Originally Posted by notquiteaff

Yes, that’s basically why cards with “secondary” domestic coverage have primary coverage outside the US - most domestic personal automobile insurance plans don’t offer rental car coverage outside the US, so the card is the only coverage and hence primary.

How do they know if you have insurance at all? No personal experience (never had a rental car claim) , but I assume the card insurance carrier will simply ask you what other insurance you have. And if you lie about it, that’s presumably insurance fraud or perjury or some other undesirable legal problem….



Yes, liability coverage is often ignored or forgotten and could get very expensive. Since minimal liability insurance in the US is mandatory for registering cars in all (most?) states, I don’t know car rental companies would still have a $20/$25k liability insurance on the vehicle for renters without personal insurance (or from abroad) or if they truly then let vehicles go out the rental garage with zero coverage for damage to 3rd parties. My personal automobile insurance has very high liability coverage, so I never looked into that.