Originally Posted by
Happy
I know the rental rate includes the liability (injury to others), just like in Canada, and in most states in U.S.
No, it is very unlike the auto insurance US residents are familiar with because while many of the same terms are used they can have different meanings or implications between the US and NZ usages. For example personal injury to others (and to yourself) in NZ is covered/dealt with by the NZ Accident Compensation Scheme. This is quite different than in most US states wherein if you cause bodily injury to a 3rd party they try to get compensated from the insurance company of the vehicle owner or the insurance company of the driver or both.
Some of the basics of rental ("hire") car insurance in NZ include:
1) The NZ Accident Compensation Scheme provides cover for personal injury
2) The form of most of the items in NZ rental car contracts is dictated by law and you won't see quite as wide a variation in rental contracts as you would across the US. [One area where I have noticed a bunch of variation between companies is in their lists of "prohibited" roads. ]
3) By NZ law, all rental car companies must "offer" the renter insurance for damage to the rental vehicle and damage to 3rd party property. In this case "offer" basically means "include" and all rental rates you get quoted by NZ companies include this base property damage coverage in the price.
4) By law, the renter is technically permitted to decline this included property damage coverage. However why would anyone want to since even if you managed to find some way to decline this coverage, it's unlikely the price would be any different. Furthermore, companies are permitted to decline to rent to you if you decline the base coverage.
5) Now comes the complicated part ... while the original NZ law concerning rental car insurance required companies to offer/include base property damage insurance, a later ammendment allows companies to make the excess/deductible as high as they like and the limits of the coverage as low as they like.
So now NZ rental car companies can vary widely on the deductible/excess amounts i.e. on the amount you as the renter risk paying (+GST on it of course
) Some companies specify and use one "standard" excess amount. Then at other companies (most of the majors) the excess value can and does vary wildly between contracts. Plugging in different affiliation, rate or coupon codes on the majors' sites for NZ rentals can cause not only the rental rate to vary but the value of the excess/deductible exposure to vary as well.
6) Finally, NZ rental car companies are allowed and certainly try to sell you various CDW type products so if you so choose, you can pay through the nose to avoid the exposure to the excess amount they created/raised in the first place. These NZ "CDW" style products differ from many US contracts in that the $NZ XX per day they cost is only "protecting" you from having to possible pay the excess amount if things go wrong. Remember that you have automatic base insurance (of some amount) for property damage already included in the rate you're paying.