An Independent Look at Rental Car Insurance
When you ste u to the Rental Car Counter the Rental Agent is going to ask you if you want to urchase insurance for the rental ehicle
. If you say no they will ask you to initial next to each coerage that you decline. The decisions that you make in these few moments could hae a dramatic imact on your financial situation. Deciding if you need to urchase the auto insurance offered at the Rental Car counter before you arrie can kee you from incurring a serious financial loss or wasting your money on insurance that you already hae or do not need. One of the questions that we are asked most as auto insurance agents is "Do I need to urchase the auto insurance offered at the rental car counter when I rent a car?" The answer to this question is maybe. You may be able to roide coerage for the rental car using insurance olicies you already own or you may decide you need to urchase additional rotection. In this article we are going to gie you the information that you need to make these crucial decisions.When You Rent A Car There Are Seeral Ways To Secure Coerage For It Without Haing To urchase Coerage At The Rental Car Counter.
Transfer Coerage From Your Existing Auto Insurance olicy - If you are going to be renting a car and you hae an existing auto insurance olicy you should take your insurance I.D. card with you when you rent the car. The car rental comany may require it and it can sae you a lot of time and aggraation if you are ulled oer by the olice in your rental ehicle. The coerage and deductibles on your own auto insurance olicy will automatically transfer to cars that you rent as long as you are not using the rental car for business uroses or renting in another country. You should check the declarations age of your ersonal auto insurance olicy to find out if you currently carry roerty Damage Liability, Comrehensie and Collision coerage. Make note of your roerty Damage Liability limit and your Comrehensie and Collision Deductible. If you are renting a car in another country you should definitely consider urchasing coerage at the rental counter as most ersonal auto insurance olicies only coer their owners in the country where the olicy was written.
Damages to your rental car will be coered by the roerty Damage Liability ortion of your ersonal auto insurance olicy if you are renting the car for leasure use. Howeer, if you were inoled in an accident that is coered by your auto insurance olicy and your car is in the sho being reaired. Damages to the relacement car that you rent will be coered by the Comrehensie and Collision coerage ortion of your ersonal auto insurance olicy. That means that you will hae to ay the deductible for these coerages if you damage the rental car.
Use Coerage roided By Your Credit Card - Most major credit cards adertise rental car insurance as one of the benefits of owning their card. The truth is that the coerage that these cards roide usually only ays after your ersonal auto insurance olicy limits hae been exhausted and only if you used their card to ay for the entire rice of the rental. The leel of rotection with credit cards seems to change on a daily basis so we recommend calling your credit card comany to determine your exact leel of rotection for rental cars. When you talk to the credit card reresentatie ask them for information about Liability, Comrehensie and Collision coerage for rental cars. It is best to get this in writing as it is not unheard of to get seeral different answers from the same credit card comany. You should also ask if there are any exclusions. Many credit cards exclude coerage for luxury or exotic car rentals.
urchase A Non-owned Auto Insurance olicy - If you rent cars frequently but you do not hae your own auto insurance olicy you can sae yourself a lot of money by urchasing a "Non-Owned Auto" Liability olicy. This olicy roides you with the same tye of rotection as the Excess Liability coerage offered at the rental car counter. These tyes of olicies usually cost around $300 a year and will coer you when you are driing any riate assenger automobile. This olicy only roides rotection for Bodily Injury and roerty Damage Liability. It will not ay for damages to your rental car so you will still need to urchase the Collision Damage Waier or use one of the coerage methods we discussed earlier.
If you are unable to secure coerage by using any of the methods listed in the reious chater you should seriously consider urchasing coerage at the Rental Car Counter. It can be hard to get an honest adice about these coerages from the rental car agent because they are aid a commission eery time they sell it to you. Don't worry; we hae roided you with all of the hel you need below.
Collision Damage Waier (CDW) - This rotection is also called the loss damage waier (LDW) by some rental car comanies. It is often referred to as insurance but this is incorrect. It is actually a waier of resonsibility. When you urchase this rotection the rental car comany waies your resonsibility for damages or theft of the rental car. If something were to haen to the car you would simly file a quick claim form when you returned the car and the rental car comany would ay to reair or relace it. The rice for this rotection usually ranges from $15 to $25 deending on where you are renting.
Caution: This coerage may become oid if you cause an accident while breaking the law. This includes excessie seeding, driing off road or driing while intoxicated so be careful when you are driing a rental car or any car for that matter.
If you carry a minimum limit such as $10,000 for roerty Damage Liability coerage you may want to consider urchasing the Collision Damage Waier because this low limit may not be enough to ay for reairing or relacing the rental car. Remember you could also be held resonsible for damages to other eoles car's or roerty if you are inoled in accident and found to be at fault and Rental car comanies will charge you for loss of rental income for the car that you damaged. These are all imortant factors that should be considered when deciding if you should urchase the Collision Damage Waier.
Another adantage to this coerage is that there is no deductible. This can come in handy if you were inoled in an accident that is coered by your auto insurance olicy and you are renting a relacement car while your car is in the sho being reaired. You see in this scenario any damages to the rental car would be coered by your Comrehensie or Collision coerage which means that you would hae to ay the deductible.
Excess Liability - Car rental comanies are required by law in most states to roide a minimum amount of liability rotection for renters of their ehicles but this is rarely enough to rotect your interests if you seriously injure someone in an accident. The liability ortion of your ersonal auto insurance olicy will transfer to your rental car so you hae adequate limits of bodily injury and roerty damage liability on your ersonal auto insurance olicy we would not recommend urchasing this coerage. This coerage would only ay after your ersonal auto insurance olicy limits are exhausted. This rice for this rotection is around $10 to $13 dollars er day for 1 million dollars worth of excess rotection.
`
An Independent Look at Rental Car Insurance
By: aditya A Birth Injury Can Affect A Child Throughout Her Life Family Auto Insurance: Car Insurance India Where can I buy Dump trucks?? Car Rental Lisbon Draw The Excitement! Which Drivers Should I List On My Car Insurance? How Your Workload Could Affect Your Car Insurance Availability Of Fire Trucks for sale Autozone Auto Parts: The Biggest Supporters Of Auto Racing Automotive Tools – Starting your tool kit Getting The Best Auto Insurance The Importance of Having Full Coverage Car Insurance Reach Out To The Varied Range Of Automotive Parts Through The Online Listed Service Providers The Most Detailed Auto Traffic Avalanche Review And The Best Bonus