IAHtraveler

Continental Presidental Plus Mastercard. It's expensive, but since I have a lifetime membership to the Presidents (err, United) Club, it's $100/yr.

DiverDave

Amex also has a program for many of its cards that provides primary coverage for $25 per rental. I use that for peace of mind.

I had a chipped windshield once on a Hertz rental in LA. I reported it when I turned in the car, and I expected Hertz to collect for the damage, so I filed a claim with Amex. The Amex reps were very professional and easy to work with. I had all the paperwork ready to go with Amex once I received the claim from Hertz.

But Hertz never filed a claim.

I also have the Continental PP card, but haven't used it for any personal rentals. I believe one of the other Continental cards with a lower annual fee also offered the primary coverage for free, but haven't checked lately to see if that is still the case.

David

sdsearch

2 accidents in 10 years in about 100k miles of driving, one of which is a scrape and one of which unavoidable in the wilderness is a horrid driving record???

(The third "collision" was rock damage from something presumably a vehicle in front of me, or my rental's own wheels maybe, threw up. That has nothing to do with driving record, but it can have to with where you drive. I know someone who drives regularly on one road in Alabama, and complaints about almost every time rocks hitting the windshield. That is bad driving record too?!? )

And, no, niether of these was reported to my insurance company. (And it's been several years now, so if not be now, when??? )


Driving sanely is relative. If you've never driven anywhere in the remote north Rockies on a lonely unlit two-lane road, how can you know what is "sane" (in terms of not being possibly able to hit a deer)? I was already driving slower than the speed limit, but confusing lights (that looked like they were from oncoming traffic just around the corner but turned out to be from something off to the side of the road) made me dim my high-beams (as I've been taught to do from other parts of the country) right before those high-beams would have hit the deer. How was I supposed to know that on that road it was more important to leave high-beams on, oncoming traffic or not, than to not blind oncoming traffic?

And I was driving at sane speed for a fixed object. The collision would never have occurred had the deer not jumped into the other lane that I swerved into (as I was braking hard) to avoid it!


I do not pay for insurance twice. I happen to have a card which I would have anyway for other reasons (Diners Club MC) that happens to have one of the best "always primary" car collision insurances in the credit card industry. So all I do is "steer" this card (as opposed to other cards) to all my domestic rentals.

I don't know how much you've rented overseas in different countries, but there can be adiditonal challenges there. Narrow roads in Ireland and Spain, but in Spain they don't have rock walls right where you'd expect the shoulder, but all throughout (at least western central) Ireland they do! And even though I try to drive at very conservative speeds, local people pass may way above the speed limit on tight narrow turns in these cases!

Then there's driving on the "wrong" side of the street. It's one thing to remember which side of the road to get on, but there are other confusing factors, like which way to look / yeild at traffic circles.

I don't understand why you don't such driving situations might not be more challenging than "near home".


I think you misunderstand the "near home" statistic. It is not a statisc specific to frequent travelers. It is a statistic of the general public, most of whom are very infrequent travelers, so by definition most of their driving is "near home"! So all the statisic is pointing out is that you don't need to go far away form home to get in an accident (true). But it is not claiming that the accident rate per miles driven in a location is higher near home than far away (including other countries). That would a separate statistic, which I have no heard.

This statistic is saying the average person drives most of their miles near home, that's where their accidents are most likely to be. But the statistic in not necessarily true for that small fraction of people (a subset of frequent travelers) who drive mostly away from home to begin with!

panamamike

Does this mean the CC company covers all of the damage and liability insurance? Or is there more insurance to consider...

Regards,

Mike

IAHtraveler

Moderator's note: Keep the offensive and off topic comments off of flyertalk. If your comments aren't related to the topic, they are unnecessary.

mrkymark

Insure or not to insure. You take the same bets as you do in Vegas. You could lose, win, or lose big. In the long run you will lose.(someday)

The statement: "Most accidents happen at or near your home" does not mean driving in stranger places are less likely to cause an accident. The only thing the statement qualifies is a law of probabilities. You drive in and out of your "home" at least twice a day. You add all that up and you will more likely get into an accident near your home.

Again this does not mean that when you are somewhere else driving on roads you have never driven is just as safe or less dangerous.

Personally when I rent a car, I use an AMEX with Primary insurance and I also buy the Rental SLI to protect against 3rd party claims. I would rather not have my personal insurance deal with that or risk my rates going up. I don't rent that often so it makes financial sense to me.

If you do rent often then perhaps you should let your personal insurance take the responsibility for all your rentals.

joesorce

If you don't own a car and have your own liability insurance, you will need to purchase from the car rental company in some states. For instance, in California the car rental companies are not required to provide any liability coverage on the car, the driver/renter is responsible.

Credit cards generally are secondary COLLISION coverage, no liability protections.

ryandelmundo

Is this true for all cards?

I have looked at the agreement for my just-received Capital One platinum. Indeed, it covers only the rental car.

It does not seem to cover someone else's car or the liability.

I've looked around the 'net trying to see what happens if you get into an accident you cause....is that covered by the credit card?

I don't have a car nor do I have car insurance. So finding a card to cover me completely when I rent is essential. I guess I thought I was covered completely, but now I'm wondering if I was or not.

Shockingly, I suspect not....

sdsearch

Avis Preferred ( / First / etc) allows you to set up decline / accept in 4 separate categories on your Avis Wizard account. Only one or two (collision and perhaps theft) of these categories are covered by your card (if you can completely decline the Avis coverage on your rental, which isn't easily the case in some countries!).

So the safe thing to do, until/unless you find our own liability/etc insurance, would be to set your account to "accept" the categories other than collision and theft. (In many countries, they're mandatory or auto-included anyway.)

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If you rent frequently and are not content with the rather minimal basic liability protection offered by car-rental companies in most states (California being a notable exception), consider obtaining a non-owned-auto liability insurance policy. I pay about $135/year for $500,000 coverage.

sanctified50

What company do you get your non owners through?

formeraa

Exactly! And, then, we could start discussing conditional probabilities but that would go over most people's heads in our math-challenged country.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Travelers, through the Campbell Solberg agency in Manhattan.

HookemHorns

No, some cards provide primary collision insurance up to actual value of the car, but those policies may not cover everything (medical payments, or other liability claims)...a few cards do offer more comprehensive primary coverage. Also, they may not cover rentals in certain countries (Ireland and New Zealand come to mind). From what I've seen, all of these also have limits on the number of contiguous rental days covered.

IMHO, it is sensible for someone without car insurance to get a non-owned policy and layer that with the secondary coverages provided by a credit card.

A humble suggestion (general comment, not directed at anyone) - in many cases, wildlife strikes, rocks to windshields, and hit-and-run collision with your parked (unoccupied) car will not count as an "accident", nor raise your rates. I realize that policies can vary between companies and location...I would encourage people to thoroughly go through their Ts and Cs, and contact their insurance agent with any questions. It is good to know the dynamics of your coverage, including how it plays with secondary coverage, before an incident occurs.

ryandelmundo

That's great advice, thanks for posting!

I don't rent very often (and now have a good reason not to do so at all, so maybe I'll just buy the IDL or someone mentioned a $25 per rental from AMEX.

It seems like this info should be documented somewhere....any idea of a good place to put it? There isn't a flyertalk wiki is there? Scouring posts is always such an adventure...