Some people believe that to get rental car insurance is a waste of money. After all, the insurance cost might be double the price of the rental. However, if anything happens to your rental vehicle, including a flat tire, you will be responsible for the damage.
Insurance companies sells loss damage waiver that covers some possible damages to the rental vehicle. Without the coverage, it will not matter whether you were saving a child from drowning or getting people out of a burning building, you will be responsible for any damages regardless of how they happen.
Definitely, the rental car insurance is important. But, should you go for it?
Before you buy any rental car insurance coverage, you should find out what your personal car insurance and card provides. That way, you will manage to supplement what they do not provide through rental agencies. If your personal car insurance covers liabilities, it is more likely to cover the rental car. Start by calling the insurance company for verification. By filing hefty claims with the insurance provider, you will be raising your insurance premiums.
Credit card rental vehicle insurance might be secondary or primary. Primary insurance means that it is the most important. The secondary insurance means that it will come after the basic. Therefore, if the rental car insurance is secondary, you will have to involve your primary personal vehicle insurance company when filing a claim. You will need them to get something from the credit card insurance company.
Some primary vehicle insurance coverage provides reimbursements up to the real value of the vehicle in case of theft or damages. They do not cover personal liabilities – if the driver or any other person gets hurt.
Some insurance cards including the American Express Platinum Card provides limited personal liability and some rental companies provide supplemental auto liability insurance that generally increase the coverage amount to at least $1 million. But is such a coverage important? Possibly, it is not.
When to call the personal auto insurance provider
If the credit card insurance provider does not accept your claim, you might find yourself calling the personal auto insurance provider. If that happens a few months after, they will possibly ask you why you did not report the incident immediately.
However, after calling a credit card insurance provider, they will file a report without initiating a claim. That way, you will have the means to open a claim if the credit card insurance is not helpful.
When filing the claim, you might require copies of some things that you even did not know about their existence. That is the primary reason why most people abandon their claims halfway. Some of the things are hard or even impossible to obtain. They might ask for receipts or the site photos. Therefore, use your phone or camera to take as many photos as possible.
The photos and the receipts will save you several hours of headaches when the rental company bills you a few months after the rental is over.