Rental Car insurance

Those are good questions for you to ask you credit card company and the rental car comany. What Rick Steves contributors say will have little weight with them.

I don't quite understand what you are asking. You say that AutoEurope is only allowing you to select the "inclusive" option, but then you ask if you can use your credits card's benefits. Are you suggesting that you would select and pay for AutoEurope's cdw option and then not use that coverage, opting instead for your CC company's coverage, or you asking if you can declline the rental car company's coverage and still collect from your CC company's insurance.

Read you credit card company's agreement carefully. I think it says that to have them cover you, you have to decline the rental car company's cdw. If you don't (or can't), I think you credit card company can deny to cover anything.

Also read it carefully to see HOW you collect. I read mine years ago, and I was appalled to read that they can deny coverage if you fail to provide them with any documentation they require. And you have to pay the damages first, then try to collect from your CC company (who are not in the business of paying insurance claims). Imagine trying to explain to someone in an Italian police department, who doesn't speal English, the exact documentation that your credit card company is demanding that you provide.

Hopefully, someone will come on with a success story and explain exactly how they succeeded in getting their CC company to pay the claim.

We have rented through Andy Bestor at Gemut a few times. Highly recommend this co.

We also used our AmEx card for the rental and used their Premium Car Rental Protection for the rental car insurance.

We had just one minor problem with a rental car and sending a single email to Andy Bestor was all I needed to do to have it resolved. They are SO helpful and good at what they do at Gemut.com

Paul

A word about using Gemut. On numerous occasions, I have asked for a quote from Gemut (but, truthfully only to see what I would save by not renting a car - a lot). I have always specifically asked for a quote with full CDW coverage. (If I use the train, I have no further liability; I want an equivalent liability situation if I rent a car, otherwise it's not a apples-to-apples comparison.) Gemut has always refused to quote with full CDW coverage (but even without, they were way more than using public transportation); they have always quoted a rate without cdw, using my credit card instead, which was not what I asked for!

I recently rented a car from Europecar through Autoeurope and paid a premium for full coverage. When I picked up the car in Bologna, Europecar charged me additional for this coverage stating that if the car was damaged I would have to pay them even though I'd paid for full coverage then be reimbursed by Autoeurope. Watch out for this scam.

I've been renting from AutoEurope (dot com, not dot eu) for years and have never had any problem omitting the CDW option, since my credit cards already cover that. Have you tried using the .com domain instead of .eu?