What to do about car insurance when traveling abroad?

[Anonymous]

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

Make sure every little anything is documented. Rental places overseas examine vehicles far closer than even the worst companies in the US.

[Anonymous]

Call your car insurance before you go. Also always get the insurance on the rental!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Make sure every little anything is documented. Rental places overseas examine vehicles far closer than even the worst companies in the US.

Agreed- we picked up a car that was parked in a garage, I didn't have an angle on the back corner of the car, when we finally arrived at our destination I saw it, took a picture. The agent checked the date of the picture in my phone when I returned the car, thankfully that was enough to avoid any charges, but yeah he was ready to write it up.

[Anonymous]

If you can afford it just buy the company's insurance. It is not expensive at all. But saves so much headaches if something happens. We were in Portugal in February. 8 days rental with Sixt's ( that was the name of the the rental company ) own insurance plus the highway's tolls ( We drove a lot and that country has a serious amount of toll roads ) came out $625. They didn't even check the car at drop-off when they saw we had the insurance. ( And the car was a brand new Mercedes ). Specially if I don't speak the language of the given county I want to enjoy my travel/vacation and not worrying about those kind of things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford it just buy the company's insurance. It is not expensive at all. But saves so much headaches if something happens. We were in Portugal in February. 8 days rental with Sixt's ( that was the name of the the rental company ) own insurance plus the highway's tolls ( We drove a lot and that country has a serious amount of toll roads ) came out $625. They didn't even check the car at drop-off when they saw we had the insurance. ( And the car was a brand new Mercedes ). Specially if I don't speak the language of the given county I want to enjoy my travel/vacation and not worrying about those kind of things.

We used the credit card insurance in England, but had to sign we were liable for the value of the car - some 50K pounds. I guess we would have had to cover that amount while any credit card claim was processed. Stressful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Make sure every little anything is documented. Rental places overseas examine vehicles far closer than even the worst companies in the US.

We picked up a clean black car and all our photos taken in the sun were just reflected self portraits of us taking photos! It's also hard to inspect in a dark garage. I like to get inside the car because that's the only way to check for a chipped windscreen.

[Anonymous]

When we looked at insurance rates for a rental in the UK, they still had a massive deductible even if you bought their insurance. Read the fine print.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford it just buy the company's insurance. It is not expensive at all. But saves so much headaches if something happens. We were in Portugal in February. 8 days rental with Sixt's ( that was the name of the the rental company ) own insurance plus the highway's tolls ( We drove a lot and that country has a serious amount of toll roads ) came out $625. They didn't even check the car at drop-off when they saw we had the insurance. ( And the car was a brand new Mercedes ). Specially if I don't speak the language of the given county I want to enjoy my travel/vacation and not worrying about those kind of things.

Wow. You’re such a pigeon.

[Anonymous]

All rental car companies have full insurance on all of their vehicles. Any passing down of LDW or other insurance policies is total fraud. In Europe especially, these scammers will rip into you for every little blemish or scratch upon return. Then charge you astronomical fees to fix them and compensate for loss of use. However, they don’t actually use your money to fix anything. They turn around and rent the same car again to someone else, with the same scratches and blemishes, and pull the same insurance fraud on them.

Decline all insurance coverage. Always. Take a full video documentation of your vehicle prior to departure. Dispute with your credit card any and all charges upon return that exceed the quoted price. We’ve had to do this at least 10-12 times. Now, whenever we’re in Europe, we preemptively fill the vehicle’s gas tank up with sugar water immediately prior to return. An eye for an eye, as it were.