Rental car insurance

[SL6827]

When renting a car I know my full coverage car insurance would cover a rental. But I have heard reports of people being charged for the loss of use for a car while it was being repaired, and such would not be covered under my personal policy. So what would you purchase from a rental agency to cover that? The complete insurance package from them or what

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

I use Amex's Premium Car Rental Protection when I rent. It's either $19.95 or $24.95 per rental (up to 42 days). You sign up in your Amex account and every time you pay for a rental car using said Amex card you are automatically charged and covered for that rental. Below are the coverage limits. I like it because it takes care of the rental car if there is a fender bender, accident, or is stolen. It covers loss of use as well. If you use this and the rental company claims loss of use, to be paid out you will more than likely have to provide Amex Insurnace with a utilization log indicating that during such time 1. no other Rental Car was available; and 2. there was a demand for a Rental Car. After accidents rental car agencies are very good at providing you with bills....but can be slow to provide the documentation to get a payout from insurance. So there might be some leg work to get the documentation you need.

If in the event where I needed more coverage than this, I would then go back and use my regular car insurance to cover any overages. The Amex coverage differs by state you reside in, so you would need to get details for your specific state. There are also some exclusions on types of cars or countries that you can be covered in. But I've always found Amex customer service...even on the insurance side...to be relatively easy to work with compared to their competitors/regular insurance companies.

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/insurance/premium-car-rental-protection/