I will start from the end first. I finally got my claim money. It was about 400 EUR and it really showed up in my bank account. When I saw it there I felt my whole body relax. In that moment I really understood how much AXA Full Coverage helped me. I only added it when I booked with QEEQ and I did not think I would really need it. If I go back to the middle of May the story starts around May 12 in the morning. I went to Sofia in Bulgaria and picked up an Opel Corsa from Top Rent A Car. It was automatic with four doors and for me as an overseas visitor it felt easy enough to drive. I was a bit nervous because I am used to different driving rules. In my head I kept telling myself do not crash do not scratch the car the rental rules look scary. Two days before my return everything went wrong. It was a rainy evening in Sofia and the road was a little slippery. I was passing a narrow street and trying to let another car go by. My right front wheel hit a high stone curb and the side of the car got a long scratch. Inside the car it suddenly became very quiet. My first thought was just this is bad. Tire and door both damaged. This will cost a lot. The next day I went to the rental counter to return the car. The staff walked around the car and checked very carefully. When he reached the wheel and the scratched side he frowned and started to write things on his form. His attitude was not rude but very official. He told me there was damage and a fee would be charged. I said I understood but inside I was really worried. I kept thinking how much will this be and did I take enough photos when I picked up the car. When I went back to my place that day I started to calculate my money. I still had other plans for my trip and my credit card limit was not huge. The more I thought the more pressure I felt. At that time I remembered that I had added AXA Full Coverage to this booking and in the description it said even things like tires and body scratches are covered. I suddenly had a bit of hope. I thought maybe I can try to make a claim so I do not need to pay everything by myself. Then I followed the emails and prepared all the things they asked for. I took photos and sent the rental contract and the damage papers. The hardest part for me was the bank account information. My usual bank data is in Japanese and my name and address are written in Japanese too. After I sent it the first time the service team contacted me and said I needed to write everything in English. In that moment I felt a little tired. My inner voice was saying if I knew this I would have written in English from the start. But I still sat down and rewrote my name and address in English one by one. Soon they told me the report was already sent to the insurance company and then they asked which currency I wanted for the payment. I could choose 400 EUR or the same value in Japanese yen. I hesitated for a while. On one side euro is simple and I would not think about exchange again. On the other side I usually use a yen account. In my head I kept doing small math about fees and rates and I was thinking which way is better for me. In the end I chose to get the money in yen so I prepared another account that was better for yen and sent the details. During this time I sometimes felt like I was bothering them. I changed the account and language and it looked messy. But every time they replied their tone was calm. They just checked the information with me again and said it had been passed to the insurance company and I only needed to wait. For a few days I was quite nervous. Every time I opened my email I checked if there was any new message from them. Then one day I finally got an update. They told me the insurance company had approved the claim for 400 EUR and the money would be sent to my account within some days. When I read the words that the claim was approved the big stone in my heart fell down. My guilt about the tire and scratch became smaller and turned into a kind of relief. I kept thinking it was really good that I bought this insurance. After some more waiting I checked my bank and the money was there in yen. The amount matched what I expected. There was no strange fee and nothing missing. At that moment I felt a small sense of victory. From the first shock at the curb to the documents to the language problem and the currency choice and then finally seeing the payment I felt like I had passed a real lesson about renting a car overseas. This experience gave me a strong impression of AXA Full Coverage. It covered the kind of damage that many rental full insurance plans do not handle like tires and little scratches. At first I thought this kind of insurance was only for peace of mind but in my case it really worked. The service team stayed in touch with me and with the insurance company and kept the case moving. I only needed to prepare some files and be patient. When I think back to the morning in Sofia when I first picked up the car I never imagined all of this would happen later. If I did not have AXA Full Coverage I think my memory of this trip would be full of numbers and bills and not so much of the city and the food. Because of this coverage the 400 EUR problem was solved and my mind is more free to remember the trip itself instead of just the damage and the cost.
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