guv1976

"Secondary" rental-car insurance -- offered by many credit cards -- means secondary to any other collectable insurance you may have. If you have no other collectable insurance, secondary insurance becomes primary insurance for you .

As noted, third-party liability insurance is a whole 'nother thing. In a handful of states, car-rental companies must provide you with State minimum primary liability coverage. And, as noted, AARP members who use the AARP discount code when renting from Avis or Budget at participating U.S. locations get primary 25/50/10 liability coverage. But if such low levels of liability coverage are not to your liking, you can either purchase SLI from the car-rental companies each time you rent, or, if you rent cars often enough, get a personal, non-owned-auto liability policy from Travelers or some other insurer. (My policy is with Travelers.) Such policies, when issued to NY residents, automatically include coverage for damage to, or loss of, a rental car, paid out of the policies' property-damage coverage (no deductible). The downside of that is that a credit card which offers secondary coverage will be of no use to you if you have a non-owned-auto liability policy in NY.