Rental Insurance
Renting a car can be a very expensive experience, not only do you have to pay the car rental fee but you will also be bombarded with a whole array of additional costs. These costs can include various taxes and fees that were either not quoted in the rental fee, or are written in the smallest text known to man.
When you go to pick up your car the sales pitch doesn’t end, you will quite often be asked if you want to take out an insurance policy for your rental car. This catches most people off guard and many people will be tempted to say yes even without thinking. In fact the person behind the desk might make such a good case that you might be scared to drive away without it, remember though that this person is a trained salesperson. Do you really need to take out this extra insurance policy, or is it just designed to bump up the rental car company’s profit margin?
Coverage
When you are considering whether or not you need to take out the rental insurance policy you should scrutinize the policy and find out exactly what is covered and what isn’t. You will find quite a few differences between the policies of different rental car companies.
Loss Damage Waiver
This type of insurance prevents you from being liable for any damage to your rental car while you are using it. This isn’t technically an insurance policy as it doesn’t actually pay for any damage to the car it simply protects you from being responsible.
The rental company’s own insurance policy will pay to put the damage right. There are some exceptions to this waiver, if you are speeding, driving under the influence, or off roading then this will not protect you.
Personal Accident Insurance
Personal accident insurance will pay for any medical care required as a result of an accident. This isn’t normally a very expensive addition, but it’s worth checking whether your current health insurance policy covers this.
Personal Belongings Insurance
If anything gets stolen from your rental car then this insurance policy will protect you and pay to replace it. Do bear in mind however that your home insurance policy will normally protect your personal belongings even if you are away on holiday.
Do I really need insurance?
It’s a good idea to study the insurance policy on offer and work out whether you really need it or not before signing up to it. You might well find that insurance policies that you already have may offer similar levels of cover and you might not realize it. It might be worth finding out how much it would cost to add to your existing policies rather than taking out new policies.
If you have comprehensive car insurance then you probably already have all of the insurance cover that you need. If you only have third party liability insurance on your car then you might want to look into the additional services offered by rental companies.
Another really good tip is to contact your credit card company. Few people realize it, but most credit cards provide you with a lot of added benefits. Some of the popular credit cards offer their members free car rental insurance if the rental is paid for using the credit card. It’s a good idea to check this out before splashing out.
If you really think that the level of cover you have isn’t good enough then by all means look into taking out the extra insurance policy from the rental firm. There’s nothing wrong with this extra cover, it’s just in most cases it is surplus to requirements. If you don’t want it then don’t feel guilty for saying no.
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