Car rental insurance

Yes, in Italy you must take CDW. Your personal car insurance will not cover you and the coverage from any credit card you may use will not be sufficient. In fact, if you do not take the full coverage, they will put a hold of several thousand euros on your card in case you have an accident. They will also go over every square cm of the car upon return and try to charge you for the tiniest scratch.

Take the "super coverage" as it is sometimes known and relax knowing you have nothing to worry about.

BTW, the trains are wonderful. Do you really need a car for the entire trip?

I did not purchase the additional insurance and had the car for 2 weeks. Sorrento to Cisternino for 10 days. I think it is an unnecessary and expensive purchase. I consulted my USA insurance co and was told they cover as if I was in the USA. Check with your own insurance company before securing or signing anything.

Have a great trip.

Lorie

My first accident in Italy was 10 minutes after picking up the car (minor bumper bash in traffic, her fault, we both looked at it and shrugged). If it's not required, I would certainly feel better having "local" insurance in Italy. There are certain countries where you have to buy the insurance.

Leasing is best for the length of time you have for the rental. Leasing will reduce the tax. CDW usually comes with the rental and is mandatory. Italy also typically adds Theft insurance for an extra fee per day. look at www.autoeurope.com for leasing options.

Before dismissing the CDW as unnecessary, do yourself a favor and download the guide to renting a car in Europe at Gemut.com. I found it enormously useful and the service by Gemut exceptional. We have rented from them twice in Italy.

Someone we were traveling with decided to use a different company against our advice and turned down the insurance, relying on his own U.S. coverage. At the time the car was turned in it was a huge hassle as they tried to blame him for every possible scratch, even though at time of rental he was told the scratches were already noted and not to worry. Plus he had a Euro 6000 hold put on his credit card during the time of the rental.

Just saying, weigh the risks. You're in a foreign country and if there are problems, language will become a barrier unless you are quite fluent.

Jenn, for 4-5 weeks it is not necessarily correct that leasing is cheaper. This is because leasing pick ups and drop offs outside France cost around $350 each. So, $700 to pick up in Milan and then drop off in Rome.

I think American Express offers auto rental insurance which will cover Italy.
You need to add it through AE and use their card to rent auto.

If you do not use the insurances offered by the rental company they will put a substantial hold on your credit card at the time of pick up. This could be anywhere from 6000-14000 depending on the type of car you rent. This is so the rental company can collect if there is any damage and your home insurance doesn't cover it. If there is damage you'll need to pay the claim and then get the money back from your insurance, something which could take weeks.

We rented a van this June and while we were visiting Val D'Orcia someone tried to park in the spot next to use but were too small. The dented the entire side of the van. We saw this when we returned to the car. We had taken out the extra insurances (not the one that covers the tires and the loss of personal belongings, but the next tier down) so when we turned in the car the man looked at the form, looked at the damages and said we were covered and there was nothing else for us to do. The extra insurance was not expensive and was certainly well worth it.

Donna

AMEX specifically excludes Italy from the countries covered by their rental car insurance, so not an option. However, we recently had a good experience using the rental car insurance that comes with our Chase/United Mileage + card. We declined the non-mandatory insurance, as instructed, when picking up the car. We did sustain some minor damage - - minor but running to 400 euros, which was reimbursed to us within about 6 weeks after filing the claim. The reason I prefer to rely on insurance other than that offered by the rental company is that it usually adds enormously to the rental cost. For our most recent trip I calculated it would have been another 200 euros for 10 days.