# Priceline insurance vrs car rental company



## Teddie2 (Mar 29, 2009)

Has anyone had experience using the car rental company's insurance and insurance through priceline. Does anyone know what the difference is or ever had to use pricelines?  I ask because its way cheaper than the car rental company's and my H always wants it..the credit card insurance when you read the fine print is only secondary to your own if you have insurance which we do as we have a car ..my H does not want to touch our insurance shoudl there be a problems so we are stuck with either the car rental companys which is about 26 a day!! or priceline which is about 11 a day.. which if that insurance is ok.. then better to rent through priceline.
Any thoughts .. suggestions.. sorry for the long post


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## cgeidl (Mar 29, 2009)

*$100,000 saved not getting insurance*

IMHO paying astronomical fees for an unneeded insurance is worse than playing the lottery. I have a friend in the travel industry and he and his wife travel extensively and he never gets it. I had trouble once in the UK but after a tel conference with my insurance company they did not require it. AUstralia and New Zealand you can't rent without buying it.About the only matter the car insurance pays for that my policy doesn't that I am aware of is the loss of income on the rental car while being repaired.
Just calculated my savings on an average of 42 days per year for the last 20 years at $25 per day and it is $21000 plus the loss of what I may have received in return had I invested the money saved.At 8% per year it would be close to$100,000.Wow!!!! Never would have thought of this until I read your Email.


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## DeniseM (Mar 29, 2009)

Do you have an AMEX card?  They have add-on insurance that give you primary coverage (pays before your regular insurance) for $17.50 per rental - not per day.  You sign up for it on their website, and any time your use your AMEX to rent a car you are automatically covered.


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## kjsgrammy (Mar 29, 2009)

Be sure your auto insurance covers what is called "loss of use" if renting a car.  I was advised by our local insurance company that the rental companies are now enforcing this if you are involved in an accident while renting one of their vehicles (Budget is one in particular that our insurance agent told us about, but there are others).  How it was explained to me:  If you are involved in an accident with the rental car, and the car has to be taken out of commission for repairs, the rental agency can come back against you for the costs of the repairs, as well as the "down time" rental cost (what the rental agency would have made if the car was available for rent) for the vehicle.  Also, if the car is damaged to the point that the rental ageny decides to either scrap it, or put it up for auction, that you are liable for the cost of the vehicle.  Say for instance that the damaged car sells for $2,000 at auction, and the car is valued at over $10,000, then you will be held responsible for the difference of the $8,000.  According to our agent, one of his clients was just charged by a rental car agency for over $7,000 for a rental car that was involved in an accident because he didn't take out the rental car agency's insurance.

This is something new that the rental car groups have come up with in the last 6 months or so.


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