Italy - Car Rental - CDW's and Insurance
 

I am planning to rent a car in Italy (Puglia region, Lecce to start), beginning on Sept. 5 and dropping off somewhere in Puglia, maybe Matera or Brindisi airport, on Sept. 10. I would appreciate any advice on (1) car rental agencies to use, and (2) whether or not to buy CDW from the car rental company vs. relying on credit card coverage (I have a United Mileage Plus card, which sent me an email claiming to provide primary coverage for theft and collision losses). Prior postings here indicate that there are a lot of confusing and complicated options regarding collision/damage deductibles offered by the car rental companies. I had a bad experience with AutoEurope (SicilyByCar) in Italy in 2012 with a false damage claim by the rental company.

Unless the general policy has changed, credit cards do not carry the CDW on Italian rentals.

With a few exceptions over the years, I use autoeurope or kemwel as brokers when I rent cars in Europe.

Take a look at the terms and conditions of the card circutrider as I have the same card and it doesn't cover CDW. We used AutoEurope for Italy and it was fine but if you're not comfortable using them I would get it from the rental company.

Correct, credit card coverage is not an option in Italy.
We rented through Autoeurope near the train station in Bari for our upcoming trip.

although you may not be able to get CDW cover on Italian hire cars through your credit card, you should be able to insure it before you go. this just cost us about £40 for 10 days.

in the UK it's called damage refund insurance and we arranged it through AXA.

instead of paying the exorbitant amount per day the care hire people want for CDW cover, we will let them take the €1900 against a credit card; if at the end of the hire period they try to say that we are liable to pay, we are insured against losing the €1900.

AutoEurope doesn't seem to offer return to Matera (Brindisi is ok) , the rates include collision with a deductible.

we always use kemwel-- and did in puglia. we like their zero deductible option. i always just call them to get the straight story on where/when/days we can rent and return.

having said that, a good friend was in a serious accident ... his car and a motorcycle... and he only had the united visa insurance. he was able to leave the acccident site and everything was handled by the credit card insurance. however, that was in france. it may be different in italy.

Generally, most credit cards do not provide CDW insurance coverage on cars rented in Italy, Ireland, Israel, and Portugal. We travel in Italy every year and rent through Autoeurope. We always purchase the zero deductible insurance for added peace of mind and it's worth every dime, IMHO.

When we book through Autoeurope we retrieve the car at a Europecar facility.

Buon viaggio,

<i>most credit cards do not provide CDW insurance coverage on cars rented in Italy, Ireland, Israel, and Portugal.</i>

According to the Autoeurope website, a "basic" rate, i.e. CC carries the CDW, is still available for Portugal. The broker is quite good at including the rules of various countries in its price listing.

Thanks to all for the comments and advice. I will check out Kemwel and reconsider AutoEurope. I called Visa Mileage Plus and they told me that one condition is that the rental car company accepts the coverage offered by the card. So I can't rely on Visa's coverage. I'm risk adverse, so I will probably do what "rbciao47" does: pay the exorbitant fee for zero deductible and not worry about it. To DebbieDoesDallas: I noticed that also, but probably will drop the car off in Bari or Brindisi rather than Matera.

On my first quick look at rates, Hertz and Avis seemed to have good deals, but I've read that they aren't so good in Italy. Anyone have experience with these two in Italy?

<i>On my first quick look at rates, Hertz and Avis seemed to have good deals, </i>

Autoeurope.com and Kemwel.com are sister companies. You can cancel their contract 48 hours before the rental date with no penalty. So rent form them, print out the contract, and then compare it line-by-line to what Hertz and Avis offer. If you are satisfied that Hertz or Avis offer a better deal, then go for it and cancel your autoeurope contract. But remember that if something goes wrong, your contract is probably with an Italian branch and you have no intermediary to help you; whereas Autoeurope or Kemwel will often go to bat with you because they also have a reputation to protect. They also are based in the States if you do not use their European branches, which makes communicating easier.

Auto Europe and Kemwel will beat any comparable offer by any insurance company. So, do the research that Michael suggests and call AE or Kemwel if you want them to beat a price quote. You will then have their good customer service that Michael points out.

