Yet another car hire/rental question. I already rented a car for a week in Adelaide. I found out that the deductible is around $2,700 unless I pay $24 a day to bring it down to $330. Does anyone else know a cheaper way to bring down the deductible. From what I read about my credit card insurance is that I had to decline the insurance the car rental place provides. Is that for the $2700 deductible or the cost of lowering the deductible? Any help or insight is appreciated.

Your travel insurance policy may cover this, but you will need to check it and also ensure that it covers you in Australia in particular, and that, if so, that clause is in writing - or you can have a written confirmation in case you need it.

If your credit card insurance is not clear on what it's covering, suggest you email them & get written clarification. Verbal won't stand up if there's a claim & an opportunity of rejecting liability.

As you say you have already rented the car, you would need to check with the rental car company in any case to see whether you can vary the conditions under which you rented it. What did you do at the time of rental - agree to the $24/day or opt to carry the $2700 in the case of an accident?

The only other way I know to lower the excess is to rent from a company that offers a lower excess. When renting cars in OZ and NZ I pay as much attention to the excess as to the daily rental rate. For example, I just booked a rental in Perth through a company that offers a A$440 excess and a A$1000 single vehicle accident excess. I plan to decline any additional insurance and take my chances.

In my experience, unless you're able to decline ALL insurance coverage, your CC insurance won't do a bit of good in OZ (and it seems impossible to decline ALL insurance as some is built in, hence the excess).

There's been recent talk on this forum about others who disagree with this statement, so I suggest you contact your particular credit card carrier for full details.

I paid for my week rental through the internet. I haven't paid for the excess deductible insurance yet or confirmed weither I wanted it or not. I thought maybe someone was able to get additional insurance from a different insurance company or something (private or public car insurance).

hellyes74 -

Have you checked with your personal car insurance policy to see if your coverage extends to rental cars? When I lived in the US, we routinely declined insurance because we were already covered through the insurance on the vehicles we owned. I don't remember if this worked for rentals outside of the US, but it's worth a look.

Regarding your original question -

"From what I read about my credit card insurance is that I had to decline the insurance the car rental place provides. Is that for the $2700 deductible or the cost of lowering the deductible?"

Both. And that's the problem. Unless you can decline ALL coverage (which seems impossible to do in NZ and OZ, I've tried), the insurance offered by most credit cards isn't much help.

My research and experience is based upon Master Card Assist. Other credit cards might have different guidelines.

Good luck.

Those add ons can be high, the rates that tempt you are not such great rates once you do all the add ons. On times I have rented I have always ended up paying way higher than the rates that are flashed out as bargain rates once you add on those extras.
Do check the total price with care.

The best company I've found in Australia (operates in Sydney & Perth only, I think) is Bayswater Car Rentals.
Their deductible is only $200, and rates v.good. I paid about $600 for 2 weeks - Corolla hatchback.

Might be worth checking whether they operate in Adelaide.

Bayswater do not operate in Adelaide.

they have about $10 a day "cdw"...the best around.

they only rent corollas.

Corollas! The Queen of cars!

<guess who has one?>

Pleast note that MC and AMEX do not cover NZ and OZ - spelled out in the T&C of the benefits.

Only Visa covers these 2 countries, and only up to the excess. Visa benefit administrator told me Visa is a secondary insurance in NZ and OZ because the "standard insurance" mandated by government is built in the rental rate. MC & AMEX use such excuse to completely drop NZ and OZ from their benefits (in the same category as Italy, Israel, Northern Ireland and Ireland).

Good to know nho9504. Appreciate the info - I'm going to call the bank that issued our Visa on Monday to get the details (we use Visa as a back-up CC).

Just got off the phone with Visa - they do indeed cover the excess - good news for US renters in OZ and NZ, because that excess can be brutal.

Thanks for posting your results, Melnk8, and great news. Will check with our card, too, to double check, but nice to know that Visa will cover the excess in Oz, too.
Sally in Seattle

Hmmm, the Visa thing is interesting. Wonder if it works for Canadian issued Visa cards? Anyone have any experience? I was planning to take the excess reduction in NZ because after checking a lot of posts it didn't seem likely we'd be covered by our CC. Better get on the phone to them before we leave!

Update for any interested Canadians! I called CIBC Visa this morning and they do offer car rental coverage in NZ. Thanks for the heads up Fodorites, I wasn't even going to bother to call since they wouldn't cover us in OZ a few years back. On a five week rental you saved me a bunch!