Anonymous
Post 02/20/2025 18:03     Subject: car insurance with international rental
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.
Anonymous
Post 02/20/2025 07:20     Subject: car insurance with international rental
Anonymous wrote: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?


+1 Agree with this. Ours covered France and Spain, but not Italy.
Anonymous
Post 02/19/2025 21:41     Subject: car insurance with international rental
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
Post 02/19/2025 16:32     Subject: car insurance with international rental
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
Post 02/19/2025 11:27     Subject: car insurance with international rental
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
Post 02/19/2025 10:55     Subject: Re:car insurance with international rental
Anonymous wrote: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.


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
Post 02/19/2025 10:46     Subject: Re:car insurance with international rental
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
Post 02/19/2025 10:39     Subject: car insurance with international rental
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
Post 02/19/2025 10:38     Subject: car insurance with international rental
Car rentals in the EU include liability coverage by law.

https://www.valuepenguin.com/5-things-know-about-rental-car-insurance-europe
Anonymous
Post 02/19/2025 09:44     Subject: car insurance with international rental
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.