[landa]

To go against all the negative comments here - I love Turo and use it all the time. The comment regarding money laundering doesn't even make sense - Turo charges for insurance and fees, it would be an expensive way to launder money. The fact that you don't see the final price right away is annoying but not uncommon. It's usually way cheaper than traditional car rental companies, anyway.

[gunapologist99]

But, you can decline the extra insurances through a traditional car rental company, even if the salespeople hassle you to buy them or insist on seeing your actual liability (!) card (which is not proof of rental coverage anyway.) It doesn't sound like you can decline these coverages through Turo, which (if truly mandatory) would make them deceptive, especially if they are generating profit through them.

[xeromal]

You can completely decline coverage on Turo for a car. They give you a big fat warning to be careful as your insurance may not cover a Turo car (which is true for some providers), and you're SOL if something happens.

Depending on the price of the car, they may take a 2k deposit for an accident, but that's pretty normal. It's returned to you once the car is returned.

[jopperdoop]

In what world is a $2,000 deposit to rent a car normal? I’ve never deposited north of $300. Ever. In any country in the world. Including when I decline coverage. Including when I present local identification to the branch (which flags theft risk).

What a weird thing to normalize given how exclusionary it is to the vast majority of the world’s population. Though I guess we are talking about car rental via a smartphone, so we’re already somewhere on the exclusionary spectrum.

Rental companies figured out the actuarial model for what they do some time ago. If Turo is hitting you with $2,000 to take the vehicle, they have no clue how to model risk and are probably arrogant about their approach compared to the staid, boring incumbents. Either that or they just don’t have enough volume to spread the risk. Or are you renting a $250k vehicle every time?

[xeromal]

It's an owner enabled option. The car owner requests to Turo that they would like Turo to hold a X$ deposit in lieu of accident coverage. I believe the X$ pays for the driver's / Turo's insurance deductible in the event you crash it and refuse to run it through your insurance. I've rented about 10 cars on Turo over the years including when it was called RelayRides and I've been asked to do it once, but it was for an older Porsche.

Also, if you want to see that deposit, go to any car rental place in america and offer to pay with debit card or cash and see what they'll hassle you with. Hertz requires requires a credit card. Enterprise requires proof of a returning flight. Dollar requires a credit check.

[landa]

The $2k deposit is only for really expensive cars.