Cheaper Rental Car Insurance

I think we have all experienced it at least once in our lives. We touch down in a city for holiday or whatever reason, we go get a rental car and when going through the documentation we stumble when we get to the insurance part. The problem is that almost all of us aren’t sure how to handle the insurance side of things. They use big words and tell of all the possible things that could happen to you. It is almost as though they are just pushing you to the corner and almost forcing you to sign up for every insurance package that they offer. It is quite normal for people to be confused when it comes to rental car insurance. In this article, we hope to educate individuals on how to properly deal with rental car insurance.

Let’s first explore the common insurance items that are available for car rentals: We’ll list them below, and yes, it is important to know them:

CDW (Collision Damage Waiver), LDW (Loss Damage Waiver), PDW (Physical Damage Waiver) This is the most basic of coverage that you absolutely must have before leaving the rental car lot. It covers you from any financial impact when there is damage to the car. There are however normally some very strict conditions. These normally include distance and area restrictions along with your sobriety.

LIS (Liability Insurance Supplement) This is addition cover to what is already available in your CDW, LDW and PDW. This is the extra bit that most people opt for. It covers extra third party damage that might occur in an accident.

PAI (Personal Accident Insurance or Coverage) This coverage is also in addition to whatever is above and covers the passengers and whatever damage or maiming requiring hospitalization.

PEC (Personal Effects Coverage) or Personal Property Insurance This is normally the least opted coverage. It covers whatever items of value that you lose in an accident or from a break-in to your rental car.

The insurance coverage options that we have listed above are listed from the most important and essential to the extra ones at the bottom. You shouldn’t even think of driving away the rental car from the lot without some sort of combination similar to what is available with CDW and LIS coverage. Without these basic coverage options you would certainly be risking too much for just a rental car. If you get into an accident without these coverage options then you could be in for a very inconvenient time indeed.

There is one thing that many people looking for rental cars fail to understand. Insurance for rental cars need not always be from the rental car agency itself. Sometimes your comprehensive coverage for your own car back home might already have a little something inside to cover rental cars in the same country. It is certainly something that happens more often than people think. After all, the insurance is labeled comprehensive for a reason right? The smart person would check with their insurers first what coverage they have and if it extends to rental cars. Having said that, it is however very unsafe to assume that you already have coverage from your comprehensive coverage. You must absolutely be sure as the consequences of being uninsured are too great.

In some cases credit cards can also offer coverage for rental cars. This is especially true for higher end credit cards like “gold” or “platinum” cards made available to those who travel frequently. Most of these cards will have additional insurance coverage like personal liability, personal injury etc which can be extended over for use with rental cars. As with our recommendation with you personal car insurance, it is very important to check with your credit card provider how your insurance is structured with your credit card. Never assume you are covered. Call ahead to be sure.

We think that the best way to approach this is to first check with your current car insurance company and also your credit card company. Give them a call before you even venture to the rental car agency. There really is no point in doubling up your insurance policy as you won’t be able to make use of both. If you already have the coverage from either your car insurance provider or your credit card an overlap will simply be a waste of your money.

You should also know that insurance provided from the rental agency is almost certainly going to be more expensive than the insurance that you already have. The rental agencies work as a middleman and will earn some sort of commission from selling the insurance coverage to you. The rental car insurance can sometimes cost twice as much as insurance that you get elsewhere. The rental agencies know that they can charge this because you are put in a position where you will be literally forced to by the insurance from them if you want to rent the car.

Here is a pretty got saying for you to go with. It is necessary to get rental car insurance however it isn’t necessary to get it from your rental car agency. This rings so true most of the time. Insurance policies from rental car agencies are often very expensive and sometimes you might already have the coverage from other sources like your comprehensive car insurance policy of your credit card. Always check first so you don’t end up paying more than you should.

Follow Ryan Parker in his quest to demystify the world of car insurance for everyone. Not everyone thinks he is packing a full deck but he certainly provides information that is very useful. Have a look at what he has to say about rental car insurance.

Enter your search terms Submit search form