Car rental insurance in Iceland?
Jan 25th, 2019, 05:50 AM
#1
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Car rental insurance in Iceland?
Hi there!
I'm getting ready for my trip and and I wanted to see if somebody that has visited Iceland before could help me.
I've never been to Iceland before but according to everything that I have read is that the main road is great but when you get onto secondary roads, your vehicle is very likely to be hit by small pebbles. Therefore I was thinking that adding the gravel coverage would be the best idea. However I've also noticed that there are way more types of insurance apart from this and also some packages with 0 deductible.
Is it neccesary to buy these types of insurance? Some kind of sand protection or theft protection. I don't feel like wasting my money just to pay for the illusion of being super protected against something that is barely likely to happen.
Any experience would be appreciated, thanks!
I'm getting ready for my trip and and I wanted to see if somebody that has visited Iceland before could help me.
I've never been to Iceland before but according to everything that I have read is that the main road is great but when you get onto secondary roads, your vehicle is very likely to be hit by small pebbles. Therefore I was thinking that adding the gravel coverage would be the best idea. However I've also noticed that there are way more types of insurance apart from this and also some packages with 0 deductible.
Is it neccesary to buy these types of insurance? Some kind of sand protection or theft protection. I don't feel like wasting my money just to pay for the illusion of being super protected against something that is barely likely to happen.
Any experience would be appreciated, thanks!
Jan 25th, 2019, 07:48 AM
#2
We visited Iceland in 2017 and spent 11 days driving the Ring Road - we did not purchase the insurance offered by the rental car agency - in our case Lagoon.
We're covered for most damage under our US issued credit card - even our deductible is covered. For anything not covered, we were willing to risk it.
We drove on plenty of gravel (note that the Ring Road isn't entirely paved and it's near impossible to avoid gravel roads) but didn't drive on any F Roads, which were prohibited by our rental car agency (you'll understand the minute you see them). We had no interest in driving on F Roads anyway - if you do, you'll need to rent a 4X4 and make sure your rental car agency even allows it
When researching our trip I read plenty of warnings about needing to purchasing gravel insurance, ash insurance, etc, but we chose not to, and didn't have any issues.
Having said that, we did witness some pretty bad tourist driving - one guy had gone off the road and ended up in a lava field, another car hit a sheep,etc.
Here's an excerpt from my trip report regarding the roads:
During our six days in Iceland, we’d learned that roads outside of the cities don’t have shoulders; they’re narrow and built-up (presumably to prevent flooding), with steep ditches on both sides, and more often than not, surrounded by lava fields. It feels as if you’re driving along a narrow ledge. In other words, these are not roads you want to stray from. All of those warnings about winter driving in Iceland began to make perfect sense. I would definitely not want to be stranded out here in the middle of NoWheresVille, with the ferocious Icelandic wind whipping snow across the road and obscuring visibility. Thanks, but no.
I have read several accounts of tourists in Iceland complaining about being charged to replace an entire windshield for a small rock chip - and Iceland is expensive.
It really comes down to your personal comfort level and what insurance you might have available to you elsewhere.
We're covered for most damage under our US issued credit card - even our deductible is covered. For anything not covered, we were willing to risk it.
We drove on plenty of gravel (note that the Ring Road isn't entirely paved and it's near impossible to avoid gravel roads) but didn't drive on any F Roads, which were prohibited by our rental car agency (you'll understand the minute you see them). We had no interest in driving on F Roads anyway - if you do, you'll need to rent a 4X4 and make sure your rental car agency even allows it
When researching our trip I read plenty of warnings about needing to purchasing gravel insurance, ash insurance, etc, but we chose not to, and didn't have any issues.
Having said that, we did witness some pretty bad tourist driving - one guy had gone off the road and ended up in a lava field, another car hit a sheep,etc.
Here's an excerpt from my trip report regarding the roads:
During our six days in Iceland, we’d learned that roads outside of the cities don’t have shoulders; they’re narrow and built-up (presumably to prevent flooding), with steep ditches on both sides, and more often than not, surrounded by lava fields. It feels as if you’re driving along a narrow ledge. In other words, these are not roads you want to stray from. All of those warnings about winter driving in Iceland began to make perfect sense. I would definitely not want to be stranded out here in the middle of NoWheresVille, with the ferocious Icelandic wind whipping snow across the road and obscuring visibility. Thanks, but no.
I have read several accounts of tourists in Iceland complaining about being charged to replace an entire windshield for a small rock chip - and Iceland is expensive.
It really comes down to your personal comfort level and what insurance you might have available to you elsewhere.
Jan 25th, 2019, 02:42 PM
#4
Uh, no you don't.
I've had many rock chip damaged windshields repaired over the years. Yes, there are size limits, but they're certainly repairable.
Insurance companies love it.
The OP might find this interesting:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Iceland/com...ng_windshield/
I've had many rock chip damaged windshields repaired over the years. Yes, there are size limits, but they're certainly repairable.
Insurance companies love it.
The OP might find this interesting:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Iceland/com...ng_windshield/
Last edited by Melnq8; Jan 25th, 2019 at 02:45 PM.
Jan 29th, 2019, 12:25 AM
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Hi there!
In my opinion, the more covered the better, may it be by your own credit card insurance or the Car rental's insurance.
In my past trips to Iceland, I had both great experience where nothing happened and some not so great experiences where the wind almost blew off our trunk's door and we got caught in a sudden storm where a couple a pebbles got thrown against our vehicle.
Most of the time you can avoid dangerous situations but some others, nature is wild and you have to pay for it. And Iceland is not cheap AT ALL.
A couple of years ago most car rentals in Iceland did not have any 0€ excess insurance, now they do. I went this past September and Cars Iceland, the company I rented with, had Platinum insurance. It is not all-risk but you don't have to pay anything for most damages, which is a lifesaver to me.
It is true that you really don't have to replace the whole windshield if it is a small crack and the whole piece is not at risk of breaking. But it still counts as damage, I had to pay 16.000 ISK on my first trip due to these damages as I didn't have any 0€ liability. Only gravel insurance.
In my opinion, the more covered the better, may it be by your own credit card insurance or the Car rental's insurance.
In my past trips to Iceland, I had both great experience where nothing happened and some not so great experiences where the wind almost blew off our trunk's door and we got caught in a sudden storm where a couple a pebbles got thrown against our vehicle.
Most of the time you can avoid dangerous situations but some others, nature is wild and you have to pay for it. And Iceland is not cheap AT ALL.
A couple of years ago most car rentals in Iceland did not have any 0€ excess insurance, now they do. I went this past September and Cars Iceland, the company I rented with, had Platinum insurance. It is not all-risk but you don't have to pay anything for most damages, which is a lifesaver to me.
It is true that you really don't have to replace the whole windshield if it is a small crack and the whole piece is not at risk of breaking. But it still counts as damage, I had to pay 16.000 ISK on my first trip due to these damages as I didn't have any 0€ liability. Only gravel insurance.
