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/

 

[DebbieB]

Many credit cards have loss of use. They may also pay your deductible.

 

[EACarlson]

Almost all credit cards have secondary rental car insurance where they will pay what your own insurance does not. Some cards, AMEX, Chase Sapphire cards, Capital One Venture X cards have primary rental car insurance where most of the claims your personal insurance never finds out about.

 

[MICKIMINI]

If you are paying high auto insurance, making sure you are covered so your personal insurance does not go up with an accident in a rental is worth checking into. Loss of use is a real thing and most people are unaware. Double check your own policy and also the CC's you have available. Bring a copy of your insurance with you CYA. It is expensive to take the additional insurance but could be far more costly not to. YMMV.

We increased all our limits on our personal policy a few years ago. With the average car at least 40-50K, causing another accident could be 100K+ for two cars, not to mention high end cars. Our deductibles are $500. Even a windshield these days is thousands!

I always decline FWIIW.

 

[Neener16]

I am in the minority here and while I rarely rent a car, when I do I pay for insurance. I’m on vacation and the last thing I want to do is spend time dealing with the car rental company. Same thing for a situation where after I come home I get a email or a bill from the car rental place and then I have to fight it. I am old, life is short.
I realize I am in the minority here and perhaps if I rented on a regular basis, I would not do this. But since I do not, I’ll keep on paying for insurance on those rare occasions when I rent a car.

 

[SL6827]

I am in the minority here and while I rarely rent a car, when I do I pay for insurance. I’m on vacation and the last thing I want to do is spend time dealing with the car rental company. Same thing for a situation where after I come home I get a email or a bill from the car rental place and then I have to fight it. I am old, life is short.
I realize I am in the minority here and perhaps if I rented on a regular basis, I would not do this. But since I do not, I’ll keep on paying for insurance on those rare occasions when I rent a car.

Ya, I have never bought additional insurance before with my rentals, just using my personal policy. But know I realize that LOU is so very real.

 

[Lewisc]

Years ago credit cards didn't want to pay loss of use claims unless the agency provided logs showing at least 80% of vehicles were rented. Rental Agencies considered that a trade secret.

I don't know the outcome