themicah

A family member's rental car was stolen last month. He had paid with Chase Sapphire Preferred and called them and they said he'll be charged for the rental as if he returned it, but nothing else.

A huge reason to put rental cars on cards with primary CDW!

wco81

Has anyone been able to book a car online without CDW?

I've rented cars in several European countries and now I'm trying to rent a car for New Zealand.

I'm checking rentalcars.com, which is showing CDW.

NZ has their Budget and Thrifty, which are presumably part of the US chains. They also have their own rental car companies.

They seem to include some kind of insurance when you book online, though they may not call it CDW.

In fact, the "CDW" described for some countries doesn't sound like the "CDW" you get when you book in the US.

mrlasssen

New Zealand, like many countries, require you to have "CDW", the rental car agencies must comply with the law. Ireland is another country that has the same requirement. I don't think I would rent a car in a foreign country, except Canada, without purchasing it. My insurance company, State Farm, only covers me in Canada and within a few miles inside Mexico and US border.

wco81

So there must be few people able to take advantage of the CSP primary coverage on rentals outside the US then.

calvinoeh

I was caught by the fact CDW isn't what we're used to as CDW in the US when renting from Avis in Milan. There's a deductible Chase coverage is still good even though it does mention that you have to decline CDW but in this case, it's not a true CDW.

tev9999

Ireland does not require CDW, and I am not sure that any country does. They do require liability insurance in case you injure someone. Not sure about NZ, but in Ireland that is included in the quoted rate. CDW is an add on that only insures against damage to the vehicle you rent. If you rent without CDW the agency may require a large CC hold ($5000+) to be sure they can be made whole if you wreck the car.

I just rented from Hertz in Dublin without CDW using my CSP as primary coverage. Chase provided me with a letter for proof of insurance (required by Hertz T&C), but Hertz didn't care to see it. They also didn't charge the €30 administration fee the T&C said they would for using my own insurance, which is still much better than €50/day to get the same level of coverage Chase provides for free. They also waived the requirement of a large hold as a Gold Plus Rewards customer, so they only held $299 (rental fee plus tank of gas) instead of the €5000 hold they could have placed if I rented as a non-member.

Skip the third party consolidators and go straight to the vendor to rent overseas and book as a member of their frequent renter program. It is not worth trying to save a few bucks to find out that the counter will not release a car to you without paying huge fees that cheapocarrentals.com didn't tell you about.

wco81

Only problem is, the price is usually a lot better through third parties like Auto Europe, rental cars.com, etc.

I called the Chase benefits administrator.

They said some minimal insurance is required in NZ so in that case, CSP can't provide primary insurance. So in this case, they'd be providing secondary or coverage of the deductible, with no limit on the deductible.

Well the deductible charged by Thrifty Rentals NZ is about $3000 NZD or about $2100 US.

calvinoeh

Just received the cheque in the mail for some minor damage on a rental in Milan paid with my Sapphire card. Took a while (a couple of weeks) to get the proper documentation from Avis and happy that the process was relatively painless.

TravelinSperry

As I peruse the online blogs who discuss this topic they almost universally describe Visa as only covering up to 15 days. However, the Chase T&C's specifically show up to 31 consecutive days for the United Explorer Card. I wonder if this is solely a carve out for this United Chase Visa or if others have it.

Also missing from the list is the American Express Premium Car Rental Protection (perhaps because it costs extra)? I just cancelled my coverage with Amex as I now have the United Explorer card and the coverage appears duplicative to me.

wco81

Do people book directly with agencies which let you decline CDW so they can get primary coverage on Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Amex premium rental insurance?

It seems all the third-party brokers include CDW.

TravelinSperry

I book direct because it almost always gets me the lowest price (via corp discounts or other affiliations).

mhdena

If you don't rent a car with an Amex card you would never pay for the premium rental protection.

I also have the United Explorer and Chase Sapphire Preferred, but anything over $50,000 I'd be more comfortable with Amex.

jeebus

I use Citi Professional, which unfortunately is no longer open to new applications. However, if you have one sitting around, this is a very nice perk of this fee-free card.

TravelinSperry

Interesting that you are more comfortable with >$50k. I read the plan t&c's for United explorer and they make no mention of a cap. They do exclude exotic (although I never rent such). Generally up to full-size for me so I'm good. Amex is $100k cap so that clearly protects you for more expensive vehicles. Why do you feel that United caps at $50k?

And you make a good point re Amex. I should've kept it active in case I made a mistake and used Amex. Still, since I'll always use United Explorer now, no harm, no foul.

philemer

Added Chase Sapphire Reserve to WIKI.