Keep in mind that insurance, especially for car rentals, is a necessary evil – you don’t want to pay for it but you have to get it for your own protection particularly in case of accidents. You will find, too, that cars-for-rent companies use various tricks into making their customers pay more for insurance, which you may or may not need. You can keep these two tricks in mind and the ways that you can escape the trap.
Push So-called Insurance at a High Cost
The most common, not to mention the biggest, point of contention among customers and companies is the collision or loss damage waiver (CDW/LDW). In legal terms, it’s not insurance per se but it will be billed as insurance – and the amount can actually be double the cost of the rental vehicle itself!
While you definitely need collision and loss coverage on a rented vehicle, you don’t have to purchase it at inflated rates either. In this case, you can choose one of three options:
- Check that your own auto insurance already covers collision and loss. If it already does, you can tell the rental car agent about it and skip on the CDW/LDW offered.
- Check that your credit card provides secondary coverage at no charge. You must then ask about these matters with your credit card agent so as to skip on the inflated rates on many types of insurance.
- Buy primary coverage at more affordable costs – $8 to $10 per day against the $30 per day from for-rent car companies.
Why get CDW/LDW in the first place? If you damage your rented car, you can just return it to the rental company without worrying about added responsibility. Otherwise, you may be required to pay for the damage up front and then file your claims later.
Weak Liability Insurance
More important than collision damage protection is liability protection. Keep in mind that causing another person bodily harm via an accident can result in substantial damage awards, which can threaten your financial status. You must then have sufficient liability protection and that’s where unscrupulous car rental companies are remiss.
You have several options in this case including:
- Check your own auto insurance
- Buy an umbrella policy cover
- Check out association rental deals
Indeed, you have the power to stop becoming the victim of another insurance-related trick in your next car rental transaction. Better yet, you should only deal with reputable rental companies like Hertz to avoid these unpleasant matters.
