Planning on renting cars in Greece and Germany. What does everyone do about CDW? My capital one venture card covers CDW and theft but I don’t know if I would still be responsible for any other payment. I am tempted just to take all the insurance from the rental company so in the event of any problems, God forbid, I won’t have to lay out any money or have the headache of straightening it all out with the credit card company when I get home.

This is complicated. Your credit card may, or may not, cover collision and comprehensive damage. Same with your personal auto insurance policy. It depends on the credit card, the policy, and the country you're in. Call and talk to people and get the answers in writing.
Liability isn't as big a deal in Europe as in the US but coverage is still advisable. Check with your carriers on that too.
If you have an American Express credit card ask them about their rental auto coverage. I have a policy with them that kicks in automatically if I rent a car with the AmEx card. Coverage costs $26 per rental up to maybe 50 days and covers everything (with limits, of course). Compare that to $30 per day. Never had an accident, luckily, but the car rental companies never balked at it either.

We have Cap 1 Master Card also. They cover CDW for up to 31 days of intended rental. They do not cover a few countries - like Italy & Ireland. We are from the USA.

Someone hit our car when it was parked in a lot "somewhere" on our first day in France in early June 2018. Attached is a chronology of our long effort & struggles with collecting from Master Card. There were several third parties involved, and nobody was motivated to be helpful or timely in resolving this (except us). We are traveling to Scotland in May, and for the first time in perhaps 30-50 rentals, we are obtaining coverage from AutoEurope (rental agent). It was less expensive than I anticipated, and driving on the wrong side of the road was worrisome. We will also be in France for Sept & are letting Cap 1 cover our CDW.

Stu Dudley

That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. But you are going to let them cover the France trip?

I take the CDW and PAI offered by the rental company then I have a yearly policy that covers the deductible, tyres, windscreen & undercarriage which are not usually covered by CDW. I believe you can buy one off car rental policy for short periods, doesn’t have to be yearly.

If your credit card company provides CDW, check the coverage to make sure it’s comparable with that offered by the rental company/broker. Otherwise take the one offered by the rental company. AE offers some good deals for all inclusive coverage when you take their rentals.

For me the issue with not taking the local CDW is that I would have to pay out of pocket for any repairs and try to get my credit card company to reimburse me after the fact, something that can prove difficult if not impossible. I'd rather pay for the CDW when I rent a car so I can relax and enjoy myself.

I took my CC coverage for our France trip in Sept because the rate offered by AutoEurope was quite high - and I've had around 50 rentals in the past 30 yours with no accidents - except for the one reported above.

Here is some more reports from Fodors people that I copied & saved in a Word document.Stu, I've posted a long and detailed report on our accident in Wales and the insurance procedures.
But to try to summarize, it took a total of 6 months to fully resolve. (For what it's worth, I'm not sure if would have been any different regardless of who handled the insurance).
When we reported it to Avis (for AutoEurope) they charged us a total of about $600 as a temporary payment against projected damage. This went on our credit card. From there we had quite a bit of confusion, partly because we remained in Europe for two more months and it was difficult getting things handled back and forth. We had some issues with the Wales police refusing to give us a copy of the accident report (saying it contained the names of witnesses whom we might retaliate against -- huh?), and Visa seemed to have a problem getting that report as well. It was finally a call to AutoEurope who in turn were able to get Avis as the owner of the vehicle to get a copy of that. There was also a lot of confusion about the total value of the car. Visa seemed not to understand that the car was considered totalled and had been sold as scrap, so the final bill reflected the amount of damage over what they were able to get for the car as scrap. They kept wanting to get finely itemized repair bills -- yet there were no repairs. Again, much of this confusion resulted because of our distance. In the end, we were finally billed nearly $6000 on the Visa card which covered us, but we immediately contested that, so they we didn't actually have to pay it, nor did we have to pay interest on it. Meanwhile within a month of that actual charge, they settled by sending us a check in full for the final amount, so we OK'd the charge on the card and paid it off. The final check included everything, even the towing of the wrecked vehicle and the storage of it until it was sold. In the end, we actually paid even less than our original contract (we reduced it by a day, as we were to have turned the car in the day after the wreck happened, and they even removed the surcharge we were originally being billed for turning it in at an airport, since obviously we weren't!

There was never any question with Avis that Visa would cover us and they said they'd work together on it, which they pretty much did.

We had always taken the full insurance from AutoEurope before as we too didn't want any hassle. But the bottom line is, if we HAD taken the full insurance, it would have ended up costing us about $700 or so more than it did, counting the still necessary deductible and the cost of purchasing that insurance. Was our hassle worth saving $700? YES!



Another report



On my last trip to Europe, in a fit of absent-mindedness or similar temporary brain failure, I took the Auto Europe rate with insurance, rather than relying on my Visa card coverage as I had always done in the past.

Of course, this was the one time I would have an accident. Although it was only a small fender-bender, the damage to the rental car was somewhat over €1100. Then I discovered that the Auto Europe insurance had a deductible of €500. I then wrongly assumed that my Visa would cover the deductible, which of course it would not, as I had not declined all insurance on the rental.

