Car Rental - Second Driver - why register?
 

I have seen a few posts about car rental companies charging for a second authorized driver, but the question I have is slightly different - what is the value of putting another driver on the car rental policy?

I assume the Police does not care if they pull over a car that has 2 folks and only the passenger is authorized to drive. I also assume it has no bearing on insurance in case of an accident that each driver individually has (assuming it covers rental). So, if these two things don't seem to matter - what is the point or am I missing something?

Any thoughts? Thanks a lot - this has been bothering me for a couple of days now.

I thought it was insurance related if you elected to use their insurance offerings.

I have overheard that my local rental car companies chatting about this. There was this person who rented a car a let someone unregistered drive and the car got towed by the police as the person was not insured, and the companies blacklist the person. So they may be a risk of that, but if you have seperate insurance, like insurance for your own car, it should be fine (as it covers rental as well).

It's a violation of your rental agreement to let anyone else drive the rental car if they are not authorized. I think the biggest issue is that the rental company will blacklist the renter, possibly charge fines, if they find out about it.

I never pay for the second driver and I am not worried about being blacklisted in the highly unlikely event of being caught. There are plenty of car rental companies to choose from and there appears to be little difference between them. I go for the cheapest car and have no loyalty to any rental company.

Are you sure that both the listed driver and the unauthorized driver would be free of liability if there were an accident? Even if those parties have other insurance, would that insurance really cover this situation where you purposely choose to have an unauthorized driver?

Yes, and the day you work for a company that rents from that company, will you be comfortable explaining why you need an exception to company travel policy because you are blacklisted?

You never know where life is going to take you ... so it sometimes pays to think twice.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

I'm retired.

Cheers

I don't think an insurance will cover you if you are not listed as a driver on the rental agreement. Doesn't matter if it is your personal insurance or the insurance of the rental company.

By the way. In California a second driver is free of charge. So check the fine print and especially the State individual sections.

Hertz Gold does not charge me for multiple drivers as long as they are co-workers or spouse (I'd have to look but might include immediate family as well). Beyond this, they do charge for the additional driver. Since nearly 100% of my rentals fall into this category, I've never had an issue.

Thanks for the tip - Love CA. I live in CA and sometimes do rent here, but mostly it is out of state when I travel.

There was a point brought up about insurance by several posters - I am wondering why it matters to the insurance company that you were not on the renter's agreement? Why would they care that you paid $20/day to the rental company? They get no benefit out of one being an authorized driver... I have a good insurance policy that covers any vehicle I drive (with exceptions of course) but if I drove a rental, it is no different than driving my cousin's car.

It's a good excuse to avoid liability, so of course it will matter to them.

You can see some examples of how insurance is voided on a Google search.

I know that the insurance terms for my credit card's rental car coverage explicitly state that the operator must be listed as an authorized driver on a rental car contract as well as the rental being paid for from said card.

I don't recall ever being charged any extra for registering a second driver in Australia (provided that the second driver is on full licence and over 25 years old). So it's always worth registering when over there. (If you don't register, I believe there will be no insurance cover on the rental vehicle if the unregistered driver has a crash.)

I guess being retired entitles you to blatantly disregard the terms of a contract that you willingly signed. :rolleyes: