Car rental

It is very likely that your Credit Card CDW coverage does not work in Italy, it is a country often excluded, you can verify with your card company. I believe insurance is also mandatory, so your options are to either spring for the rental car company CDW, or find a third party insurer that will sell you a package. For ease, I would opt for a zero deductible policy from the rental company, expensive, but worry free.

Also do some research on ZTLs, they can rack up costs fast and wind up costing much more than the rental and the insurance.

I believe that Italy has stricter requirements than other European countries as to what types of coverage is mandatory, so the included coverage through the car rental company may be sufficient.

It has been while since i checked but the basic CDW in Italy may be mandatory as posted above. When i looked into this a few years ago, i found that the base cost of car rental with mandatory cdw in italy was about same as base cost of rental without cdw in other surrounding countries. However there may still be some excess deductible charge in case of accident.

Check out your credit card benefits. Also check out your home car policy which may have car rental coverage. If you pay for car rental extra, you may find yourself double or triple covered.

The RS website has a good explanation on car rental issues: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/car-rental-cdw

JE,

Regarding the insurance, Gemut.com states......

"In both Italy and Israel, CDW and theft coverage must be purchased from the rental company. Some credit cards offer coverage in Italy, but it means nothing because all major rental companies require the purchase of CDW and theft insurance. The only question left is will your credit card reimburse the deductible in case of damage or theft? Apparently Visa will, but confirm with them. This a murky area."

You may want to contact Gemut.com on their toll free number or by E-mail to confirm this.

Also, it's important to note that for driving in Italy, each driver listed on the rental form must have the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. These are valid for one year, and easily obtained at any CAA/AAA office (two Passport-sized photos required, which may be provided by the issuing office).

You may also want to have a look at some of the other posts here concerning the dreaded Zona Traffico Limitato (limited traffic) areas that are becoming increasingly prevalent in many Italian towns & cities especially Florence, which is almost saturated with automated ZTL cameras. EACH PASS through one of the automated Cameras will result in a €100+ ticket, which you won't know about until several months after you return home! This website provides more information - http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/driving/traffic_cameras_speeding.htm

You may find this recent thread interesting......

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/italian-traffic-violations-outrageous-amounts-on-non-violations

Most people get caught up with the CDW issue (ie car damage and theft), but also consider the liability coverage (injury claim by third party e.g you hit and injure somebody). I believe the minimum liabiity coverage for the Italian car rental that i looked at several years ago was a healthy million. However, it may depend upon the company and the minimum liability coverage can change. I am renting a car in Hawaii next week and was shocked to learn that the liablity coverage is only the state minimum​ which is about $15,000. I was able to arrange for $1 million coverage through my home car insurance.

It has been several years since I had a rental car in Italy ( through Hertz), but as I recall the rental rate included the liability coverage and a CDW that had a 2000-3000 Euro "deductible". The rental agencies also offer a "super coverage" or "excess coverage" ( name varies by agency) that reduces the customer's responsibility to zero. Then it cost $15+ PER DAY.

Here is a source of coverage for the gap in the CDW that is much less expensive .( bettersafe.com) There are others if you search.

Your US auto policy will NOT cover you. All my credit cards ( V, MC, AMEX) exclude Italy from coverage, so I suspect yours do too.

Your choice is to go with the basic included coverage and be on the hook for up to $3000 in damage to the rental car, buy the rental agency coverage, or buy a policy from a source like bettersafe.com. I have no affiliation with them: It just the 1st one I came across when I did a search. My documents from my Italy trip are stored away, so do not have access to which carrier I used. As I recall the coverage i purchased cost for the entire week the same or less than one day of the rental agency fee.

ERAC should be able to explain what coverages are included and what your potential exposure is, if you buy no other optional coverage.

check your credit card benefits. it is absolutely not true that all US credit cards don't cover car rentals in italy. capital one, for one, does. there are others as well. even if you waive collision damage insurance, the max you will pay for collision is 2,000 euros.

We always purchase the zero deductible for the peace of mind. It is more expensive and we feel it is worth every cent.

Buon viaggio,

A fair amount of misinformation has been posted regarding this simple question. It doesn't help the OP to respond with speculation. It doesn't help to compare insurance from one country to another since the OP is only concerned with Italy. Italy's rates include CDW with a deductible - usually 1,000 to 1,200 Euro, depending on the vehicle. Some US credit cards do cover Italy, but it will vary even within the same credit card provider. FWIW Chase Explorer Visa does cover Italy. If your credit card doesn't cover it, you can cover it by purchasing extended coverage from the rental company or the broker.

Last September, we rented with https://m.europcar.com.
I usually use auto europe or Kimwel but prices were much better. What I liked, was you could choose the level of ins you wanted. Their mid level was just what we wanted.
Check their prices against enterprise.

This and similar questions cause a little of controversy, sometimes misinformation though not intended, etc....

Italy is a little complicated so here is the easiest way to think of it.
Despite all of the options for coverage I have not ever heard of any that are different from what I describe.

if you want to pay a bit extra but have total peace of mind, you want drive away with no paperwork or hassleyour end the only option is to pay the rental car company extra for ZERO EXCESS insurance.

