What Your Credit Card Car Insurance Can’t Cover
You can save a lot on car rental without taking out insurance. If you paid for your rental with a credit card, you are most likely already insured. But it is important to know the specifics of what this card does and does not cover, and how it works.
Consumer columnist Mitch Lipka notes that your credit card coverage is often dependent on your personal auto insurance. He’s writing:
Not all cards have the same coverage. Most Visa cards cover theft, damage to your rental car, towing, and disuse if you don’t have a personal auto insurance policy. However, both Visa and Mastercard exclude personal injury, property damage and damage to other vehicles. If you have your own insurance, Visa will reimburse your deductible, as well as certain other costs that your insurance company does not cover.
Some cards (Discover Escape, Chase Sapphire Preferred and United Mileage Plus Explore) automatically offer basic coverage even if you have your own auto insurance. As Lipka explains, this can help you avoid higher premium rates if you have a rental accident. American Express users can pay a one-time fee of $ 16 to $ 25 per rental to change their coverage to primary. He adds that Mastercard coverage varies from bank to bank. And some of them have a refund limit.
Among the restrictions usually imposed on most maps in general, he lists:
- Generally, only physical damage to your rental car due to collision or theft is covered, but injuries to you or others are not covered … They will be covered by your auto insurance policy; if you don’t have one, you should take advantage of the additional injury insurance provided by your landlord. You can also buy a non-owner liability policy from many auto insurance companies.
- Loss of personal belongings is usually excluded.
- When traveling abroad, credit cards won’t cover you in some countries, including Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, and New Zealand, Harrow said.
- While it may seem obvious, the card you use to pay must be used for the entire rental, and the invoice must be in the name of the cardholder …
The bottom line is, yes, ditching rental insurance when paying by credit card will save you some money. But you should still know your map coverage options. Check out the full post below for more details.
What does your credit card cover when you rent a car | Reuters
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