Rental car insurance

[cyctorres]

I can rent a car without buying insurance that the company offers?

they can force me to buy insurance for the car?

 

[kerplop]

You don't have to buy the insurance from the car rental company. It's not a requirement. However, you will be liable for any damage to the vehicle if you don't. Of course a lot of credit cards have insurance coverage included. If you have a MasterCard or Visa which you'll be use to rent with you can call them and see if any of your cards are eligible. Personally two of mine cover up to $50,000 and the other one has no coverage whatsoever. If you have a personal vehicle and full coverage insurance on that, you may be covered as well. Contact your insurance provider to find out! And lastly if you have homeowner/renter's insurance your personal items may be covered against theft/loss as well, so check that. If you have no other coverage then it's up to you whether you risk something happening to the car and you being liable for it.

 

[chris31997]

Just an fyi, on the insurance make sure they know how long you will be renting the car. most insurances only cover a rental for less than 30 days. We put onto our insurance a special policy something called non owner( or something like that).

 

[bettymae1121]

Yes you can decline it, just make sure to read your rental contract before you sign it to be sure they left it off, sometimes they'll "forget" that you declined it.

That said, unless you have coverage through a credit card or your own auto insurance, if you cause an accident or there is any damage to the car, you are out the $$$.

 

[thomas998]

Terms vary on the credit cards, one of mine only offers coverage of 14 days ( capital one ). Also the one thing the insurance does not cover is the loss of use. This will hit you directly as the rental car damage is covered by the insurance, but the the rental car will charge you for the loss of rental fees while the car is in the shop being worked on. Always best to discuss all the coverage with you provider so you don't get a nice surprise. Also be very careful to inspect the car you are renting and make them note any damage, some places try to make some extra money off door dings.

 

[torinsmom]

If you have auto insurance, ask your agent. I know mine covers rental cars just like it would cover my own car. The car rental office may ask for your insurance card. I am not the main policy holder, so they did have to call and make sure I was on the policy. Next time, I will get something printed out from my insurance agent to speed up the process.

If you don't have auto insurance, you will probably need to buy the insurance.

 

[neatokimmo]

We just got back from a trip, 11 days in a rental. I bumped my regular insurance from liability only to full coverage. As long as no one was driving my car at home, my insurance extended to my rental. They tried to talk me into $25 per day coverage to cover the $500 deductible but that was just stupid (I don't cause accidents and if someone had hit us I would have sued their insurance for coverage).