dba

My insurance company, to give just one data point, will only quote umbrella policies at all if you already have both homeowner's insurance and automobile insurance with them. Before I owned a car I tried to get an umbrella policy from them and two other insurers and found that I would have to purchase auto insurance (for my nonexistent car) before I could proceed.

Schurr

I live in Illinois, have no car, and have non-owner liability coverage for rentals with State Farm for about $30 a month. I still have to purchase the collision damage/waiver when I rent to cover the rental car itself.

Steve

fastflyer

This is what I pay; this is a single-data point. Take it please at face value. I do have underlying homeowner's insurance, and my post was intended to address some of the concerns in earlier posts about liability insurance maximums.

Doppy

I spoke to Travelers a couple years ago and they would offer it in NYC, but for $2000-3000 / year. I was under 25 at the time, however.

This is the way it's done, otherwise it would be a big loophole to get cheap, high-limit insurance coverage (or the price of an umbrella policy would just rise to be inclusive of homeowners and auto insurance for those who didn't already have it).

Larrude

Does this umbrella cover automobile liability coverage without an underlying automobile policy? You indicate that you live in New York, NY. Can you comfirm for us in this thread that your agent/broker specifically said that this wou cover automobile liablity issues? I understand that this is one data point, but this point is so skewed away from the hundreds of umbrella policies that I have seen in New York State over the years that I would really appreciatae it if you could verify this information. I suspect that either you misuderstood or that your agent/broker mis-explained.

No disresprect intended.

Larry

Craig6z

Would you mind posting who the insurance carrier is? I would seriously consider cancelling my umbrella and re-writing it with whomever is that cheap.

canuck_in_pa

I'm paying $175 for 1M umbrella in PA.

I needed to get 1M home and 500K car liability coverages first.

coachflyer

$50 for $1 million umbrella? I pay $517 for the million $ coverage, on top of the $100-300 K liability for autos and other home owner insurance.

lewinr

Having spent a few hours yesterday researching rental car insurance options, here are some updates and misc facts on the topic that might be useful to some:

1. Starting May 1, US Amex "gold cards" (this includes the standard gold, the starwood card, the hilton card, and probably many others) will include "loss of use" coverage. (where the rental car company charges you their losses from not having the car available to rent). The agent claimed that before this date it is not covered.

2. Looking at the cards in my wallet, I found this:

- "Gold" cards mentioned directly above: for $25 per rental, you can get the "premium" insurance option which makes the card insurance "primary", ups the maximum coverage to $100k (normally $50k) and adds some extras like accidental death & dismemberment, and extends the maximum rental period to 42 days (usually 30). I only would see this as valuable in case you really need the card to be "primary", are renting between 30 and 42 days, or are renting a luxury car.

- the Canadian Amex Gold card is a bit better (at least until May 1), as it covers "loss of use" and any administration fees charged by the rental company, but it has a CA$100 deductible.

- the US MBNA Lufthansa visa does not cover "loss of use" at all and is also limited to $50k.

- the best card seems to be the MBNA Starwood Mastercard issued in Canada which provides coverage up to $1mln, covers loss of use and has no deductible.

3. I found this site: www.insurance4carhire.com which provides primary insurance and third-party-liability insurance (SLI) for rental cars. At approx $190 for coverage for 1 year in the US and Canada (other plans/regions also available), it appears to be worth it if you want SLI, rent more than approx 2-3 weeks per year (otherwise it is cheaper to get it from the rental company), or your credit card does not provide sufficient LDW/CDW coverage. I've searched flyertalk and found a few references to this site, and people asking if anybody has any experience with them, but nobody replied that they had.

Note: terms and coverage on cards differ based on the country the card is issued in. Here you can see the coverage provided by UK Amex cards: http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif...1,22746,00.asp. It appears that the UK plat amex provides third-party-liability insurance.

Ron

PS. Maybe it is worth making a "master thread" on the topic of rental car insurance since it seems to be something frequently asked.

secretbunnyboy

Thanks for that research - confusing but interesting!

For those that don't have any other coverage, I can recommend http://www.holidayautos.com/ , a consolidator which bundles full coverage into the cost of the rental (there's an excess, of course, but it's usually reasonable imo) and operates worldwide. They don't rent cars to residents of US or Canada, though.
Hmm, don't count on it. Once the insurance co has got the (hypothetical) judgment in the US, it would be in a much stronger position to sell that on to a Russian entity that has experience in enforcement. Enforcement's always a question in Russia but even trying to "outflank" a local insurance company would cost you lots of time and money.

pdhenry

I have a Green Amex and received a letter saying that it will be provided for the Green Card as well.

orfflyer

I don't know if a Non-Owner Operator policy with Progressive is available in NY, but I do know it is available in VA and it's pretty reasonable. Certainly cheaper (if you rent more than two weeks a year) than buying the rental companies rider. Click to take a look, but I *think* you need to get the Non-Owner policy by calling the 800# rather than online.

rfrost

That's helpful information about the forthcoming change in Amex policy. In theory, they cover "loss of use" now, but ONLY if the rental car company submits its fleet logs, and I can tell you from prior experience that neither Hertz nor Avis does. (Hertz claims it's proprietary information.) MasterCard says they DO cover "reasonable" loss of use, but I've fortunately never had to put that to the test. Hertz and Avis both impose an "administrative fee" in the case a car is out of service for repairs, typically in the $150 range, which I don't believe either Amex or MasterCard covers. Certainly Amex doesn't.

RichMSN

Mine is $167 for $1M coverage. I have auto and homeowners with my company as well. Not quite those liability levels, though.