Help me feel better about renting a car.

I am going to Tenerife for vacation in a month. </brag>

I would like to rent a car there, but the process of renting a car always feels sketchy. If I talk to my credit card company, they always say “decline all coverage, we’ll take care of it!” while at the rental desk they’re always, “you know, there’s a bunch of things that the credit card doesn’t cover…”.

I suspect the rental car companies are just trying to protect their lucrative insurance-based revenue stream, and usually hard-line my “no!”, but then I’m never sure whether I am really properly insured. I’ve never had occasion to actually find out, but it always adds a bit of nervousness to the situation. Conversely on the occasions where I’ve gotten the rental car coverage I always feel ripped off.

Is there a way to approach this so that I confidently know I’m covered without paying for the ridiculous rental-car-company insurance?

your own insurance might also cover you (and anyone you hurt) while in a rental, but perhaps not the vehicle.

Check with your agent about that.

Regarding what your credit card insures, I always wonder about that too, but have never had to find out. There is a lot of fine print that comes with the card renewal every year.

Second the advice to talk to your car insurance company. They will be able to tell you what coverage you already have on rental cars.

Well for a foreign country, there is the “hassle factor”. If getting local insurance from the car rental company would allow you to just let the rental car company take care of everything, should there be an accident, that would be well worth the cost to me.

Other countries have all sorts of different laws. Getting into an accident can be a nightmare. Could be more of a nightmare to try to get a U.S. insurance company to communicate with people in a foreign country!

Personally I would avoid driving at all.

Yes, the only way to confidently know you’re covered is to check the Visa Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver document (it’s only two pages long) and also speak to your own insurance provider to ensure one or the other fills all the gaps. I’ve never been worried about it since between that document and my insurance I should be covered for me, other people, the car, or other property. I’ve never rented in another country and never would either though, so for foreign stuff talk to your agent. The basics is don’t do stupid stuff like drive it off-road or take it into a war zone. Or, apparently, Israel, Jamaica, the Republic of Ireland, or Northern Ireland. Huh. Well, ok!

Unfortunately, I don’t actually own a car at home, so I don’t have my own insurance company (although I am covered as an occasional driver on my wife’s car). The CC people assure me that this is all right as far as using their insurance is concerned, but that’s another level of “don’t really quite believe what I am told”.

Honestly, I would be happy if there was some “rental car insurance” company that I could pay a rate for insurance comparable to what I would pay a normal insurance company for the same amount of time.

If you have (or can get) and American Express card, they offer coverage like that. For ~$20 per rental (not per day, like the rental companies charge) you’re fully covered.

I had the unfortunate experience of testing their coverage after a minor accident in Mexico. AmEx took care of the whole thing, virtually hassle-free.

In the US, i always decline the car company’s damage waivers, because my own car insurance will cover pretty much anything that could go wrong, with the usual deductibles etc.

You don’t have a car in the US, but i’m not sure that having one would change anything. I’m with Geico, and my reading of my policy and their website suggests that the only place i’m covered outside the US is if i drive to Canada. I don’t think my Geico policy would cover a rental in the Canary Islands.

If you rent with a VISA card, it WILL cover you, but you need to be aware of exactly what it covers. My reading of the VISA Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver suggests that it will cover you for damage to the rental car itself, as well as for theft of the rental car.

As far as i can tell, though, that’s all. That is—and someone can correct me if i’m wrong here—if you have an at-fault accident, and it causes you to wipe out someone else’s car, or drive through the front of a restaurant, i don’t think that the collision damage waiver would pay to fix all that other stuff; only the rental car. And if you mow down a pedestrian, i don’t think the VISA coverage would pay for their hospital bills. [As i said, i could be wrong about this.]

There do seem to be quite a few companies who will provide short-term insurance for overseas rental driving. There is quite a nice discussion about it in this article. It’s from a UK newspaper, but one of the place he discusses is Tenerife, and it could be that the insurance companies mentioned in the article will also be happy to sell to an American. For a 5-day trip, he quotes rates of about £10-15. Obviously, your month-long trip would cost more, but maybe not too much more.

