MitzEclipse

Hi all
Will be renting a car at SBP for almost two weeks in Dec and doing some early planning. Will be two adults/two kids with car seats in likely a mid-sized SUV. Haven't booked the car yet but thinking about the insurance approach. I am from the US but living in Switzerland with no car hence no primary auto insurance. I previously had a CC (CSR) that had supplementary car rental insurance, however, was not primary hence even if I applied for another CC with rental coverage, this wouldn't be adequate as I have no primary auto insurance.

Hence was looking at other insurance options such as rentalcover.com - seems to be legit and coverage is OK. I'm looking to hear from anyone if they've had experiences with claims. Or any other ideas how to approach rental car insurance? i just want to ensure I'm covered if there is an accident (doesn't matter who's fault), car damage, etc

Thanks in advance

guv1976

There's a lot to unpack here, so let me ask a couple of clarifying questions first:

1. Where was your current driver license issued? In a U.S. state? In Switzerland? Elsewhere?

2. Do you currently hold any U.S.-issued credit card? If not, do you still maintain a U.S. address from which you could obtain a new U.S.-issued card (and have someone forward it to you in Switzerland)?

AutoSlash

I think you may misunderstand how primary vs. secondary insurance works. If a credit card has primary insurance then that means that the policy provided by the credit card company will pay out before any other policies you may have including your own personal auto insurance.

If your card provides secondary insurance, then it means that your personal auto insurance (or other) policy would need to pay out first before the insurance provided by the credit card would kick in.

Now, if you don't have personal auto insurance coverage, then your credit card-provided insurance automatically becomes primary, regardless of whether your card provided primary or secondary coverage.

To put it another way, in the absence of other coverage, your credit card policy automatically becomes primary coverage regardless of whether the card provides primary or secondary coverage as part of the benefits.

MitzEclipse

guv1976
yes, I have a valid Arizona and Switzerland license - not sure which one I could use (seem to remember reading international customers get a better discount but can't find the thread anymore)
Yes, I have US issued CCs - just currently do not have a CC that has car rental insurance benefit

AutoSlash
thanks for the breakdown - I still don't have a CC that offers car rental coverage hence the question on insurance experiences - leaning towards rentalcover.com but if there are any other suggestions to research please let me know

AutoSlash

You might also look into insurance-inclusive rentals which you would qualify for if you have a Swiss driver's license. Feel free to enter a quote via AutoSlash and then PM us with the inquiry ID from the bottom of your quote email and we can check to see what the options are (if any). Sometimes insurance-inclusive rentals can be a great deal, sometimes not, but it's worth checking in any case.

guv1976

There are U.S.-issued no-annual-fee credit cards that include secondary rental-car loss/damage coverage. If you got one of those, that would cover you for damage to the rental vehicle itself.

You still would need third-party-liability insurance. And because you are renting in California, it's not just a good idea: it's required by California law.

If you still have a valid Arizona address, you might try pricing a personal, non-owner automobile liability policy. (Mine is issued by Travelers Insurance.) You could cancel the policy at the end of your rental if you do not expect to be renting a vehicle in the U.S. again before the end of the policy's (six-month?) term.

Otherwise, I would follow AutoSlash's suggestion, and price the rental on the major car-rental companies' European sites for an all-inclusive quote -- or just request a quote from the AutoSlash website, and let them do the work for you.

MitzEclipse

Thank you both
AutoSlash I just submitted a quote in Autoslash - will PM you inquiry ID (though I don't see where to add the insurance inclusive offer?)
guv1976 Thanks for the tip though not keen on taking out a separate non-owner auto liabilty policy so will just look at the insurance-inclusive offers to simplify everything

Separately, has anyone rented a car in SBP? I've never been there and don't know what to expect - from what I read, the rental cars are onsite, not connected via bus/transit so I assume it's a smaller airport so hopefully smaller queues. Any tips would be appreciated as last time I rented a car in PHX and was shocked at how many ppl were in the queues and quite a long wait!

