Originally Posted by
tmiw
I would think you'd be okay if you can get the Benefits Administrator to send you a letter stating that the CDW is valid in the country you're visiting within a few weeks before leaving. (In fact, Irish car rental companies seem to want this to be willing to waive CDW at all from what I've read.) If you run into problems filing a claim later on, you can always send the letter you received along with the other required documents.
Chase is very willing to issue a letter regarding the coverage.
Regarding countries where mandatory CDW is required by laws, Chase covers the excess. We had one such claim at Italy, at Sicily to be exact. I have posted the details last year - it was 7 calendar days from time to file the claim with eClaims online to the money ACHed to our bank account. We even got reimbursed a little bit more because in the Repair Cost Estimate there were some airport surcharge added - this item is NOT covered, per the T&Cs.
At the time of picking up the car, Budget counter rep asked whether we would buy extra coverage to lower the excess which was $1000 euro before taxes. We said no because the CC would cover it. He then said, you understood that you would need to pay this first then you claimed it back from your credit card? We answered it affirmative. No more conversation on additional coverage topic.
I also dont think in countries where the basic CDW is required by laws you could decline the basic coverage. You can definitely decline the push to buy down the excess. What the tactics some rental companies employed were to scare you on how high the excess would be, like up to the value of the car that kind of things, or tens of thousands of $. This type of practice seems to be more prevailing with the non-worldwide chain, i.e. their names you never know about until you search car rental in that particular country. Worldwide companies like Avis/Budget/Hertz/National/Enterprise, tend not to use such tactics even at franchisee locations. Sixt is an exception that one needs to be really careful about due to many of the basic items they do not cover, without paying additional fee. Read too many bad stories about Sixt we purposely avoid dealing with them.