As he notes, though, this sort of insurance doesn’t work quite the same as regular car insurance. When i had my car damaged recently, my insurance company took care of all the claims and the estimates and paying for the repairs, and all i had to do was hand over $250 for my deductible. If you get in an accident in your rental car, and you have a short-term insurance policy, or if you use the VISA insurance, you will have to pay the rental company for the damage out of your own packet, and claim it back later on. The guy who writes the above article says that the claims process can be a bit complicated, but he still highly recommends it over forking out for the rental company’s collision and loss damage waivers.

Other people already gave possible solutions, but one important thing to keep in mind when traveling, and one which trips many people, is this:

In some countries, you get driver’s insurance. This is the usual case in the US and the UK.

In some countries, we get car insurance. This is the case in Spain.

And no, it’s not the same thing; they’re orthogonal. The first type covers a driver for one or more vehicles; if you have that type, one of your options is to verify that your insurance will cover you for a rental vehicle.

The second type covers a vehicle for one or more drivers. Some packages do cover the payer for rentals, but it’s an “extra”, it’s not part of the basic package. If I had followed my British client’s instructions to reject rental coverage I would have been uncovered, because while my policy covers my car with any driver in any country, it does not cover me in any cars the policy does not list except when they are provided as a replacement while my car is in the shop. What is done if you take the rental company’s insurance is add you temporarily to their existing policy on that car.

Going from those generic “yous” above to the specific case, it is possible that the coverage you have as a secondary driver in your wife’s car can be extended to cover you for other cars, including a rental, or that they will write you a short-term policy for the trip. You might even be already covered. Since you already have a history with that specific company, it’s a good place to ask first.

Oh, and one thing that rental car companies are supposed to do but many do not, so check for it: the car should come with an “accident report form”. If you do have any kind of accident, you don’t need to call the cops unless there is a disagreement (which is unusual): each party fills up his copy of that document, everybody checks that yep, we’re all telling the same story, you hand over your copy to the agency along with the car, and that’s it. It is also pretty common for the accident to take place at a bad time, so people will trade contact info and agree on a place and time to meet and fill up the document: if it happens and the other person wants to do that, you of course have the right to refuse but it’s not that they’re trying to evade the situation or rip you off, it’s normal. The insurance companies take over from the moment the documents are handed over to them (someone will have to assess damages, but that should be done once the car is returned to the agency, you don’t have to be there).

This page has the general accidents report in PDF format. There is a different form if there are victims, but that case would involve cops.

This is the main issue for me.
I know I’m being screwed by buying the insurance…But I don’t care…I’m on vacation.
I want each day to be easy-- that’s why it’s a vacation. And I’m spending money out the ass anyway.

If you are in a place where you don’t speak the language, you don’t want to mess with unpredictable hassles (even at home, I don’t like hassles. But at home, you can spend 2 weeks making phone calls and waiting for answers.)

It doesn’t matter if most of the people where you are speak English…When a hassle happens, it only matters if the one specific person you have to deal with speaks English. Sure, in a tourist area, most of the policemen will be able to help you…but what if the one who shows up at your accident site doesn’t know English?.

You may lose an entire day of your vacation, going to the main police station and explaining what happened.
I’d rather spend that time at the beach.
Peace of mind costs a little money…but a month later you’ll have forgotten how much the insurance fee was. You’ll remember the beach.

We rent a car for the week or two of vacation in St Martin each year, always from the same small company. I always decline the insurance.

One year I backed up into a tree, putting an awful dent in the bumper (the tree’s trunk was actually painted white :frowning: ).

When I returned the car I was prepared for sadness. I estimated it as $1000 dent, but thought it might be a tad higher. The dude at the airport explained different ways to handle it; my credit card, my regular insurance, etc. Then he said he could do it himself at his cousin’s garage and save me a bit.

