You may want to email your rental car company to ask for clarification regarding liability insurance. Usually the rate includes basic coverage of liability.

Do not know about Spain. However last Sept we rented from Hertz in Scotland (UK - I assume it should be under the same law whether it is in Scotland or England but you should check).

I emailed both Hertz and Avis after I made reservations, to ask them about the liability insurance questions. Both came back to inform me the rental rate already included the minimum liability insurance but did not give the amount. We did not take out any insurance, just used a regular Visa card for the rental and declined the CDW which was the only insurance item the Hertz office mentioned - it was a corporate location in Edinburgh (City).

Hertz was pretty good in answering my questions, took about 3 to 5 days turnaround to get email replies from its office in Tulsa. We went with Hertz as its rate was quoted in GBP (though at the end, the returning site - a franchisee, billed us USD without informing us such practice). Hertz also did not charge a separate one-way fee. The total cost was cheaper than Avis which had a hefty one-way fee. Hertz reservation had a full details of breakdown of all the charges, versus Avis had items lumped together and not a single CSR can tell us what made up the total and the equivalent of GBP. After 4 rounds of emails I gave up with Avis.

I also notice my SPG AMEX personal card can purchase the extra insurance coverage from AMEX online.

However, the details of the coverage is not online - just a brief summary - at least I cannot find the details online. AMEX online suggests you either look thru your docs or call to make sure. The docs I received does say it provides coverage outside US (country of residence) and excludes those countries everyone knows basically. The card is opened in Jan, so the docs that comes with it should be current. It bears 2006 date at the back page of the doc.

Bear in mind, personal cards and business cards do have differences in benefits.

EDIT: I did find the definitition of coverage details of the AMEX SPG personal card benefits, including the rental car coverage, online.

Click the tiny annotation number 9, under Travel/Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance, and you get a full page fine print showed up at the bottom of the page. It is item No.9 - a summary of Discription of Coverage.

9. Coverage is for theft of or damage to most rental vehicles. The collision damage waiver (CDW) or similar option offered by the Commercial Car Rental Company must be declined. This coverage is excess to your other sources of insurance and applies for the first 30 days of an auto rental if rented from a Car Rental Company. No coverage is provided for vehicles rented in Australia, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Jamaica, and New Zealand. Certain vehicles are not covered and other significant exclusions apply. Coverage is only available to permanent residents of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Coverage is underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company, Administrative Office, Green Bay, WI, and is subject to the terms, conditions, and exclusions of Master Policy AX0925. See Description of Coverage for full details.



Thanks msrohud for posting that!