Car Rental Insurance

[kristieleeoz]

Probably been asked to death, but I gotta ask again..

I have a minivan rental included in my vacation package. I book through Sunwing (Canadian Tour Company) and my agent said that the only thing I had to pay for was the Florida tax on the rental when we picked it up. She said my car insurance was likely sufficient but to check with my carrier and that I may need a "rider"...not sure what that is.

Anyone know what the mandatory charges are for a car rental?? Last year I thing we got totally ripped off with our rental and paid way more than we should have. This time I don't want to repeat that.

Any thoughts are most welcome..

Kristie

 

[Tony NY]

first by law you dont need to buy car insurance because no car can be on regesterd with out but if you have your own car insuracne you should be good also if your paing with a vias card will cover the insuracne for you.

 

[seashoreCM]

YOu need to check with your own insurance company to be sure you are covered when driving someone else's car or a rental car.

Unless otherwise stated in the rules or policies (none of the major rental companies do) you are not obliged to buy any of the "optional" coverages. But if you do not have your own coverage or a credit card's coverage (only you can know that) then you should buy enough of those coverages.

 

[Mary976]

I don't know all the particulars about insurance in Canada. In the US most (all?) states require drivers to have car insurance. However, there are multiple types. Usually the required insurance is liability, which covers damage you might do to someone else's car/property. There is also collision and comprehensive, which covers YOUR car in the event you cause an accident or a tree falls on your car or things like that. I have an older car, so I have liability only. I am NOT covered for my own car if I hit someone else and it's my fault. Collision/comprehensive is expensive, and I would pay more to have it than my car is worth right now. It's pretty common for drivers of older cars to only have liability.

As such, I have to buy a separate rider (extra policy) to cover the times when I rent a car, because my own insurance would NOT cover damage to my rental car, only to the person whose car I hit. So, I would check with your insurer to see what all is covered. They'd be able to tell you for sure.

Mary

 

[kksmom92]

We've never bought the insurance. When we had full coverage on our car our insurance company covered the rental and then after we dropped full coverage we checked with our credit card and sure enough it automatically had travel insurance which included car rentals. We did end up having to use it and they (visa) covered everything 100%.

Before assuming your credit card company or insurance company will cover you it's best to call and make sure.

 

[Jaymie]

Probably been asked to death, but I gotta ask again..

I have a minivan rental included in my vacation package. I book through Sunwing (Canadian Tour Company) and my agent said that the only thing I had to pay for was the Florida tax on the rental when we picked it up. She said my car insurance was likely sufficient but to check with my carrier and that I may need a "rider"...not sure what that is.

If you're in Ontario, the rider is called OPCF 27-Legal Liability for Damage to Non-Owned Automobiles. It runs about $25-$45/yr depending on your insurance company. That will provide you with the physical damage coverage to the rental vehicle itself. There's usually a total limit of $30,000 to $50,000 CDN depending on your company, so don't expect to have enough coverage for an Escalade. All other provinces have a similar endorsements, not sure about pricing in other provinces. As previously mentioned, a lot of Gold Credit Cards include the same coverage too. Your liability (at least on an Ontario policy) is automatically extended to a rental. But always confirm your own coverage with your own insurance company.

 

[sympatico]

The Visa card will cover the Collision and Loss to the vehicle that you rent but will not cover the other vehicle (if there is one). My 3rd party liability would not extend to a rental car so I had to buy the SLI from the car rental company, about 12.50 per day.
On the other hand my son's car insurance company did extend his liability to the rental car. You need to find out from your own insurance policy about the liability insurance.
If you don't have the Visa insurance you can get a rider put on your insurance policy for the collision and loss to a rental car.

 

[DMRick]

Be sure to check with your insurance and credit card company if they cover all vehicles. MIne does not cover 15 passenger vans or convertibles..there were other cars listed too that weren't covered, but we were only interested in these two.