Ended up costing $50. :slight_smile:

A couple things to know:

  1. Review that your exact card does carry this insurance for the CDW.
  2. If you have any damage, this needs to be reported to your credit card as soon as possible. Most have a limit of 45 days.
  3. The rental period is typically limited as well. (15 days in the US or 31 days abroad).
  4. Your personal auto insurance may cover the basics like liability if you were at fault, comp and collision sometimes as well. However, renting a car opens up business related risks that your personal insurance wouldn’t cover like loss of use (the rental company can’t rent out the car while it’s in the shop).
  5. There are some countries that were mentioned before where it’s not an option.

For what it’s worth, I work in underwriting for an insurance company and I only use the credit card insurance when available. (I’ve rented in Jamaica and Ireland where I had to pay the Super CDW and was actually thankful to have done it. I didn’t appreciate the large amount to pay it at first, but once on the road, I was glad because driving was insane.)

I’ve had to invoke the credit card insurance once. I ignored the US State department warnings and rented a car and drove around Peru with it. In some ways it was completely worth it and in other ways, scary AF. During the 2 week trip crammed into a compact car and parking sometimes on public streets, there were attempts to break into the car by thieves. First, the lock to the trunk was broken. Then the passenger side door. Then the driver side door was broken the night before we were going to leave. On a Sunday. With all of the doors and trunk locked. Luckily, it had been warm out and a window was cracked and a skinny bell hop was able to wriggle his thin forearm down to pull the lock open. When I returned the rental car, credit card insurance took over the part to re-key the vehicle’s doors.

I rented in Germany last year. Called my CC in advance to make sure I could decline & didn’t need anything else. Wrote down the date, time, & employee # of the person I spoke with & took that with me. In short, I (thought) I did everything right.

Land in Germany in the morning, walk over to the rental counter & she absolutely won’t let me decline w/o a letter from my CC stating that I have coverage. I called my CC but of course that dept only works US hours, not 24x7. The person I did speak to faxed something over talking about the coverage but it was more of a marketing piece as it was generic & didn’t mention my name or say that I specifically had that coverage. Ended up having to buy their coverage, got on the road & stopped to call the CC a few hours later when they got in & have them fax a letter to the rental agent that said I had the coverage. Rental agent then cxl’d the extra insurance fees for the remaining days (I still has to pay for one day.) In the grand scheme of the trip, one days insurance cost was peanuts & not worth sitting in the airport for a few hours or trying to get it refunded.

Don’t know if this situation will/won’t apply as you’re going to a different country but it couldn’t hurt to call your CC & have them send you a letter with this info that you could take with you.

A few years ago I had to rent a car while my auto was in the shop waiting for parts. In what so far has been the only at-fault car accident in my adult life, I proceeded to wreck that rental car, rendering it undriveable.

After the dust settled, and I sent that car back to Enterprise on a flatbed, I called Visa to start the claim process. Turns out that because I rented that car without a specific end date (didn’t know when the parts from Germany were going to arrive), I was completely uncovered. And then just to add insult to injury, the guy said even if I could produce a document with a return date on it, because my rental term was longer than a week (maybe 2 weeks. I disremember), I also wasn’t covered.

I called my insurance company and they stepped in and took care of everything, minus my deductible of course. And they said that, in the future, if I was renting a car, I could let them know and they could add explicit coverage for the rental for little to no extra money.

Couple months later though, I get a letter from Enterprise wanting thousands more for loss of use (time the car was in the shop and not rentable) as well as for diminished value (car would theoretically sell for less due to the accident history). I thought I was screwed. I had the presence of mind to call my agent again, and they said to send them the letters; they love that kind of shit. About two weeks later I got a call from my agent saying I owed nothing and that the matter was closed.

