alanh

My insurance (and I'm sure this is common) says it doesn't cover rentals where the rental contract was violated. If it saves them paying a claim, I'm sure they'll stick to it.

ANC RED-EYE

I can't speak for EVERY insurance policy...but I do believe that my insurance, and most insurances cover rental cars ONLY if you are an authorized driver. It is different than borrowing your cousin's car - because your cousin would be lending you his car, with his consent. The rental agency clearly is not.

Another interesting tidbit I learned (fortunately NOT the hard way) is that my insurance covers me driving borrowed cars...as long as the car I'm borrowing is not registered at my residence. Therefore, you may think twice about borrowing your roommates/family members car...or lending yours unless you are listed as a driver on their policy and vv. (It was free for my sister and I to list eachother).

Lastly...the Costco rates through Alamo ALWAYS include a 2nd driver at no additional charge - just a tip.

Larrude

Well, after 34 years in the insurance business, I have a simple, straight forward answer to this. When I look at my company's NY State automobile insurance policy, it states that coverage extends to a vehicle owned by a non member of your family as long as it is being driven by you or a relative. If the other driver is not a relative, no coverage.

Also, if the other driver has a liability claim, their insurance would cover them - not yours. The rental company needs to know the name of each driver so they can go after them if needed after a claim.

troyb

Reminds me of what happened on one of my projects a couple months ago...

A coworker was driving a rental car rented by another coworker, which is allowed under our Hertz CDP. However, I guess they draw the line at getting pulled over for speeding 25 miles over the limit. In this case, even though the driver was allowed to be driving the car, Hertz instructed the state trooper to have it towed. Extreme? Yes, however I can't imagine what they would have done had he gotten in an accident.

For business purposes, I rely on the fact that our rental agreement lets us drive cars rented by others. For personal use, I err on the side of caution and purchase the AMEX Premium Rental Car insurance (about $15-20 per rental, not day). Sure, my personal car insurance covers me, but I live in NJ, am male, and relatively young. If I did get into an accident, I'd prefer to file with AMEX rather than my own insurance and face a premium increase. Back when I was 17 I had one year where my insurance was $7000 (yes, seven thousand). It was partially my fault and partially due to being in a high insurance state, however I don't want to venture anywhere near that high of insurance ever again.

Westcoaster

When I asked my insurance company about whether my policy covered rentals part of their response was that it would only cover people whose names were added to the rental contract.

crabbing

not sure if this is the best place to ask, and nothing turned up in a search of the amex member rewards forum, but does anyone have a direct link to the full terms of the amex premium rental car insurance program?

the summary says it covers additional drivers, but nothing on the amex website explains whether it covers when i use the card to pay for someone else's rental. amex doesn't charge the fee until the rental is actually picked up, and i want to find out in advance.

Mark_mnl

When I was in grad school, a classmate of mine had his parents visit and he drove them using their rental car. He was not registered as a second driver to the car rental company and through bad luck the police pulled him over.

When they asked for proof of insurance, of course, all he could show the police was the rental agreement which had only his parents listed as authorized drivers. This was in California and resulted in a fine of several hundred dollars for driving without insurance.