Originally Posted by
pinniped
If I'm in a country where my own regular car insurance is in force, then I'm probably not spending the $18 solely for the ability to not report an accident to them. That does start to seem like the overinsurance that MDtR-Chicago speaks of. Yes, a wreck could affect your premiums, but that's true every day of the year I'm in my own car.
Sorry, yes, that's what I was trying to say. I was specifically thinking about US policyholders driving in the US (or Canada).
My personal opinion is that these are among the easiest places in the world to drive. Generally, when I travel internationally, I let someone else handle the driving - either taxi or transit. Just not worth it for me personally to deal with it.
Originally Posted by
Zarf4
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.
This is a financial decision, right? So let's try to put a model together. Again, assuming US driver traveling within US and Canada exclusively.
Let's assume that, in general, you drive almost every day - say 300 days/year. I don't know what the average accident rate is in the general populace. Let's say it's once every 3 years.
So your odds of being in an accident on any given driving day are 1:900. Let's say that an accident will make the cost of your policy go up $500 per year for five years. Thus, the total cost of the accident to you is $2500.
Let's say your average car rental is 4 days. That turns your 900 driving days into 225 trips. If you were to take out the $18 AMEX primary insurance add-on for each of your 225 trips in that 3 year period between accidents, the total cost to you would be $4050. In other words, you are paying $4050 to avoid a $2500 increase in premium.
Looking at it another way, the incremental increased cost of your accident over those three years is $11.11 per trip, compared to paying AMEX $18 to mitigate that risk.
This isn't a criticism of your choice to take the insurance; it's a real pain to deal with insurance claims. But for me, it's not worth the cost.
I do occasionally take the counter coverage, actually. One memorable time was when a client convinced me to drive at night thru a winter storm to an important meeting. That was relatively high risk driving, so I paid for the peace of mind.