A New Quiz for Rental Car Customers

It’s getting harder to rent a car if you are a bad driver.

Two rental car companies have recently started asking Californians about their driving records and are refusing to rent cars to people with poor records. The companies, Budget and National, say they are taking the step to fight high insurance costs and lawsuits arising from accidents involving poor drivers.

The questions asked by the companies are similar. They want to know whether you’ve had your license suspended or revoked, or have had convictions for drunken driving, reckless driving or speeding in the last three years. They also want to know whether you’ve been involved in three or more accidents--whether or not you were to blame. If you’ve had any of these problems, neither company will rent you a car.

A spokesman for National agreed that it may seem unfair to turn away accident victims along with poor drivers. “We decided to start out with tough criteria and see how it goes,” Michael Olsen said. “Our program is still evolving.”

The companies are asking the questions because state law bars them from checking motor vehicle records, a practice underway in several Eastern states--including Florida and New York--where record checks are legal. This means that the car rental companies have no way of checking answers given by Californians.

What’s to keep people from lying? National says it is relying on people to be honest. Budget says if you crack up the rental car after lying to them, you’ll pay all accident-related costs.

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It’s good for new brakes too: Sears, Roebuck & Co. started handing out coupons this week to customers who believe that they were ripped off at the chain’s auto repair centers. So far, the company reports, there haven’t been many takers.

Sears is giving $50 worth of merchandise coupons to people who had brakes, shocks or certain other parts replaced at Sears between Aug. 1, 1990, and Jan. 31, 1992. The coupons are part of a settlement with the California Department of Consumer Affairs, which alleged in June that Sears systematically charged customers for unneeded auto repairs.

Sears spokesman Greg Rossiter said that between one dozen and two dozen customers a day have been picking up coupons at Sears stores nationally. Rossiter said customers were probably distracted by elections and bad weather this week in most parts of the country. There is no reason for customers to rush, he said, because the program lasts for a year.

Customers with receipts can get coupons at any Sears store. Customers without receipts must sign declarations saying the repairs were done. Sears will mail the coupons after checking its records to verify the repair work.

Not every store is checking up on customers without receipts. Said Dean Santellano, auto center manager for Sears in Canoga Park: “We don’t question someone’s integrity. If they say they had the repair done, they had it done.”

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Unemployment insurance: Bank of America has become the latest company to offer unemployment insurance to customers who are afraid to spend because they are worried about losing their jobs. Under a pilot program offered in California, the bank said it is offering low- and moderate-income mortgage customers unemployment insurance that will cover house payments for up to six months after they are laid off or fired.

Similar programs have been tried by Volkswagen (for auto loans) and some real estate firms, with mixed success. Bank of America’s program is different because it is aimed specifically at people who don’t make much money.

To qualify, borrowers must meet certain income limits and lending qualifications, and buy a home within designated lower-income neighborhoods. Bank of America will pay the cost of the unemployment insurance during the first year. After that, the borrower has the option of paying to continue the insurance at a cost of under $30 a year.

Robert Gnaizda of Public Advocates in San Francisco praised the program, saying it targets the income group with the greatest need. He said worries about possible job loss have “immobilized people. . . . This may help them take action.”

But Michael Shea, national housing director for ACORN, an advocacy group, said the Bank of America program “looks like a gimmick.” He said the greatest obstacle preventing lower-income people from buying a home is an inability to make a down payment, not worries about unemployment.