Costs to top up insurance in the US?

[GeorgeD]

Hi there,

I am off to the US next week, with a road trip planned within California for several days. I have been hunting for the past month for the best deal on a convertible (call it a mid-life crisis ), and thanks to all the great advice on this forum have been hunting across a number of consolidators and resellers outside of the US.

I also have a list of insurances that have been recommended that I'm trying to get included:

LDW (seems to be standard)
TP
UMP
LIS/LSI

The only problem is that I can only seem to find deals that deliver three of the four. One of the last three is always missing, and there doesn't seem to be any consistency between resellers which one isn't covered. The price of booking through the resellers is more than half the price of booking direct with a car hire company in the US, so I'm keen to proceed, but I'm wondering if it's a false economy if I end up having to spend several hundred dollars to purchase the "optional" missing insurance on the day of hire. I'm certainly not game to go without it, and I'm wondering if this is how the US rental firms are now ensuring that international travelers still have to cough up the same amount as US citizens. Would anyone have any advice on what I might be hit with on the day to top up the insurance, or if there is a site that includes all four?

I have tried the following sites amongst others: Argus Car Hire, ebookers, Auto Europe, Holiday Autos, Driveaway Holidays.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[AdMEL]

In my experience:

Uninsured Motorist Protection (UMP) and Theft Protection (TP) are usually included as part of Liability Insurance Supplement (LIS)/Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI)/Additional Liability Insurance (ALI), at least with Hertz and Avis. ALI/SLI/LIS are effectively third party legal liability for property damage and injury to their party property.

You usually can't buy these separately.

You can usually only buy CDW/LDW and ALI/SLI/LIS as two separate insurances. The cost of each varies greatly, depending on the state, car rental company and car rented - from approx. US$10 - 30 per day.

If you rent direct from the likes of Hertz, all of these covers are included in packaged rates provided to Aussies.

 

[GeorgeD]

That is unbelievably helpful!! Thanks so much, I'm off to book with Hertz now. Cheers!

 

[addisonclark]

Thanks for sharing this great post with us.