Originally Posted by
magendim
A lot of premium credit cards such as Visa Signature (which is what I use) include CDW coverage at no extra charge on rentals provided you pay for the rental with that card. Just be sure to read the limitations on the respective card.
Most (but not all) of these are Secondary coverage, so you need to claim against your own car insurance first - at least in your home country. The standard Visa Signature insurance definitely fits into that class.
Originally Posted by
DJMeatBall
I do not know for certain, but I suspect that if you look very carefully at the lawyer-friendly weasel words in the Terms & Conditions, it says somewhere that "entire rental must be paid for with the card for coverage to be valid".
I just checked the paperwork for my Amex coverage and I can't see any such phrase. This is *paid* coverage, not the free coverage you get with most cards.
Also if you happen to live in California, the Amex coverage is only $17.95.
As for those other cards, check the find print and you may find you're covered - some will cover redemption bookings as long as the taxes/etc are paid on the card. But again, most of these are secondary coverage, not primary coverage - generally it's only the Amex Premium coverage (ie, the paid one) and a few of the very high-end cards that provide primary coverage.