Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:15 pm Post subject: Rental insurance ?
Hi guys I am planning to sell my car and also cancel the insurance associated with it and also planning to rent a car .. Is there anything called rental insurance and if so am I required to have one? One more thing if I rent a car using my credit card will it have some provision for providing some kind of insurance cover for my rented car ..? _________________ Cheap-car-insurance-tips
You can obtain a non-owners policy to provide you protection while driving someone else's vehicle. Some credit cards provide protection. My recommendation is if you are going to rely on this, that you _carefully_ read the policy to make sure that it provides you the protection you need (i.e. it may only address the damage to the borrowed vehicle... not property damage or injury coverage if you hit something).
Rental companies can sell you insurance just for the time that your renting the vehicle but it's quite expensive. This might be better for you if you are only going to have a rental a few days out of the year. I think both collision/comprehensive is about $10/day and liability is about the same (I'm not sure). I'm guessing a non-owners policy is about $100/6 months (just a wild guess).
Well, the requirement may vary between the customers, but if you have decided to sell your car off for good and rely entirely upon the rented vehicle, you may be better-off by purchasing the non-owner's insurance.
Rented car insurance only stays for the period you use the car, and expires afterward. If you're frequent in hiring a vehicle, then purchasing the policy may put a burden on the owner's budget. In such case, buying the non-owners insurance may prove beneficial.
The non-owners policy coverage also extends to other cars ( family, friend) that you may drive quite frequently.
Well, there are few additional things that the non-owners policy holder should understand before purchasing the plan,
The non owner policy will not cover the policy holder for the car of a family member living in the same household. You need to listed driver in his/her primary auto policy to remain covered.
Also the non-owner policy will not cover the insured for the car he drives regularly.
In case of an accident, the non-owner's policy will play the secondary role in covering the damages, which implies that the car owner's auto policy will be the primary policy and if the damages exceeds the owner's policy limit then only the non-owner's plan will come into the picture.
The non-owner auto insurance doesn't offer the collision coverage, but only the liability benefit. Hence, it'll not pay for the damages caused to the vehicle. Hence, check out the plan papers properly before signing for one.
However, if you rent cars regularly, then as the other posters have said already, non-owners policy may prove cost effective than the rental car insurance.
Besides your personal car insurance, some credit cards will cover damage or theft to your rental car. While this may replace the need for CDW (Collision Damage Waiver) and LDW (Loss Damage Waiver) offered at the car rental counter, check with your credit card company to see what kind of vehicles are covered and if it's primary or secondary. For some credit card companies, it becomes primary only in the absence of any personal collision insurance of your own.
Credit card companies do not provide coverages for more expensive rentals, so it is necessary to call your credit card company to see which rental vehicles they cover. Usually they provide coverage for cars and exclude more expensive rentals such as sport utility vehicles (SUV's), luxury cars, exotic cars and vans.
Another consideration: You may want to accept an agency's coverages since your personal car insurance rates may go up after you make a claim.
Credit card companies do not provide coverages for more expensive rentals, so it is necessary to call your credit card company to see which rental vehicles they cover.
Credit card companies are doing business with the primary objective to market the use of plastic money & earn out of interests. They are not insurance providers nor any agencies to provide the best of coverage options to you.
In order to compete with each other, these insurance providers would often resort to value-addition benefits eg. ticket-booking facilities, insurance etc. So, it is pretty much evident that they would only offer you those benefits for which they have just managed a tie-up with any coverage provider upon a mutual agreement to develop business hand-in-hand. So, you can't just expect benefits from them which would suit the best of your interests!
Regards, ArindamSenIndies
