Overseas car rental insurance extras

[Nessa1977]

Does anyone take out all the insurance extras offered with car rental?

In the past I've always bought everything available to be on the safe side.

I'm looking at renting some cars when in the US later this year and want to avoid paying extras if possible.

Dummy purchase recommends Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) ($12.50/day), with the other options being Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) ($14.49/day) and Personal Accident and Effects (PAE) ($6.05/day).

If I only take the LDW, will my travel insurance cover the rest, IF there is any damage?

 

[opusman]

Generally travel insurance will cover everything; I never bother with any of the high-priced insurance add-ons when renting cars. Of course you need to check your own policy for exactly what is covered.

 

[MrHyde]

Travel insurance will cover almost everything. In Paris, I had a flat and the car rental charged me the repair of the tyre. Insurance covered that, but the bill had a charge for administration costs, which insurance refused to cover.

 

[serfty]

Generally travel insurance will cover everything; I never bother with any of the high-priced insurance add-ons when renting cars. Of course you need to check your own policy for exactly what is covered.

Travel insurance will cover almost everything. In Paris, I had a flat and the car rental charged me the repair of the tyre. Insurance covered that, but the bill had a charge for administration costs, which insurance refused to cover.

More often than not, Australian based travel insurance will not cover everything - in some cases IT will cover nothing (except for perhaps personal loss) You need to be very careful.

Check some other threads on this topic.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Firstly read your travel insurance Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) very carefully first to find out what they will not pay. You usually can purchase extra units of coverage regarding car rental excess but IMHO you're probably better off just getting your usual travel insurance & purchasing the insurance that goes with the car rental.

On a recent trip to the US we hired cars in MSY MCO & SAN and always took whatever insurance was necessary that in the event of an accident we walked away paying zero.

Doesn't appear that there's any kind of collision damage waiver as such - if you do $7,000 damage to the vehicle then that's what they charge your credit card for. The car rental companies do not get involved with the claims at all so it's up to you to sort it out with the insurance companies of the other parties involved which would be no easy task when you are back in Australia.

Just from reading other posts on this site there are some wholesalers in Australia whereby you can prepay everything so maybe check that out also.

 

[trooper]

All the Travel Insurance I've been able to find here covered the Rental Car EXCESS only...

Personally - while I am happy to rely on my travel insurance for the supplemental type stuff, I would NEVER rent a car in the USA without CDW/LDW....

Happily it doesn't have to be as expensive as all that...

For the OP - I'd suggest searching the car rental threads here on AFF and trying some of the companies that offer all-inclusive rentals to foreign visitors in the USA.... beats paying the CDW/LDW as an add-on!!!

 

[N860CR]

I book cars in the US through www.cheap-car-rentals.com. They are cheap (using Thrifty/Alamo) and include all the insurances except for the personal one (your own travel insurance generally covers damage to yourself) and the roadside asssistance.

Very competitive rates. Website looks dodgy, but I've used it without problem.

 

[clifford]

I book cars in the US through www.cheap-car-rentals.com. They are cheap (using Thrifty/Alamo) and include all the insurances except for the personal one (your own travel insurance generally covers damage to yourself) and the roadside asssistance.

Very competitive rates. Website looks dodgy, but I've used it without problem.

Yes, I've just had a look at it. They don't seem to want to tell you much about themselves.

I'll be sticking with Netflights (part of Thos Cook group) thanks.

 

[trooper]

I've booked at least 8 rentals through that mob... nary a problem...

The only reason I don't use them for ALL my rental needs is that they don't quite have National coverage.... I regularly visit ABQ fr'instance and that is one place they don't offer....

Funny.. the only time I tried to check out netflights my computer went berserk with security warnings??????

 

[stryker]

Funny.. the only time I tried to check out netflights my computer went berserk with security warnings??????

Yes, they've been "upgrading" their website recently and not doing it very well!

Perhaps the re-programming work was being done in India.

But the good employees in Preston, Lancs, UK do respond quite well to emails (if you phrase them right).

 

[trooper]

Thanks for that!

I'll give them another try! :mrgreen:

(We REALLY need a Thumbs Up smiley!!!)

 

[straitman]

I have used Netflights and Argus and both seemed good and with all extras included. The only obvious issue was that Argus does not tell you the specific rental company until you have made the booking.

 

[kiwi2768]

It is my understanding that a travel insurance policy will only cover the EXCESS up to $3000 or $4000 depending on the policy. It does not cover you if the vehicle is written off and the hire car company takes you for total loss of the vehicle.

 

[serfty]

It is my understanding that a travel insurance policy will only cover the EXCESS up to $3000 or $4000 depending on the policy. It does not cover you if the vehicle is written off and the hire car company takes you for total loss of the vehicle.

If you are referring to rentals outside of Australia and New Zealand it it quite likely that Oz based travel insurance will provide NO cover at all.

When renting in the USA the car hire companies do not have 'excess'. It is either have insurance or not.

The rental websites noted by straitman two posts ago provide inclusive rates (i.e. Insurance is provided). Even then you still may require personal (self/property) cover (which is generally provided by Oz based travel insurance).

 

[trooper]

I think I am going to try something different....

I had seen mention of www.insurance4carhire.com which was said to cover the excess ( so no real use to Aussies in the USA) - but having checked out their website today (rather than just relying on hearsay) I found that they have a policy providing CDW/LDW & SLI and a few other nice little things... for GBP 109 per year...:shock:

Maximum length on any one rental 31 days.. but no limit on how many rentals in the year.

For GBP 129 excess cover is also included...

Given the low costs of rentals in the USA when NOT worrying about CDW that looks like it might be a winner...... I suspect (and will have to do some calculations) that by paying for that policy, and only paying the "base" rental rates.. I might well come out in front.

Interesting!