What to do about car insurance when traveling abroad?

[Anonymous]

I will be in Poland. For part of the trip I want to rent a car (I’ll get the insurance offered by the rental company) to visit off the beaten path. Later we will meet up with cousin who has offered to loan me his car while I’m in his area, but I don’t know what to do about insurance in that case.

I have other questions about planning that I will include in another post.

[Anonymous]

Not sure about borrowing a friend's car, but generally liability coverage is included by law in every EU country I have been to.

You should check your credit card company to see if they cover you for damage to the car outside of the US- most mid-level/premium cards do. If so, you don't need the rental car coverage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about borrowing a friend's car, but generally liability coverage is included by law in every EU country I have been to.

You should check your credit card company to see if they cover you for damage to the car outside of the US- most mid-level/premium cards do. If so, you don't need the rental car coverage.

You need to check by country - some credit cards exclude certain countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about borrowing a friend's car, but generally liability coverage is included by law in every EU country I have been to.

You should check your credit card company to see if they cover you for damage to the car outside of the US- most mid-level/premium cards do. If so, you don't need the rental car coverage.

You need to check by country - some credit cards exclude certain countries.

Yes, most common countries I have seen are Italy, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica and New Zealand, but definitely check the card benefits summary.

[Anonymous]

What about places to cover the driver?

[Anonymous]

Check the coverage of credit card insurance. I think it only covers the rental car and driver but not third parties (ie damage to other cars, property or people).

[Anonymous]

When I rented from a local company in Spain, the full insurance was very reasonably priced so I just got that. The big ones, Avis, etc were the usual ridiculous prices for insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about places to cover the driver?

In the EU countries I have been to (not Poland, to be clear), liability coverage was mandatory and baked into the rental car price. There was a deductible you could buy down to $0 with additional coverage, but you don't need to take that.

Autoeurope.com is good to get clear info on this kind of thing.

[Anonymous]

You need to ask your cousin to check with his insurer.

You got your IDP (int'l driving permit) right?

[Anonymous]

Some travel insurance companies like Allianz offer car rental travel insurance worldwide. Maybe you could research these kind of policies.

[Anonymous]

Our policy does not cover international rentals. Neither did our credit card. We found out the hard way, unfortunately. It definitely pays to check!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to ask your cousin to check with his insurer.

You got your IDP (int'l driving permit) right?

I will have it, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our policy does not cover international rentals. Neither did our credit card. We found out the hard way, unfortunately. It definitely pays to check!

Could you please elaborate?

[Anonymous]

Check the coverage, nobody wants a surprise bill. Also, look closely at the car at pickup. Take pictures of any scratches and dents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our policy does not cover international rentals. Neither did our credit card. We found out the hard way, unfortunately. It definitely pays to check!

Could you please elaborate?

They had an accident?