Anyone else's coverage, don't care what credit card you have or 3rd party policy you were sold it will be at best a refundable excess coverage. Meaning you pay for any damages up to a deductible and then have to submit paperwork to the insurer to get your money back. This could require accident reports, police report, repair receipts, etc... Basically not driveaway coverage.

The 3rd option is to risk it ; which while Italy is higher likelihood of having an issue ; the potential loss is not that great. Insurance coverage is included by law, it just carries a good sized deductible, figure 1000-1200 euro or so you could be on the hook for.

Best to think of options 1 and 2 as you are just reducing that deductible, not really buying separate coverage.

even if you waive collision damage insurance, the max you will pay for collision damage is 2,000 euros.

yes. this is true. most, if not all international car rental companies will only put you on the hook for a maximum of 2,000 euros for collision damage even when you waive the CDW. they have their own insurance over that amount (which makes sense as they are renting you an asset worth sometimes upwards of 20,000 euros).

so, you are paying an insurance policy for potentially max 2,000 euros out of pocket.

insurance is often not a good deal economically. but, it does have a "peace of mind" value.

mreynolds, you raise a good point regarding the type of additional coverage offered by credit cards and other third parties. There are now credit cards that offer 'primary coverage' including Amex (but not for Italy) and Chase Explorer Visa (includes Italy) and others. Primary coverage means that the credit card company will take over dealing with the rental car company and eliminates much of the hassle, including that of paying-first-reimbursed-later. That said, the renter must still pay attention to the requirements of the insurance policy (whether credit card or car rental company), such as filing a police report, to qualify.

Meaning you pay for any damages up to a deductible and then have to
submit paperwork to the insurer to get your money back

Not true for Amex ever, I've read also not true for someone's VISA
card. I have also read that even Super CDW can require all the
paperwork so not walk away. Fortunately no personal experience.

While you are correct about AMEX and how they handle Primary insurance ; AMEX does not cover Italy !!!
VISA/MC: they don't handle it this way. Charges are charged to you the card holder on your card and it is your responsibility to submit the claim paperwork, I know this as factual for Chase Bank at least which is the one most often cited and own multiple Chase Visa cards that have PRIMARY not secondary coverage for Italy.
Secondary coverage for Italy on a credit card is useless so I am talking primary credit card coverages only for Italy.

it is true even with the Zero Excess coverage there can be exclusions like tires, glass, etc... but that varies from policy to policy and really gets into a deeper discussion than the OP likely wanted which is why I tried to simplify the topic with my reply.

Tom, you made my point
Secondary coverage only kicks in after primary.
Since you automatically get primary insurance with rentals in Italy BY LAW and you cannot decline it from what I have heard, secondary would never kick in and therefore is useless for Italy.
The trick is the included primary has a large deductible. Having an alternative primary could act in the place of the other primary meaning you would not be responsible for a deductible, but a secondary policy cannot cover a primary's deductible.
Hope that makes sense.

The technicality of not being able to decline the car rental provided automatic coverage is concerning even for those with cards with primary coverage. I have never seen a card policy that does not state you must decline all other insurances in order for the card to be primary ; I would hope the issuing bank would look past this loop hole since you cannot decline in Italy.

The amount of 2000 euro mentioned definitely seems high to me, on a recent rental the amount of deductible; max I would be on the hook for was 1200 euro with nothing extra purchased and that was a Volvo so not a base rental. I think a basic rental is probably more in the 800-1000 euro range.

a secondary policy cannot cover a primary's deductible.
Why would this statement be true?

You would have to pay the included insurance deductible yourself and then submit a claim to the secondary insurance for the deductible amount.
Because you accepted the car rental companies policy in order to have a deductible ; which is something your card states will make their secondary coverage null and void ; I cannot see them paying this to you.

I agree with you that with primary coverage you should be able to use that in lieu of a policy that you cannot decline but having that policy and then getting a secondary policy to cover the deductible later sounds like trying to have your cake and eat it too and I don't see any credit cards giving into that.
If anyone has done that and had success getting their deductible reimbursed having only secondary coverage I will gladly eat my words and apologize.

The information provided in the discussions above MAY be correct depending upon your credit card. That is why it is important to read your credit card policy wording and to call your credit card company to find out whether you have full coverage (in Italy) AND what to do in the event of an accident.

The most expensive option is to pay for the super excess coverage by the car rental company which is above the mandatory CDW to avoid any deductible. But then you are paying $15-20 per day which really adds to the rental costs. BTW, there is usually extra daily charge for a second driver. AND they can also sell you extra coverage to cover tire damage. There are so many posts of people complaining that they thought they booked a rental car $350 and end up getting talked into paying $800 when they show up to pick up their car. It is fear and ignorance which that creates the extra profits for the car rental cos.

If you do not have the credit card coverage or do not trust it, another option is to check with you car insurer back home or with your local auto association. They can add an optional coverage to cover collision damage. In BC, it is called Roadstar, costs about $20 for the year and covers all collision damage or theft of car rentals for the full year. In addition, there is $1 million public liability coverage. This is only a couple bucks more than relying on the credit card but much cheaper than buying the car rental coverage.

I checked with my card, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and was told they realized you cannot waive CDW in Italy so as long as I did not accept additional coverage the card insurance would be in force.

We are flying to Italy TODAY!! Excited and anxious. We will be renting a car through SIXT. I hope we won't have too much trouble as we have never done this before.