When I called the Visa insurer, I was told that if I had declined all insurance, I would have been covered from the first dollar for collision coverage. I would have been covered as well if I had been required to take the CDW, as in Italy.

This of course applies to CDW. Third party liability comes with the rental.

Moral (for me, anyway): If you have good credit card auto insurance coverage, use it.



another report



I'll offer a first hand account of dealing with credit card insurance. A few years ago I was rear ended in Annency. The other driver and I filled out the constat (an explanation of what had happened) and she agreed to meet at the local Préfecture to sign a déclaration de main courante (which basically absolved me of any liability).

The rental car company charged my credit card for the damage so I was required to make a claim with Visa. Even with the constat and the déclaration de main courante, the paperwork requested by Visa insurance seemed endless and took a good amount of time. Eventually, all claims were payed by the other person's insurance. However, I would be sure to understand fully my insurance coverage and how to fill out a constat before I rented a card in France.

Visa/MC will only reimburse expenses which they determine to be fair. The reimbursement may or may not cover your actual costs after an accident. The only card insurance that I would even consider using would be the AMEX primary coverage at only $20/$25.

Thank you all for your information. I must think on this.

I would be surprised if your US auto insurance policy covered you to rent a car in another country, I've never seen that. But no harm in asking. I think you need liability of course, not just CDW, but that is usually available for a small extra fee from the auto insurer (at least in France). IN fact, I think it may be required you take it, but the rental contract/terms should describe that.

The expense is the CDW, of course.

I can understand just buying it with the rental to make things easier and no worries. That's something I could see myself doing if it were maybe $25 or less USD per day. That may be a lot to some people, but for me, it might be worth the peace of mind and knowing no hassles if anything happened. And as noted, you are going to have to pay and then try to recover from the insurer, of course.

I also would advise you to look into the AMEX insurance, which I now have, as MichGuy mentioned. It isn't really automatic with an AMEX card if you don't deliberately sign up for that option, though. You have to choose to do that. It is automatic AFTER you sign up for that feature, whenever you rent a car with your AMEX card. It is really a good deal for longer term rentals. I use it in the US a lot also and another feature is that it is primary coverage, not secondary like most insurance, I believe (check). That is more important in the US, probably. For $25 per rental, it's a bargain for long rentals.
They do cover most international rentals -- they don't cover Italy in Europe, though, or countries on the sanctioned assets list.

YOu do not have to pay for that AMEX card, either, if you don't have one (unless you want). I have a free one, the AMEX Blue Cash Everyday and can still get that feature.

So you'll have to check the liability insurance customs with those countries' auto rental companies and of course, you would still have to deal with the submission issues if needed.

You don’t have to check anything. If it’s compulsory to have liability insurance, it will be automatically added.

When I book on Autoeurope or any other car rental website, inc direct, taking CDW automatically adds the following items (where applicable to your pickup location)

Includes local VAT, liability insurance, fire insurance, CDW with or without deductible, theft protection, airport pick up fees, vehicle licensing fees if those are charged at your destination, even things like congestion charges and bridge toll fees.

If optional supercover CDW is offered, it might also cover a refundable deductible and coverage of wheels, glass, roof, and undercarriage.

Thank you Christina and balthy. I will look into the AE card. Found a rate of $611 for 9 days with all insurance in Munich with europcar through auto Europe for an automatic Opel Astra. Without insurance I believe it is $507. For that difference I might just take that. I also got a price quote from Gemut.com for same car and rental company for $645 without any insurance. I sent them what I saw in the internet, they said they would match any reliable offer. We’ll see if they answer me.

We always rent from AutoEurope or Kemwel (same company - don't ask me why). They will be your agent and advocate for any disputes with the actual car rental company (Europcar, Hertz, etc). In my 50 or so rentals, I have had several disputes and AutoEurope has always resolved them in my favor. They have even dipped into their own pockets to pay me something that was not their fault at all. Plus - you get to talk to someone in USA English (if that is your native language).

Biggest mess-up was when a Europcar agent in Tours France processed someone else's return paper against our rental. They processed it while we were still traveling in Provence. What a mess. The Europcar person who processed the return papers charged us with a gas refill and full insurance. We had neither. AutoEurope resolved everything with minimal input from us. Just the opposite of the Master Card damage claim I chronicled above.

Stu Dudley

Stu, thank you, I think it’s the best deal for the money. Just also wanted to let you know how helpful your advice was on our last trip to Nice and Provence!

I'm glad my advice was helpful.

We have cancelled 6 trips to Europe because of my FIL's stoke just after we returned from Brittany in 2019, plus Covid. Crossing our fingers for Scotland this May (Covid is getting worse in the UK), Alsace/Burgundy for 4 weeks in Sept, 4 weeks in Provence next June, and 4 weeks in Augergne/Lot next Sept.

Stu Dudley

Let’s all hope all goes well with travel this year. We haven’t traveled since 2019. Last time I was in Europe was in France in sept 2017. Miss everything. This year we will be attending a wedding in Greece and then a trip to Austria and Slovenia, God willing.