Car Rental and Insurance question
 

I am going to be renting a car for our trip and know the manditory insurance. But that only covers someone else or another persons car. I want to purchase 3rd party insurance that will cover the rental car in case of accedent, theft and injuries to passanagers. Has anyone used a company to do this? If so what company did you use?

Is it just easier to get this coverage from the rental car company in costa rica? (it seem expensive approx: $20/day)

mapache.com takes car rental insurance packed into my

credit card cheapest way to do it... get one

wild-rider.com

servicecarrental.com

pretty competitive rates inlcuding good insurance

good experience with them also.

What did you mean insurance packed into your credit card? Do you go through mapache.com, have them add the insurance to the credit card you'll be renting the vehicle with ???

Have a look at your card. Maybe you have it already there. Canadians can check it here http://insureye.com/insurance_toolkit. Or just contact your bank to know details. But you have to pay for the rental car with this particular credit card.

I wouldn't stress on this.

For one thing, there are no third party insurers in Costa Rica. The insurance company is owned by the government.

By law, the vehicle has to have local liability insurance. The car rental company is almost always going to make you buy the local comprehensive and collision coverage as well. They do this for their own protection.

Some of them will let you use your credit card coverage for the comp and collision. But this is becoming rarer. A friend at one of the companies told me that the CC companies impose a lot of restrictions, and some of the rental agencies have been burned. So most are requiring that you buy the local coverage. I still think this is a good idea. If your CC company finds a loophole, you are still agreeing to pay for the damage.

The only problem with the local coverage is that the deductibles can be hefty. Sometimes as much as $1500.00. Some companies will let you pay an extra ten bucks a day for "full coverage", which really means that the deductible is covered if you have an incident. I usually spring for this.

Hope this helps! Let me know if I can offer any more advice.

Warm Regards,
Pat Hewitt
Travel Professional

I just signed up for international car rental through American Express. They charge $24.95 per 30 day rental period and it covers up to $100,000 if the car is stolen or wrecked. If you have a personal Amex (doesn't work on corporate cards), check out their websites under something like "benefits". The $24.95 charge is automatic each time you charge a rental car on your Amex