This San Francisco Chronicle piece details changes to the Hertz #1 Club Gold contract that took effect on January 1. Customers didn’t used to be responsible for damage to cars in the case of force majeur events, now they are. Hertz also reserves the right to place a hold on a customer’s credit card for $200 above the anticipated rental charges.

Not included in the artcile is that Hertz’s ‘grace period’ of an hour for computing rental charges has been scaled back to 30 minutes. This last item is a big deal for me. Hertz has otherwise been the best rental company in my view. I prefer not to do business with Cendant companies like Avis though I find I do rent from them most often, and probably will do so more in the future.