Last Updated on 2 years by Alex James
Many car rental agencies offer more extensive rental car insurance coverage, selling damage waivers at costs ranging from $15 to $25 a day. However, these exemptions often do not exceed the insurance you already have thanks to your favorite credit card.
Depending on where you rent the vehicle, the agency could be responsible for damages to third parties or property and cover from $25,000 to $50,000. Likewise, the rest of the expenses could leave you with a hefty bill to take care of, although your credit card may also lend you a hand, to some extent.
Each of the four major credit card companies offers rental car insurance coverage, although they vary considerably in terms of benefits and requirements. In some cases, customers may want to purchase a comprehensive policy from the rental car company to skip the process of declaring or reporting an accident to both their primary and credit card insurer.
Save on rental car insurance: rent with your credit card
Many credit cards allow you to save on rental car insurance. These cards have good coverage included as long as you pay the cost of renting a car in full with one of them. Here are some of our preferred credit cards that offer rental car insurance. Best of all, most of these cards can be easily obtained.
The Chase Freedom credit card is one of our favorite cards that offer rental car insurance. This Visa card offers you coverage included with rental car insurance protection that protects you against car damage or even vehicle theft. To take advantage of the protection of this card, you must pay for the car rental in full with it. For example, if you use a service like Priceline.com to reserve an economy car, you must pay the initial fee with this card and also the remaining amount with it when you pick up the car.
If you are a frequent traveler or need to rent a car frequently, you need to get the Discover card. This card not only offers you insurance for rental cars, but also has many benefits and rewards for using it. For example, you can get up to 5% cash back in different categories that change every 3 months. The Discover IT card has no annual fee and includes an insurance policy for rental cars as long as you pay for the vehicle rental in full with this card.
Do I really need rental car insurance?
Before moving on to the rental protection benefits that each credit card company offers you, it is important that you keep in mind the following:
- The most common is that your credit card provides you with a secondary car rental policy. That is, it will only pay the cost of certain damages that your car policy does not cover.
- Since you are the cardholder, to benefit from your insurance coverage you must reserve the car that you will rent in your name and with your credit card. Simply having a credit card that offers rental car insurance is not enough.
- Usually, in order to receive the rental protection benefits of your credit card, you must first decline coverage offered by the car rental company. Later we will see what the exceptions to this rule are.
- The content of this article applies to consumer credit cards. While many business credit cards offer rental car policies, coverage levels may differ substantially from those described below.
- Cards from the same company may offer varying levels of insurance coverage. Some companies do not offer any type of insurance for rental cars, while others impose rules that do not match the standard established by the rest of the market. To find out more about the specific case of your credit card, call your bank or consult the list of rental protection benefits for your card
Insurance for rental cars: Opinions
We hope that our guide on the benefits of using credit cards to get rental car insurance helps you get the best guidance and save money when renting a vehicle. Remember that if you have questions or need help choosing the best rental car insurance for you, you can leave us a comment below and we will help you make the best decision.
Is it worth using a credit card to get rental car insurance? Or is it better to pay for the car rental agency insurance? We want to know your opinion. Let us know what you think in a comment below. If you would like to make a recommendation on this topic, please leave a comment for the benefit of others.
