I'm doing 20 things
the bad news first: I was in a car accident in Mexico a few weeks ago. I travel there for my research and have to do quite a bit of driving. This time I had a rental car, which was fairly crappy – bald tires, bad brakes, etc. The accident was caused by extremely bad weather conditions and the crappiness of the car – but in the end, it was my fault. No one was hurt, thank goodness. I had the basic car insurance I purchased from the rental car company, fortunately, but that insurance seem to be charging me a non-fixed deductible. My contract said that if the car was totaled (I don’t think it was) I needed to pay 20% of the value of the car, which was $2400. unfortunately they have so far charged me almost twice that amount with no explanation. I have called my credit card company and asked them to look into it, but it’s complicated: I had to return to the US, my Spanish isn’t that great, and I’m not sure what the damage report on the car was (if it’s not totaled, I only have to pay 10% of the repairs).
I was very naive going into this. In retrospect, it would have been better to deny the rental car company coverage and immediately call my credit card to report the accident, because they offer full coverage. But there are a lot of stipulations, and I would have had a very difficult time communicating with them after the accident (using the phone in the Mexican police station). And I didn’t look into it before my trip, not really considering my cc company as a source of “benefits”.
My best hope is I can get the charges reduced to only $2400. but it’s stressful waiting to hear what will happen, and maybe all the extra charges are actually legitimate. In any case, it is a major financial setback.
On the other hand, there is some good news. At least I know I will be able to handle the accident fallout eventually, (hopefully, even somewhat quickly with my beefed up emergency fund…) Even with all the confusion my other debt has been shrinking steadily, and I will have paid it off in the next 10 months (except for my $5000 student loan, which is currently in deferment- so between that and this current mess, I am not out of the woods yet!)
But I’m getting there.