AutoSlash

Yes, two of our team members are actually originally from the SBP area and have rented recently. The counters are next to the baggage claim belt and the cars are in a parking lot immediately adjacent to the terminal. (This setup is very typical for small airports in the US.) Lines aren't usually long as the airport is only served by regional jets and arrivals are spread throughout the day, though most counters only have one agent, so even a couple people ahead of you can translate to a little bit of a wait, but it shouldn't be anything like the snaking long lines at huge airports.

MitzEclipse

that's great to hear! can you ask your two colleagues if there are self-checkin kiosks there? particularly at the AVIS checkin (as this is what seems to be the best quote right now). Just want to avoid the queues all together if possible and just pick up the keys and go!

c1ue

In general, insurance paid for by rental companies is very very expensive. It is going to be $20/day or more - that adds up a lot over 2 weeks.
If you rent cars a lot, you're better off just paying for a no-car liability policy - they're $120 or so I think for 6 months (or maybe a year?).
As for other coverages, the credit card is the way to go.
I can attest that they work as advertised. I was an ex-pat in Japan in the Y2K era. On one trip to my corporate HQ in California - I flew in arriving in the am, worked all day, then departed to drive for my parent's house on a Friday. That was a terrible mistake then. It took me 4 hours just to get past the Casa de Fruta (about 60 miles).
I fell asleep at the wheel past the mountains on the 152 highway and woke up in time to not hit the wooden fences beside the highway; turned back before going into the field but then had to steer between the fence and a concrete culvert overpass - the latter which would have been very bad.
I jump the small streambed (which was dry I think), bounced a bit off the side of the concrete culvert as evidenced by a smear of paint, and skidded to a stop on the other side of the stream bed.
Air bag goes off, but pretty much did nothing.
Car is totaled. Not smashed up but definitely a bit crinkled, but I am perfectly fine - I got out of the car and walked around for 10-15 minutes trying to get a signal before a California Highway Patrol stops to help.
I had no car insurance because I lived in Japan and had no car. This was the only car accident I've ever been a driver in since I repainted a girl's bumper as a pizza delivery driver in the 80s...
Credit car company paid in full (AA AMEX).

7Continents

A bit of helpful FYI - I was driving a rental and merged into the side view mirror of another vehicle with my passenger side front door. I reported it at return and a rental employee signed off that there was no damage to the rental car.
I get a bill from the rental company for them fixing the rear passenger side panel as well as the back panel; this on a car that was documented and signed off by the rental company to have no damage.
My credit card company fought it and got all the charges dismissed. I also got a request from the other car's insurance company asking me to reimburse their costs since no personal car insurance covers the other cars damage. This can be considered a scam as insurance covers the car no matter what the reason for the accident.
So if anything happens, document it, take pix and get witnesses!

guv1976

Why do you consider this a scam? In most cases, even if the rental company paid for the other driver's damages, the rental company would be entitled to recoup that amount from you (or your personal auto insurance). The exceptions would be if you had some primary third-party-liability insurance from the rental company, such as if you purchased supplemental liability insurance, or if you rented with a discount code that provided some primary insurance (like the AARP code when renting from participating Avis/Budget locations in the U.S.) In a few states, if you have no personal auto insurance policy, the rental company's coverage might be primary for you.

JimP

Forgive me, but I can't help but think of this famous exchange:

RENTAL CAR AGENT: Alright. We have a blue Ford Escort for you Mr. Seinfeld. Would you like insurance?

JERRY: Yeah, you better give me the insurance, because I AM GONNA BEAT THE HELL OUT OF THIS CAR!

RENTAL CAR AGENT: Please fill this out.

rxgeek

Can the rental car company force you to provide evidence of your personal auto insurance? I used a cc with primary coverage to rent from Enterprise and they insisted on copying my insurance card.

oopsz

Yes. It's not common for them to ask at airport locations but the rental contracts can require you to show proof of liability insurance (and if you can't, they'll charge you for their own liability coverage). At non-airport locations it's common for them to ask for your insurance card. I'd say in my experience it happens about two thirds of the time in a non airport location (avis or enterprise).