Car rental insurance

It is generally impossible to opt out of basic CDW, but these come with high deductibles, often 1,500 euros. Visa will cover those deductibles, so you will be able to decline any extra coverage.

As for the rental co. offices: they often share the same premises, especially at train stations, and Avis/Budget & Entreprise/National are always the same.

There have been numerous discussions on thus topic during the past year:

https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=1y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Car+insurance+italy&utf8=%E2%9C%93

It may be the case that in Italy the rental agency may require a letter of coverage from your credit card company. Do your research.

Thanks for the links. I think I read through everyone of them. However I don’t think the question is answered at all. Costco Citi card does cover Italy. Companies like Budget include basic insurance at no cost which can’t be declined. Citi says that all other coverage must be declined. Some people report that their credit card covers the difference the deductible or shortfall of the rental company insurance but Citi benefits operators say otherwise. They seem to say they won’t cover crap unless they are the only insurer.

In addition to the scams mentioned in the links I heard that even with full coverage and a $50 scratch they charge $100 “administrative” fee to process the ”free” fix. I suppose you could try to read the contract in Italian and find that section and scratch it out then take photos of the contract to show your card company later in a dispute.

And I do indeed have an email from credit card company but you buy the insurance online before arrival. I learned this years ago where rebooking in france might be $30 a day but matching into a rental office was $100/day. I have never noticed a big to check for your own outside Insursnce.

I think this is an impossibility in Italy, read here for example (Gemut is a well-known car rental broker).

there's also the business of primary vs. secondary insurance, I bet a rental company would put the repairs/loss charge on your credit card and then expect you to haggle with MC/Visa about payment. Or worse yet, your home insurance company who will try their darndest not to pay anything.

Whereas the coverage the rental company sells is supposed to be pay it, toss them the keys and walk away it's not my problem.

Also, the local outfits are not really Hertz and Avis even if the signage says so, they are usually licensees or franchisees and once you get back home, the US mothership will disavow any knowledge of their actions.

When you buy the insurance online it is not even part of the rental. It is third party. You usually pay upfront on it and the car rent company knows nothing about it at all. Even if you show them a copy of payment they know nothing. So when you show up they will naturally offer you their policy.
Also someone said $1500 excess is exorbitant. It is not to me. It is a risk I can absorb if push comes to shove.

I posted this question back in January AFTER I had done some preliminary research. My query to the forum included the links to the research that I had performed.

See https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/italian-car-rental-insurance. You may have seen this already.

There is, of course, insurance and insurance. Is your concern liability coverage in case you cause a bad accident with bad injuries and you are financially at risk? Or is it just the collision damage waiver type of coverage if you scrape a fender in an incredibly tight parking lot? We went as bare is possible with Italian coverage because the rental company was obligated to carry pretty extensive liability coverage per Italian law and the links in my post. Also, our Costco credit card provided coverage for a rental in Italy. You should check your own cards and the relevant VISA or AMEX policy - particularly the one you will actually use - and decide accordingly.

We got as little as we could get away with, because we had the Costco card that you have. I don’t remember if that was none or whether we were required to get the CDW type of insurance. Fortunately, nothing happened to us or the car, so I don’t know if we made a mistake. I don’t think we made any mistake.

As I mentioned, I actually called Costco‘s Visa benefits department several times about this. They say there should be no coverage at all from the car rental company. It sounded like there was some sort of conflict of interest for turf battle over who would cover what if they were two insurance companies involved. The conclusion seemed to be to not rent with a company that has any sort of mandatory insurance baked in.

I’ve checked a bunch of different carinal companies and some of them go up as high as about €700 for a week with all the insurance. At this point,

I’m also a bit burned by renting a car many years ago where I drove into Bologna and parked walked around for an hour or two and left and then later got about $500 worth of tickets for entering the control zone. I never saw any signs or barricades And I didn’t drive through any place. It looked like it was an important city center. They were just some back alleys and then it was a huge hassle even just paying off those tickets since they wouldn’t take checks, credit cards, wire transfers.

I think I’m just gonna skip the entire rental car for Sardinia. I’ve been to Sicily three times and never Had a rental car and it worked out fine. You just need to find out when and where the buses stop and how to deal with that.

Our Canadian "First Class Visa Travel Infinite" credit card will not cover the deductible. We phoned to find out details. It usually has great coverage, but not for Italian rental cars. So we spent a few extra $$ to purchase the Super Zero deductible insurance online from Auto Europe when we booked our rental car for Italy.

But some of the companies charge more for that super-coverage insurance than the entire car rental. A $350 rental might become a $750 rental with that insurance.

Go with your comfort level. I would rather pay for extra insurance. If I don't have to make a claim, that means my trip went smoothly. It's worth having peace of mind. Paying $400 for extra insurance is much less than the €1000 (minimum) deductible fee.

However, there are advantages to taking public transit. No worries about buying gas, parking, speeding tickets, and ZTL!