Originally Posted by
MDtR-Chicago
While the convenience is nice, it's not an especially good value. You're paying twice for the same insurance - once for your personal auto policy, then again for the AMEX coverage.
In other words, you pay $18 every time for the (somewhat rare) incidence of saving $110.
If it were a catastrophic loss, you've already paid your own premium to your insurance company to cover the loss, and your secondary CC coverage will cover the deductible, so aside from the inconvenience of the paperwork and follow-up, you might be out only the loss of use.
$18 each rental to cover, at most, a rare payment of a few hundred $ and a few hours of time. It's not a slam dunk unless your time is worth a lot.
Perhaps I'm naive on the subject but the major reason I'm inclined to pay the $18 is for the ability NOT to report it to my own insurance company. If say I were to get into an accident with only collision damage and the local law enforcement were to write it up as my fault (whether or not it was) and I submitted the claim to my insurance carrier wouldn't there be a likely chance of my premium going way way up for many years? With the jurisdiction of the accident perhaps being international I don't think my insurance company would be very inclined to investigate even if I proclaimed my innocence.
It just seems it would be a likely time to get in a fender bender while driving an unfamiliar vehicle in an unfamiliar place. I've had to drive in Japan on business and may have gone the wrong direction on a one-way street once or twice.