My personal observations:
[ul]
[li]The Visa policy was riddled with so many loopholes that I just assume it’s not there any more[/li][li]My insurance agent and her team kicked ass[/li][li]The rental company can find all sorts of fun things to charge you for above and beyond the physical damage[/li][/ul]

Fun fact: my agent explained that the rental firms love charging for the loss of use period, and don’t necessarily hustle the car into the body shop for repair because they are planning on getting the full rate for all the time it’s in queue. My insurance company apparently cheerfully agrees to pay the loss of use figure, but ask the rental company to pretty please demonstrate that they had no other cars available to rent on the days they want paid for. Apparently, this works in that none of the rental firms are interested or willing to share their internal fleet usage data, so they drop the claim instead. Apparently a lot of people just pay that, no questions asked though.

Moral of the story: Can’t say I really have one, other than talk to your insurance agent. leahcim, I know you mentioned that you don’t have your own policy, but I still think you should talk to your wife’s agent for advice. If you’re covered on her policy, you’re still a client to one degree or another.

Pork Rind: a few things about your story.

First, for VISA coverage, the maximum rental period in the US is 15 days, as stpauler noted above. It’s explicitly stated on the VISA website.

Second, VISA is ONLY a secondary insurance provider. That is, even if you had rented for less than 15 days, VISA would not have helped you until after you made a claim with your insurance company. VISA will only cover what is NOT covered by your own insurance. If you do not have any car insurance of your own, then your credit card insurance becomes primary insurance that will cover everything, but if you do have car insurance, VISA will require you to make a claim on your insurance before they will help you.

It’s interesting that your own insurance company was willing to cover the “loss of use” claim by the rental company. Quite a lot of insurance policies explicitly state that they will cover for damage or theft on the rental car, but will not cover for loss of use. In fact, loss of use is one of the things that credit card insurance is often quite good for.

And yes, apparently car rental companies have become much more ferocious in recent years about pursuing loss of use reimbursement. Quite a few financial and auto journalists have written about this increasing tendency.

I have both types of insurance in the US, and it’s pretty common. My liability coverage follows me and covers damage to the other car regardless of what I’m driving. My collision coverage is only on my car, which is designated in the policy, and covers damage to it regardless of who is Rental car coverage is another item bundled into the policy, and gives me coverage on a rental car.

They didn’t cover either the loss of use or the diminished value claims. They apparently argued them out of existence. I don’t know the details, that just more or less what my agent said she did.

As an update on this thread, I am kind of waffling on getting a rental car. It seems like most of what we want to do is available in tour packages that will pick us up at our hotel. And also it seems like I would technically need an International Driver’s Permit in Spain to translate my New York driver’s license (I am told this is rarely enforced, but it adds a bit of bother).

What I understand about these things is that “loss of use” is basically indefensible unless the rental car company can prove that it lost business because it didn’t have a car to rent out (i.e. it had no other cars available when someone else came a-knocking). So any sort of resistance to payment results in them taking it off.

You should do a compete walk around of the car you will be renting and be sure to check for and scratches on the car especially at the bottom of the car . If you see any dents , chip paint or any damage no matter how small it’s you need to point this out and made sure it written and take photos of that and date them. My SIL rented a car and didn’t get the rental insurance on the rental and when he turned the car the rental place said he got scratches on the bottom of car . My SIL did a walk around but he may not looked the very bottom of the door and he had to pay for the 'damages ’ that he knew he didn’t do .

I’ve rented cars in both the US and the Netherlands through a broker. The price I pay the broker includes full insurance cover.

In the US the rental agency didn’t even check the car when I returned it; they said I could have brought it back as a heap of scrap on a truck and it would have been covered.

One of the companies in Europe did check the car, but likewise, it would have been completely covered if there had been any damage.

About the IDP, I didn’t bother. My licence is written in English using standard alphabet. Mostly the IDP carries your identification details in nine languages (English, Spanish, Japanese, Greek, German, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, French) in case you need to communicate with foreign authorities. The Netherlands don’t require it for NZers, but Spain does, so probably also requires it for an American.