Car rental insurance
 

Will be renting a car in Germany for 3 weeks this fall and plan to forego the collision damage waiver and theft protection insurance options that the car rental companies offer (either will use Avis or Auto Europe) and instead use the insurance that my Gold Mastercharge has for these purposes. It (Gold Mastercharge) supposedly covers all of this with the exception of 3rd party/personal liability which I understand both Avis and Auto Europe include in the basic car rental agreement rate quote. Has anyone had any problems or further insight with this type of arrangement and if so, is there something I am overlooking? (I find it amazing that I would be paying approximately $400 plus insurance if I was doing it through the rental company versus my $60 annual fee on my Mastercharge that would cover all of this!! Thank you.

I've never had a problem, but my research indicates that if you were to have a collision in Italy with your car rented in Germany, your insurance (whether from your credit card or any other source) would likely not cover it.

No problems, but a couple of suggestions: <BR> <BR>1. Verify with your rental company that you won't be forced to take the company's insurance; get it in writing if possible. If you rent through a consolidator such as Auto Europe, ask them what to do if the rental company won't let you use your own coverage (it happens; I have heard that sometimes you are told to go ahead and take the coverage, and are given a refund afterwards). <BR> <BR>2. Make sure that they won't want to put a huge hold on your card (Kenning in England wanted to put a $12000 charge on my card when I wouldn't take their insurance). <BR> <BR>3. Take along a copy of your credit card rules. Know what steps you must take if there is going to be a claim; it probably involves getting a copy of a police report, and there may be a rather short time limit for you to submit a claim in. <BR> <BR>4. Make sure that your coverage is good for everything that you will need; some kinds of cars are excluded, and there is probably a rental length limit, and some kinds of damage (such as glass breakage) may be excluded.

We rented a car in Luzern, Switzerland from Europecar. The clerk looked at my Visa Gold and agreed with me that I don't need to pay for extra insurance. <BR>We returned the car with a little dent to the Zurich airport office. We didn't mention anything about the damage. <BR>A month later I got a letter from Europcar regarding the damage. I called Citybank, who issued the card, they gave me a ref. number. I faxed that info to Europecar in Zurich, and never heard from them again. <BR>So it works. Maybe the conclusion of all this — rent from Europecar... <BR>Amik

I won't contest the story posted by Amik, but I still believe that if the "dent" was a major collision - - and if it occurred in Italy - - the credit card insurance may NOT have covered the damage. <BR> <BR>I have been exploring options through a number of "third party" companies that sell separate CDW insurance at rates considerably better than the car companies - - and they tell me they can NOT insure for collisions that are investigated by Italian police.