Last month, BakingWithElectricity and I packed up the little Gases and went to France for a couple of weeks. I rented a car for about 10 days to tour around from Paris to the Loire Valley, then to Bretagne, and to the area near Chantilly. I rented the car from Hertz. I called my car insurance agent (State Farm) before we left, and she said that my insurance would not cover me outside of the U.S., as it would if I had rented a car stateside. So when I rented the car, I signed up for the damage insurance (but not the full waiver; there was a deductible; I wisely chose to accept the deductible, the waiver of which was several hundred dollars). The insurance cost more than the rental, I think.
I was horrified when I returned home to find that my Visa card would have covered it, so I wasted a lot of money. (It’s a new card and I’m not familiar with all the benefits yet).
But here’s the scary part: The Hertz coverage and the Visa coverage are just for the rented car. It appears that I drove 2000 km in France with no liability coverage. I dread to think what might have happened had I had an at-fault accident with serious injury to someone.
What options are there to get liability for a short-term rental?
