Bartolo

Did something change? I thought it was 48 days.

As to your question, I do this all the time with National. For insurance purposes the contract must be closed out. There needs to be at least 24 hrs between rentals in order to have insurance coverage thru the CC or even your personal policy that includes rental car coverage.

I manage this by doing a different rental contract for 2 days with a different CC. I’ve always been able to keep the car (if I like it). National seems to be used to it.
Note, I do 2 days just to be on the safe side.

mia

48 days is the limit for the Canadian Platinum card's Car Rental Theft and Damage Insurance benefit.

This thread discusses American Express USA's Premium Car Rental Protection which is an extra cost product. "Enrollment is limited to permanent residents of the 50 United States and D.C. At this time, enrollments are not available in New Hampshire, Puerto Rico and United States Virgin Islands."

SusanDK

Where does one see this requirement for a 24 hour gap between rentals? That would certainly make things more complicated. When you say a different CC, can it still be another AmEx that is covered by the premium car rental protection, or does it have to be a CC that is not linked to the same insurance?

guv1976

Bartolo lists his location as Canada. As mia points out, Bartolo might be talking about the coverage which is included with his credit card, as opposed to the extra-cost Amex Premium coverage.

In what country will you be renting? Many credit cards provide up to thirty days of free rental-car coverage (subject to certain limitations as to type/cost of vehicle) outside of the U.S.. For 90 days, you could conceivably sandwich one month of paid Amex coverage between two months of free coverage with other cards. Check terms and conditions carefully.

SusanDK

We are renting in Denmark. I prefer to use AmEx with the extra-fee premium rental coverage because that’s the card that provides my Hertz Platinum and Avis President’s Club status. I don’t see anything in the terms of the premium protection that indicates a gap is required between contracts. Is this something that is stipulated anywhere?

Thank you!

Bartolo

I don’t see the “gap” anywhere in print. I could have missed it, of course. The so-called fine print is just that. I can barely read the Amex info on insurance the type is so small.

When I first started doing long rentals, I called the company that underwrites the insurance for my CC. I happened to get an adjuster and he was exceedingly helpful. He is the one who told me about this. Said it was one of the first things he looks at when he is resolving a claim. This was VISA.

Subsequently, I checked with the Amex insurer and was told the same thing when I pushed for details. My personal broker also said the same thing when I asked for details about the rider on my policy for rental car coverage.

Fyi, for various reasons I reviewed this issue (48 day max) last fall. Nothing had changed. Perhaps it only applies to Canadian cards?

Mia, thanks for clarifying the 42 days applies to a US card. How rare for the Canadian card to have a seemingly better benefit.

guv1976

It's probably best to call Amex Insurance Services to double-check. But if the full policy (not a summary) does not have an exclusion for back-to-back rentals, and if Amex charges your card a separate premium at the start of each consecutive rental, I think that Amex would be hard-pressed to deny coverage.

I understand that your Amex Platinum card provides you with elite status with Hertz and Avis, but there's no requirement to charge a particular rental to that card to enjoy those status benefits, is there? Of course, if Hertz' Amex Platinum CDP provides the best rate for a rental, that's a different consideration.

guv1976

Bartolo , we're talking apples and oranges here. U.S.-issued Amex Platinum cards include free car-rental coverage for rentals not exceeding thirty days. But any U.S.-issued Amex card (including those with no annual fee) can enroll in the optional Amex Premium Car Rental Protection program. Enrolled cards are charged a flat fee (which can range from $14.95 to $24.95, depending on one's U.S. state of residence and amount of coverage desired) upon commencement of a rental, and such optional coverage extends to rentals not exceeding 42 days.

Information about this optional Amex insurance product can be found here:

https://feeservices.americanexpress....verage/home.do

SusanDK

I've so far researched every bit of documentation I can find and do not see any exclusion referring to back-to-back rentals, although I still have not found the full policy which isn't even available online when going through the enrollment process (I just enrolled an additional card to my existing account to try to trigger it). There are exclusions mentioned in the summary documents and back-to-back is not one of them.

Throughout the sign-up process, some of the language is:

"I have read, understand and agree to the Summary of Terms and Conditions explained in this enrollment packet."

"Each time a vehicle is rented using one of your enrolled cards …"

I would hope that if back-to-back was an exclusion, it would be mentioned in the summary document since no other document is available to read online during enrollment. And all of the citations I could find refer to "each time a vehicle is rented" or "per vehicle rental."

I always do Pay Later on my rentals, so the premium insurance does not get charged until after I turn the car in. The CC number is attached to the contract, but until the charge hits at the end of the rental, the account isn't charged (it can be several days).

Thanks for your help. I do realize that to be 100% sure I need to call or find that full document.

guv1976

Have you clicked on the blue "View Sample Description of Coverage" link which appears on the initial Amex Premium Rental Car Protection webpage?

SusanDK

Yes, thank you. I've saved a copy. No mentioned of needing a gap between rentals. It is still referred to as a "sample" however, not to be definitive vs. the actual policy.

But please correct me if you think I'm wrong regarding no exclusions for back-to-back! I didn't read anything that would give me the impression they weren't covered since they are separate contract.

guv1976

I saw no such exclusions, either. If Amex did not provide you with the actual policy when you enrolled an additional card, I would call and request a copy.

Eujeanie

These last few posts have been very interesting.

Here's my recent story.

Rented a car from Alamo at PHX from 3/25 - 3/28. Dropped car at PHX at 11 am. Flew to LAS, rented a car from Alamo from 3 pm on 3/28 (same day) to 3/30. I have had only ONE Amex Insurance charge. So did that cover both rentals? Or did I not have coverage on one of them unbeknownst to me? Luckily I had no issues with either rental, but now I'm wondering. I've waited until now to post since I wanted to see if a second charge showed up, but it has not. The one charge was billed on 3/30.

Global Adventurer

As like my as you were signed up for coverage during that period it would be covered regardless if they charged you for it or not. Unfortunately that happened to me and others numerous times. I don't worry about it anymore because I just use the primary coverage directly from the card.

Eujeanie

Well, well, well....just got the 2nd Amex insurance charge today, 4 days after the rental, never took this long before. So I guess my experience is a separate charge for each separate rental? Even on the same day? But from different cities? Anyone know if that's the way it should be?