Does your credit card cover rental car accidents?

[mdurette]

Wow. I think the Chase Sapphire Reserve covers that. But, I had an issue when I rented a car to tour colleges with my daughter in unfamiliar territory. Use AMEX or Chase Sapphire but check the coverage first. I took out a right view mirror once and it cost mega-bucks since I waived the insurance.

Yes, CSR covers up to $75,000 as primary insurance before you have to go to your own insurance. Max rental day is 31 days. Every scenario different, so always read the fine print!

 

[Icc5]

For many years I never had an accident with a rental car. This year I had my first. I cut a corner too tight on a narrow road with a rock wall. I heard a crunch, and this was the damage.
View attachment 74984
Just got the estimate from the rental agency, $2600. It doesn't seem unreasonable since 3 panels were damaged and were starting to rust 7 days later when I returned the car (in Kauai). Fortunately, my the insurance for my car at home covered everything except the deductible, and my credit card covered the deductible. I won't owe a thing except perhaps an increase in my premium. I've probably saved a great deal over the years by not paying extra for the rental agency's optional insurance. If you have a credit card that covers rental car accidents, be sure to use it when you rent a car.

I posted on TUG a few years ago about our drive to Montana when a turkey hit the rental car headlight bounced twice on the hood before hitting the windshield. We were left with a hanging passenger side headlight,2 dents on the hood. I can't remember the total cost but think it was something like $2800. We had to pay it then our insurance reimbursed us for all except our $1000 deductible which our Mstcharge card reimbursed us for. Keep good records and make sure all travel expenses done on that same card. Both insurance and credit card were great to deal with. Just took a while.
Bart

 

[northwoodsgal]

I called Costco a few weeks ago about CDW coverage for travel in the USA. Coverage is up to $50,000 but it is secondary to our primary insurance. The free, second driver, does not need to be a Costco member.

 

[VacationForever]

Does the Amex Premium rental car coverage include loss of use? Rental car companies often tell me that "those types of insurance" don't cover loss of use and they can still charge me for loss of use in an accident.

 

[ScoopKona]

I have an umbrella policy which covers literally everything. Last time I used it was when I managed to knock out cable TV and internet for 750 people using an excavator. I'd rather have that (and enjoy the better sleep that comes with never having to worry about lawsuits), than trust a credit card company to uphold their end of any contract.

 

[Tia]

Discover cards limit CDW coverage to $25,000 and don’t cover loss of use fees.

didn't realize Discover had rental car coverage at all til this

 

[Ken555]

I have an umbrella policy which covers literally everything. Last time I used it was when I managed to knock out cable TV and internet for 750 people using an excavator. I'd rather have that (and enjoy the better sleep that comes with never having to worry about lawsuits), than trust a credit card company to uphold their end of any contract.

Since you’re posting in a car rental thread you might want to confirm your umbrella covers car rentals similarly to credit cards. Based on what I know, it does not. It simply provides excess coverage for numerous items.

In my experience, there’s nothing easier than the AMEX premium coverage. Of course, it’s been a long time since I had an AMEX claim so perhaps it’s not the same. But, I’d rather not have to involve my personal policies when renting a car (which is the case when renting internationally) whenever possible.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[PigsDad]

Does the Amex Premium rental car coverage include loss of use? Rental car companies often tell me that "those types of insurance" don't cover loss of use and they can still charge me for loss of use in an accident.

Last time I checked it did.

Kurt

 

[bobpark56]

About 4 years ago, while on Maui, someone damaged my rental car when parked. No witnesses - - just some damage that I noticed after-the-fact. IIRC, something under $1K. My credit card covered most of the damage. But I ended up having to submit about 45 pages of documents. That included some rental car contract documents that I didn't originally receive (and had to have sent to me). It seemed to be hurdle after hurdle. Three or four times I thought that I had provided everything that they wanted and .... then they demanded yet more documentation. I suspect that they were trying to wear me down. But in the end, the credit card covered the majority of the claim. My own insurance paid $7.

I had the same thing happen to me on Maui, at roughly the same time. The $ value was only in the $400-$500 range. Our United Mileage+ folks handled it with little fuss.

 

[winger]

Your

Wow. I think the Chase Sapphire Reserve covers that. But, I had an issue when I rented a car to tour colleges with my daughter in unfamiliar territory. Use AMEX or Chase Sapphire but check the coverage first. I took out a right view mirror once and it cost mega-bucks since I waived the insurance.

You didn't have credit card insurance to help with the cost?

 

[dougp26364]

Over the last 25 years, we’ve had a few incidents.

Rock chips to the windshield while driving in the mountains - covered

Rear ended by an inattentive, texting driver - her insurance paid that claim. No cost to us

We had a hawk fly into the side of our rental car while driving down the highway and it knocked some molding off the car - covered

Ran over a nail causing a flat tire - not covered by the CC or our insurance. $250 charge for a new tire.

Overall the savings have far outweighed the cost of the CDW. We’ve rented cars from 14 to 28 days per year. We’ve never been asked to pay a “loss of use fee” to this point.

 

[PcflEZFlng]

I called Costco a few weeks ago about CDW coverage for travel in the USA. Coverage is up to $50,000 but it is secondary to our primary insurance.

I checked my coverage online with Costco VISA and also found that to be true. But it's primary coverage internationally, so I plan to use it next year when I go to France and rent a car as part of my trip.

 

[LannyPC]

I've probably saved a great deal over the years by not paying extra for the rental agency's optional insurance. If you have a credit card that covers rental car accidents, be sure to use it when you rent a car.

The sad part I find with us is that, when we go to the rental counter, the agent there tries to sell us the extra coverage that you mentioned. The agent also tries to convince us that our CC and personal car insurance do not cover things like CDW loss of use, etc. Heck, I wonder if some of these agents used to be timeshare sales people.

 

[ChicagoDave]

As someone who works in the insurance business, I can tell you firsthand that most personal automobile insurance (and umbrella) policies will not cover loss of use or diminished value resulting from an accident. Not all rental car companies are as aggressive as others when it comes to pushing for payment under these categories of loss (Hertz is extremely aggressive). Your personal automobile insurance policy will cover you for collision/comprehensive damage as well as any liability you might cause when driving the rental car. You will be responsible for a deductible, which may be covered/reimbursed under your credit card additional benefits.

 

[artringwald]

For many years I never had an accident with a rental car. This year I had my first. I cut a corner too tight on a narrow road with a rock wall. I heard a crunch, and this was the damage.
View attachment 74984
Just got the estimate from the rental agency, $2600. It doesn't seem unreasonable since 3 panels were damaged and were starting to rust 7 days later when I returned the car (in Kauai). Fortunately, my the insurance for my car at home covered everything except the deductible, and my credit card covered the deductible. I won't owe a thing except perhaps an increase in my premium. I've probably saved a great deal over the years by not paying extra for the rental agency's optional insurance. If you have a credit card that covers rental car accidents, be sure to use it when you rent a car.

Final chapter:
1) There were some issues with the "out of service fees" and "admin fees". My auto insurance said they wouldn't pay, but said that sometimes they can get National to drop the charges.
2) The credit card said they would pay the fees if my auto insurance didn't, but they wanted National to provide more detailed logs and repair receipts.
3) I'm not sure if National dropped the extra charges, or if they gave the credit card the extra info, but today I got a letter from National saying that all the necessary payments had been made and the case is closed.