Wrongfully blamed for rental car damage after drop-off?Now you can prove it wasn't you.
carseal seals tamper-evident, timestamped proof of your rental car's exact condition at pickup and return — about 90 seconds each — so a damage claim that was never yours never costs you a cent.
Renting a car? Protect yourself from unfair damage charges with independent, timestamped proof.
carseal is an independent app that seals tamper-evident, timestamped proof of a rental car's exact condition at pickup and return — so if you're charged for damage you didn't cause, you can prove it was already there and get the charge reversed.
Independent proof
carseal works for you, not the rental company.
Tamper-evident & timestamped
Sealed with an RFC‑3161 trusted timestamp the instant you finish scanning.
Built to dispute & reverse charges
One-tap rebuttal, chargeback and insurance packets that cite your sealed evidence.
The damage was already there.
Try proving that.
You're two thousand miles from home. The agent points to a scuff you've never seen, and your deposit is suddenly hostage. No photos that hold up, no leverage, no recourse. Without independent proof, most people just pay — for damage that was never theirs. carseal is that proof.
Before you drive, you circle the car.
carseal's guided 90-second walk-around captures your rental's exact condition at pickup. On-device, your phone keeps only the sharpest, most distinct frames — then seals them, cryptographically timestamped the instant you finish.
It sees what you'd miss.
carseal's two-tier AI vision pipeline finds every scratch, dent, scuff, chip and cracked pane — each pinned to the exact panel, with type, severity, and a confidence score. Nothing gets argued later.
Then it's sealed — and timestamped.
Every kept frame is hashed into a Merkle tree and stamped with an RFC-3161 trusted timestamp, then written to WORM storage. Tamper-evident. Independently verifiable. The instant of pickup — frozen, and provable in any dispute.
Built on open standards: RFC‑3161 trusted timestamps, SHA‑256 hashing and a Merkle tree — so anyone can verify it independently.
At return, the truth is one swipe away.
At return you scan again, and carseal lays pickup against return one component at a time — proving what's genuinely new and what was always there (bumper, doors, wheels, glass). Fail-closed, so any doubt counts as pre-existing. No argument. Just the record.
New damage in red. Pre-existing in amber. The difference is the whole game.
A certificate anyone can verify.
carseal produces a tamper-evident PDF Return Certificate — every finding, every timestamp, a public verify link and QR. Anyone can confirm it's genuine and unaltered, with no account. Hand it over, or never need to — either way, you're covered.
And if they still charge you — you fight back, and win.
carseal's Claim Assistant assembles your case from the sealed evidence in one tap: rebuttal emails, chargeback packets (Visa 13.1 · Mastercard 4853 · Amex C02), and insurance submissions — every line citing your proof. People win disputes they would have lost.
Rebuttal email
Chargeback
Insurance
Your own photos vs. the rental desk vs. carseal.
Why ordinary phone photos and the company's own inspection rarely win a dispute — and what makes carseal's proof hold up.
| Capability | Your phone photos | Rental company inspection | carseal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Independent of the rental company | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tamper-evident & trusted timestamp (RFC‑3161) | No | Rarely | Yes |
| Publicly verifiable by anyone | No | No | Yes |
| AI before/after diff (new vs pre-existing) | No | No | Yes |
| One-tap dispute / chargeback packet | No | No | Yes |
Rental car damage charges, answered.
The practical questions renters ask about disputing unfair damage charges — and how independent, timestamped proof changes the outcome.
Can a rental company charge me for damage I didn’t cause?
They can attempt to, and without independent proof of the car’s condition it is hard to disprove. carseal solves this by sealing a tamper-evident, timestamped record of the car at pickup and again at return, so any damage that was already there is documented before you drove off. With that proof you can refuse or reverse a charge for damage that was never yours.
How do I prove rental car damage was already there at pickup?
Do a guided walk-around scan with carseal before you drive away. Each photo is SHA-256 hashed into a Merkle tree, server-signed, and given an RFC-3161 trusted timestamp with GPS, then written to tamper-proof WORM storage. That makes it provable that the damage existed at the moment of pickup and that the photos have not been altered since.
Is photo evidence enough to dispute a rental car damage charge?
Ordinary phone photos are easy to dispute because their date and integrity can be questioned. carseal photos are different: they are cryptographically sealed with an independent RFC-3161 timestamp and a public verification link, so anyone can confirm when they were taken and that they have not changed. That independence and tamper-evidence is what makes the evidence hold up in a dispute.
Will a rental company or bank accept the carseal certificate?
You do not need anyone’s permission to use it. The Return Certificate is a neutral, independent record that works inside the channels that already decide these cases — a direct rebuttal to the company, or a card chargeback under the standard reason codes. The public verify link lets the other side confirm the record is genuine and untampered without needing a carseal account.
Are my rental car scan photos and data private?
Your scan is yours. Frame selection runs on-device, so only the sharpest kept frames ever leave your phone, and only to be sealed. Nothing is shared with a rental company unless you choose to hand over the certificate, and the public verify link proves a record exists and is untampered without exposing the photos themselves.
How long does a carseal rental car inspection take?
About 90 seconds. One slow guided lap around the car at pickup, and the same at return. The evidence is sealed the instant you finish each scan, so the entire commitment is roughly a minute and a half at pickup and a minute and a half at return for full before-and-after cover.
These are the six questions everyone asks first — the full library is in the carseal FAQ (deposits, chargebacks, insurance, EU rights and more). In-depth reading: how to dispute a rental car damage charge, prove pre-existing damage, and the full guides library.
Built to hold up — and already does.
Independent, timestamped, verifiable by anyone. Here's what that's worth when a charge actually lands.
A renter is billed for a bumper scuff that was already there at pickup. They send the rental company the sealed Return Certificate and its public verify link — and the charge is dropped, with no back-and-forth.
Hand back the keys. Keep your money.
No counter anxiety. No deposit roulette. Just calm, portable, irrefutable proof — sealed in your pocket before you ever pulled away. So the only thing left to do is enjoy the trip.
Circle the car.Hold the proof.
Ninety seconds at pickup. Total protection for the whole trip. Independent, tamper-evident, and verifiable by anyone.