car rental prices and insurance question

[bande]

We have never rented a car before and plan to do so on next trip to WDW when we fly into Orlando. Any ball park idea of cost to rent for 10days for just a small car for 4 people?Also, does our Canadian car insurance from home provide any insurance coverage if you rent in the States or do you need to buy the various insurances? Thanks for the help from those more experienced.

 

[3pletprincesses]

check in the transport thread. Lots of people not only post what they paid for x month but which discount they used. I juts rented a minivan in august for a week for $300 with budget after using codes that people posted in the august thread and all I could find before that was over $700 for the same thing without coupons.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

I have had excellent luck with expedia.ca for car rentals ... also, I do add liability insurance when I rent.

 

[bankr63]

Also, does our Canadian car insurance from home provide any insurance coverage if you rent in the States or do you need to buy the various insurances?

As for insurance; there are two places to check. I have a rider on my car insurance that covers rental vehicles in both Canada and the US, but it is extra cost. The annual cost is less than one day of insurance coverage by a rental company. I also have various coverages on Credit Cards - find out which of your cards (if you have more than one) has the best coverage and use that one to rent the car - most Gold cards or higher have coverage. For instance my TD Elite Visa covers ANY licensed driver in the vehicle regardless of whether or not they are on the rental contract or a member of the family. So if I give the keys to a valet and he or she smashes it up, I'm covered. My biggest fear if I have an accident is having the insurance companies fight out who has to cover it. Should be fun to watch tho...

One other surprising tip. MCO is probably the only airport in the US where it is cheaper to rent at the airport rather than away. Despite all the airport fees, it is such a competitive market that the base rates are lower than they are in town.

 

[sjsjbrook]

Check with your insurance company and confirm what you are covered for.

I found out I was not covered for 3rd party liability in the US on rental cars (in Canada rentalcar companies have to cover this)

so I made sure to add this.

Also though it is not an issue now, your insurance covers under canadian dollars and not american dollars, so when the dollar was 67 cents the $50 000 coverage wasn't that in the states.

 

[MedicGoofy]

For my upcoming trip to Disney, we were going to rent a car for 2 days for Discovery and Sea World. When looking at the prices and costs for the added insurance, it was crazy.

I called my insurance company. I needed NO added insurance. Im sure every company is different. For me, as long as my car was parked, at home, park and fly, whereever....it was not in use. And to them, I was then being an insured driver of the rental car. They would insure me up to...I forget the amount....$75000??? maybe....for any damages or replacement of a car....and then also liability, which was a million or so. Which is my normal, at home policy. AS LONG AS MY CAR IS NOT BEING USED AT HOME.

Definitely call ur company to find out what they do and dont cover. You might be pleasantly surprised like me

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

The last time I renewed my insurance I asked about this. The customer rep told me I could have that option added to my insurance. I go through the TD bank for insurance btw.
If I added this option to my insurance, I would not have to buy the rental insurance, which in my case, was more than the cost of the rental.

 

[rune_74]

Also check some Visa cards cover some of the insurance for rentals(visa gold from rbc)

 

[bande]

I will have to look into several of the suggestions made here. I really appreciate all the help.

 

[holidaygirl]

One other tip.... make sure you have enough room in the vehicle for luggage. We rented a small SUV and there was hardly enough room for our 4 suitcases and carry-on's!!!!!! not a good surprise to have.

 

[SmilingGrump]

For pricing I check Expedia, but I also check the car rental company websites directly. They often have "City Specials" that don't show up unless you actually click on them and sometimes those rates are insanely low ... I've seen Luxury for less then Economy, though it's usually Full Size for Economy rates.

If you have the time, many car rental agencies offer a $1/day rate at certain times of the year if you want to drive a car from another state to Florida and leave it there because they get so short on rental cars there. This can be a pretty cheap way to travel if you live near the border and have the time.

 

[monkey30]

We have used priceline in the past and again this upcoming trip, we managed to get a car for $8/day!!

Last time it was $12/day, and in the end was under $150 for the full sized car (which was a nissan xterra) for 8 days. Worth checking out if you are willing to bid.

 

[iluveeyore]

For renting a car, check mousesavers.com under car rental for discounts on every company - also check with your credit card company - I was able to get a full size car picked up at MCO with Alamo at Christmas time for $110 for 8 days, and returned it to the car care center at WDW so we could take the Magic Express back to the airport, and this was with a discount through Visa. Using the Walmart code always gets me a good rate, as well as last minute deals about a month before you travel.

 

[peterandlisa]

definitely check priceline!! We have rented for under $100/week. If you just book through them without bidding - you do not have to pay till you pick up. You can check daily and change the reservation as much as you like ... if price drops for example. Last year we booked a midsize for $200 / week then kept switching as prices got better and ended with an SUV for just over $100/week. We have done the bidding as well - and it works great too! But with the bidding you pay upfront and cannot get a refund unless you can prove your flight was cancelled or something like that.

 

[bjensen25]

just to add to it, we knew our insurance covered a rental car so we knew we would decline the extra coverage but for whatever reason we forgot our insurance card at home and the rental company would not let us decline the coverage unless we showed proof that we had insurance. So just a point to mention make sure you bring a copy of your insurance card with you if you do decide to go that way.

 

[Sue M]

We also have a extra rider for car rental attached to our car insurance, as another posted, it's very cheap. And has full coverage. I have a Visa Infinite card that has car insurance, but you have to check visa coverage, most don't have 3rd party liability.

We rented a car for Aug- Compact using Costco.com site. We have a price of $775 using Budget for 20 days. It's also a one way rental, so may be a bit more. We're picking up the car in Ft. Lauderdale and droping it off in WDW- at the DTD Doubletree.