car insurance with international rental
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Anonymous
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I have a Venture X card, and if I rent a car with the card, I can use their insurance. It doesn't cover damage to the other car or people, however, which makes me nervous.
What do you do when you rent a car internationally? This will be in France. I have Progressive insurance here in the States. |
Anonymous
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Car rentals in the EU include liability coverage by law.
https://www.valuepenguin.com/5-things-know-about-rental-car-insurance-europe |
Anonymous
| We get full coverage through the rental car company. It costs a little more but is easier to deal with. Even reputable rental car companies are rumored to claim damage, and it's easier to be able to walk away from that (returned a car in Marseille a couple of years ago and Marseille is apparently well known for this). On a recent trip we did ding the rental car on a narrow road and were able to walk away since we had full coverage. |
Anonymous
| We called both our credit card and auto insurer. Neither covered rentals outside the US. You need to call your providers and get the answer as to whether they will cover. |
Anonymous
Calling is probably a good idea, especially to get a letter confirming coverage (sometimes the rental car company will ask for this, more likely outside the US), but OP specifically stated what card they have- the Capital One Venture X. The terms of it's coverage are available online, and cover all countries except Israel, Jamaica, Ireland and Northern Ireland. https://ecm.capitalone.com/WCM/card/benefits-guide/visa-benefits-guides/visa-infinite-english.pdf Pretty much no US auto insurer will cover you outside the US unless you have a very unusual policy. |
Anonymous
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We have two different credit cards and they cover different countries. One excludes the "i " countries - Italy, Israel, Ireland as well as Australia, NZ and Jamaica. NZ rentals include insurance for other cars/people but have very high deductibles - $3000-4000 if there is any damage to the car you've rented. One credit card will cover this deductible, the other one won't.
A friend buys some kind of travel insurance that will cover car rentals abroad. It's cheaper than insurance from the car rental company. Anyone had experience with this? |
Anonymous
| Usually there is a very $$$ daily charge if you want to reduce the large deductible. If I remember correctly, we have always either used our Chase credit card auto coverage for that or purchased a standalone policy just to cover the deductible and this is a fraction of the cost quoted by the car rental companies. Just google ‘car hire excess insurance Europe’ and it should give you options. |
Anonymous
| Normally, I would say don’t buy it, but when traveling internationally, just buy it. My friend had their car broken into while in Italy. We had some close calls while driving Spain. |
Anonymous
+1 Agree with this. Ours covered France and Spain, but not Italy. |
Anonymous
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I use American Express's premium car rental insurance. Call them to add it on, costs $25 when renting and using the card (per rental).
https://feeservices.americanexpress.com/premium/car-rental-insurance-coverage/home.do It becomes the primary insurance. Doesn't cover liability, but this is cheaper than the rental company's and primary which your standard credit card coverage likely isn't. |