatives. You have to call the US office and get them to work with you abroad. Not good. Also, their "404-call us collect" phone # was unreachable from the DR. The result? A $100.31 charge to my credit card to pay for the 30 minute phone call to AMex - who after being on hold, only told me that they couldn't help me out with the "liability" portion of the claim.

Finally, the National Rental Car lawyer showed up and helped us draft a document with at the court house of "justice" along with their attorney to settle the case for $600. If we didn't do that, we were looking at being required to come back 2 weeks later for "court". No way!

LESSON: BUY the car rental insurance and make sure you purchase the liability as well if you're going to rent a car in South American / Carribean countries. The local car rental company is not looking to pay anything out of their pocket, so they will hanlde the situation so they don't have to. Their unwillingless to pay claims is your best defense / ally in situations like this.

p.s. it's cheap to renta car & driver down there - esp. in off seasons. You can hire one for like $60 a day!

Good luck!