Information On 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) It is the most basic of rental car insurance coverage that you need. Basically, if you cause an accident an anything happens to the car, you don’t need to pay for the damage. There are however limitations. The limitations will be set by the policy and are normally things like mileage, distance from city or even if you were caught drunk driving.

LIS (Liability Insurance Supplement) This insurance is in addition to the one above. It will cover any third party that is involved with any accident that happens with the rental car.

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 coverage item looks after any belongings that could either be damaged in an accident or be stolen or lost for whatever reason.

The insurance coverage items that we have described to you above are ordered from the most basic at the top to the extras at the bottom. The most basic insurance package that individuals should drive away with are at least a combination of CDWs and LISs. This is the very minimum coverage that we consider safe. Any less and you could be in for a very messy and prolonged case if you do get into an accident.

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 rare cases, credit cards may even have some insurance coverage that can be extended to rental car insurance too. This is particularly the case with higher end “gold” or “platinum” cards which have a focus on the regular traveler. Most of the time these cards will have some sort of personal effects coverage or even extend an personal accident coverage too. Again, each person would have a very different circumstance and it would be prudent to check with your credit card provider before signing on the dotted lines.

The right way to approach this is to actually confirm with your insurer and credit card company as a part of your pre-travel activities. This checking will confirm whatever coverage that you have inherently so you don’t need to double up your rental car insurance. Naturally, paying for the extra insurance at the rental car agency isn’t necessarily the smartest thing either. Doubling up your insurance means you’ll be paying double for a set coverage amount. It is law that you can’t profit from insurance.

It should also be noted that if you opt to get insurance from the rental car agency that it will actually cost more than what you can get from your own car insurance company or as provided by the credit card. It isn’t abnormal to find that rental car agencies will charge almost double for the insurance coverage. This is a part of their profit model to catch customers with no insurance so they are forced to get it or not get the rental car.

Rental car insurance is certainly needed however you don’t need to get it from the rental car agency. Most rental car agencies sell insurance as a side-income and are certainly trying their best to make you part with more money than you are comfortable with. It would be prudent to first check that you aren’t covered and only rely on the rental car agency insurance products as a last choice.

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.