By the way, I find that Kemwel usually has the best pricing in Italy.

We had a fine experience in June with Hertz out of VCE. Being a member of whatever their club is called meant we didn't have to wait in line and could just go out to the counter in the car lot. They upgraded us to an automatic without me asking. I found their service just as good as what we've come to except in the US.

I would say that all of the lines at the various rental counters were quite long and things seemed pretty slow. It's probably better if you're not renting from an airport.

I'm risk adverse, so I will probably do what "rbciao47" does: pay the exorbitant fee for zero deductible and not worry about it.>>

is there some reason why you would not insure the excess as we do? or is that form of insurance not available in the US?

<i>instead of paying the exorbitant amount per day the care hire people want for CDW cover, we will let them take the €1900 against a credit card; if at the end of the hire period they try to say that we are liable to pay, we are insured against losing the €1900.</i>

Have you actually done that on rentals in Italy, because my impression from other postings is that Italian law requires CDW coverage to be included in the price of the rental. But the CDW does not include the deductible, aka excess, which is perhaps what is covered with damage refund insurance.

The zero deductible is not so exorbitant when you consider the overall cost of the trip and the extra peace of mind.

The car return people in Italy usually do not inspect the car too closely. They seem to be more concerned if all of the parts are there. In Ireland, on the other hand, they minutely inspect every square inch of the vehicle. I wish my PCP paid that much attention to me.

When you retrieve your car you should inspect it for damage and make sure you tell the employees if you find something not listed on the original contract. We always take pictures of the car as any possible evidence.

Go and have fun.

Buon viaggio,

We will also be in Puglia in September and I rented from Sicily By Car through AutoEurope. Our rental is zero excess + extended cover package (wheels, glass, underside, roof, theft with zero excess, road assistance).

<<is there some reason why you would not insure the excess as we do? or is that form of insurance not available in the US?>>
We have something similar in Belgium. Allianz has a year policy but it only covers 1.000 euro per rental contract and max. 2.000 euro per year (we travel and rent cars at least five times a year during our holidays).
For the car that we will rent next month in Puglia the excess is 1.280 euro in case of accident and 2.500 euro (!!!) in case of theft. Worst case scenario is that we would still have to pay 1.500 euro in case of theft, despite the damage refund insurance.

Have you actually done that on rentals in Italy, because my impression from other postings is that Italian law requires CDW coverage to be included in the price of the rental. But the CDW does not include the deductible, aka excess, which is perhaps what is covered with damage refund insurance.>>

basic CWD is covered but not in full; instead they either take, say, €2000 off your credit card as a sort of guarantee that the car comes back in one piece, or you pay the exorbitant daily top up CWD which reduces the c/c excess to nothing.

the damage refund insurance insures you against the loss of the excess or part of it.

Myriam - we are insured on a one off basis for the loss of €2500 and the excess is €1900 so we should be ok. I can see it would be a problem if the excess is €1,280 and the max you can claim is €1000!

it's definitely a good idea to do one or the other - we did neither in Iceland a few years ago and though there were no problems at all when we took it back, every time we went over a bump I winced.

I have just rented a car in Sicily for an October trip. I used AutoEurope and decided to go with a fare of $267 for eleven days, pick up in Siracusa, drop off in Palermo. The notation for the car I chose said "no deductible with extended cover." The other option was "inclusive rate with deductible." After reading this thread, I called Autoeurope to see what they could explain. I have always found the cdw/credit card/excess issue to be extremely confusing, I think I just have a mental block.

Anyway, the salesperson walked me through my voucher -- I have "insurances, CDW, THP (theft protection)" Then down in the text it says that I have 0 euro deductible for collision damage or for theft. The only thing she said that is not covered is coverage for personal injuries to driver or pasenger, which they will try to sell me when I pick up the car. And if I get a traffic ticket, I will have to pay an administration fee of 48 euros plus the fine.

So, this seems different from what you said, annhig. I confess that I don't have a lot of clarity or certainty here, but this is what I read on my voucher and what the woman on the phone told me. A friend of mine who just got back from a car rental in Italy told me the best thing to do is pray -- that you don't have any problems and that you are covered if you do.