Hi all,

I have a car reserved through the UK site of AutoEurope - pickup/dropoff Strasbourg downtown.

AE says I have to take the CDW with a $1700 deductible.

Zero deductible will be about $120 xtra.

Is it possible to decline the CDW upon pickup?

I've paid for the car with a CC that offers zero deductible insurance.

OK - first question is why AE is saying that you must take CDW? That's new to me - and as you know, I rent about 3-4 cars per year from AE in France. Is it a lease, and not a rental??

Call AE in Maine & see if you get the same story.

Is the $1700 CDW offered by AE, or the actual rental company? If it's the latter, I would guess that you could decline.

How much is the $1,700 deductible going to cost you???

Stu Dudley

Agree you should call the US AE office. I've never had to pay the CDW for a France rental.

Hi guys,

Thanks for responding.

I'm getting the car through the AE UK site.

It is about $200 cheaper than the US or France site.

Because UK credit cards don't come with rental insurance, AE-UK says I have to have the CDW.

The rental is with Hertz.

Before I call Hertz, I'd just like to see if anyone has had experience with this.

I can change the reservation, but it will cost about $120 more the AE refundable excess and $140 for the super CDW from Hertz.

Ira,
sometimes your auto insurance here will cover you renting a car abroad. you might consider checking with your insurance company and then faxing over evidence if you have it.

good luck,
dina

Hi all,

I can answer my own question.

I called Hertz.

I can decline the CDW at the pickup office.

The rate is the same.

I checked with Amex. They will cover the rental car if I decline the CDW.

IRA

That's very informative information.

About every other year, the rental company (not AE) has screwed up something on my rental - to the tune of $200 or more. A few years ago, they processed someone elses return papers against my rental, so it looked like I returned the car in Tours on the 10th, instead of in Avignon on the 20th (which is when I actually returned it). The "other" person left it with an empry tank of gas and also accepted CDW - which I declined.

AE has always resolved these problems in my favor. If such a problem exists when you rent from the AE England office, do you have to deal with AE in England, or the AE office in the US????

Stu Dudley

You're renting this car via AE UK, so what Hertz says may apply only to direct Hertz renters. Usually you pay AutoEurope ahead of time for the whole rental and get a voucher to present at the rental office. I see you've already done that. Do you expect to get reimbursed for the amount of the insurance?

Thanks for posting, ira. That is useful information to know as I have been toying around with the idea of using another country's website for our upcoming rental in Austria this May.

That reminds me, I need to top that post to see if daytime readers have suggestions on a less expensive option.

Just a note related to this post, we just booked with AE for a rental in Italy (used the canada site) and it didn't allow us to decline cdw as it says that you're required to have it by law in Italy. This is fine with us as the rental price includes 0 deductible cdw and we don't have a card that covers it. The question is though is what happens if someone did want to waive it in Italy!

Travelerwannabe answers then asks her own question:

"The question is though is what happens if someone did want to waive it in Italy!"

Answer: "[The site] didn't allow us to decline cdw as it says that you're required to have it by law in Italy"

There is no way around CDW in Italy.

Try Kemwel. They often are cheaper than U.S. AE. It may be that the rules regarding rentals and brokers vary by country and France might require the comprehensive package, or perhaps because French credit car companies do not offer coverage. As mentioned in a previous discussion, the rental agreement sent by AE might be the one that rules, and your credit card might not honor its coverage because CDW was included in the original agreement. So check with your credit card company before making assumptions about declining the CDW on site.

Ackislander what I meant was, what happens if you want to cancel your cdw there because you have it through other sources. In which case you still end up with it just not through the rental car company.