Originally Posted by
sdsearch
Be careful about insurance though. Rental car websites often automatically include insurance that is required in a foreign country (for example, liability) on the assumption that you're using the website for the country which issues your insurance. So if for example you switch your insurance to US-based and that US-based insurance doesn't cover you in the UK, but you book a car in the UK through the UK site which assumes that you have UK insurance and that you're covered by it, you could have problems. Now, you can always add the insurance, sometimes online, sometimes only at pickup time, but you need to be aware of things like this. Plus adding extra insurance alters you cost, of course, which makes comparing prices trickier if it's not added automatically.
I just use the insurance that comes with the rental booking, and when booking on the UK site for a car in the US, the booking includes loss damage waiver down to a $0 excess. This isn't for booking a car in the UK.
What I found most strange is that when I specifically asked the Avis UK agent on the phone: what if, in a worst case scenario, I have a major crash while renting in the US from a booking made on the UK website, and if the booking was made when I was US resident and not UK resident - he said that it would be covered in the same way and would be fine. He basically said that if I had a UK license and was on the UK electoral roll, then what else is there even though I told him I'm resident in the US now. And yet I've seen people here advise others not to book on the Avis UK website (for rentals in the US) if they're not really resident in the UK since the insurance wouldn't pay out in the case of a terrible accident. The whole thing seems like a strange grey area, and I'm not sure if it's ever really been tested.
Don't quote me on any of this though and I'm not a lawyer etc etc