Vroom Vrrom Vroom sets straight the often misunderstood world of car rental insurance.
Written by Vroom Vroom Vroom
Please ensure you fully understand the US car rental excess requirements. Vroom Vroom Vroom car rental has helped demystify the very confusing and often misunderstood world of car rental insurance.
Car rental CDW, collission damage waiver is sometimes covered by:
- Credit card providers in the US
- Personal travel insurance providers (see below paragraph*)
- Personal car insurance for your home vehicle
You’ll need to find out if you already have car rental insurance from one of the above sources. If you discover you don’t have car rental insurance or you’re not sure, you can purchase insurance at the rental counter.
* Please be aware.
If you purchase travel insurance before traveling in the U.S. please take your time to read the fine print. Travel insurance usually refers to the excess of a rental car and not the car insurance itself. This means you may need to purchase insurance in order to have an excess level. Otherwise your rental will not have any excess limit which would deem your travel insurance worthless.
Dictionary of Car Rental Insurances
(may differ from supplier to supplier)
CDW (collision damage waiver) and LDW (loss damage waiver).
This relieves you of financial responsibility for a rental vehicle damaged by an accident, vandalism or theft. It usually costs between $9 and $20 per day. Note: Although the sale of CDW was formerly prohibited in New York state, recent legislative changes now allow it.
SLI (supplemental liability insurance).
This provides excess liability coverage up to $1 million. It usually costs between $7 and $9 per day.
PAI (personal accident insurance).
This covers you and all passengers in your vehicle for any medical expenses. It’s not necessary for most renters already covered by personal health policies or travel policies. It usually costs between $3 and $5 per day.
PEC (personal effects coverage).
This provides coverage for theft of or damage to personal items inside the rental car. Again, it replicates coverage already provided to many renters through their own insurance policies. It usually costs between $2 and $5 per day.
Car rental companies often make these options even more confusing by combining two or more into insurance packages. You could evaluate each product separately.
Steps to take regarding car rental insurance
- First determine if you have a need for the service
- Verify if you are not already covered by your credit card or personal travel insurance
- Finally, comparison-shop the costs of each car rental company. Note that in some travel hot-spots, the cost of taxes, fees, surcharges and optional insurance can easily exceed the daily base rate of the car rental itself.
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Erica,
Thanks for doing all the ‘tedious’ research on such an irritating subject (for me!).
Best,
Melissa
Hi Erica, I agree with Melissa. thanks for doing all the leg work.
the author has made a great introduction on the insurance and reading the same will be a great support for the people who are willing to get insurance in near future.
This is very helpful stuff. To make the whole car hire process even clearer, Auto Europe has created the Car Rental Roadmap – a step-by-step guide to renting, including a jargon busting section, insurance and how to avoid the pitfalls of hidden costs.
It’s free to download from the website, so do check it out: http://www.auto-europe.co.uk/pdf/Car-Hire-Made-Easy.pdf
Hi Erica,
Thanks for mentioning VroomVroomVroom in your story!
We’d be happy to have you as a car rental customer again anytime
Richard.
Hi all,
Just to clarify, I didn’t write this story. As you can see below the picture it says TEXT: Vroom Vroom Vroom. I’ll consider writing something else (perhaps ‘Written by…” whenever I publish guest posts to make sure no one assumes that I’m the writer.
I usually include a byline at the end, though. If anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to share