Car Rental Insurance in Italy

Rental car CDW insurance is required on vehicles rented in Italy--per government regulations. However the cost of the insurance is less than in other countries, which would make me think the government has some power in pricing.
I would suggest you go onto AutoEurope.com and call one of their New England based agents and ask about German rentals going into Italy. I'm thinking you can turn down CDW.
What many people don't realize is that your home insurance policy may be effective for most European car rentals--except in some old Eastern European countries and Northern Ireland. You would need to check with your insurance company to verify your coverages. In that case, your credit card rental coverage would be secondary to your home insurance company.

Sometimes I rent through AutoEurope and sometimes through Hertz' Gold Card on my old company's fleet program. I go with which is the less expensive.

First off make sure the rental company Hertz or otherwise knows of your plans to drive to Italy in advance.
Some car types you likely will not be allowed to rent, rate will increase but not doing you could get in big trouble if something where to happen insurance or no insurance.
(I know this first hand as I rented a car in Italy to be returned to Italy but we planned on driving for a weekend into Slovenia, I had to change to a lower car type and paid more for the lower car)

Capital One insurance does not cover Italy I am 90% sure, Amex I am 100% sure does not so unless you have a card that does and also know that anything that does is a you pay first, collect receipts and get reimbursed at a later date if they approve kind of situation.
Lacking that type of card you should buy insurance when renting the car.
I have never heard of a US home insurance policy covering a rental car in Europe before, given the cost of car rental insurance I would not chance it since a filing such a claim will surely increase your future home insurance bills.
Auto Europe usually gives rates lower than Hertz directly for Hertz cars or at least close but the big advantage is they charge you less for insurance and you can buy the insurance online. I believe Hertz makes you buy insurance at the counter in Italy and you have no advance clue how much it will cost.

Tony,

A few thoughts.....

Are you planning on renting the car in Germany and dropping off in Italy? Dropping in a different country often comes with a hefty charge, so that's something to consider.

if you haven't driven in Italy before, note that each driver listed on the rental contract will need the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. These are easily obtained at any AAA office for a small fee and are valid for one year. I don't know where "Tell City" is located, but I'm assuming there's an AAA office nearby?

You'll also need to do some research on things like ZTL (limited traffic) areas as hefty fines will result for each pass through one, and you may not find out about these until several months after you return home. Do NOT drive in Florence as the city is just about saturated with automated ZTL cameras. There are also speed cameras on the motorways, tolls, parking and similar pitfalls to be aware of. The speed cameras include the devious Traffic Tutor system which measures not only instantaneous speed, but also average between two points. Violate either of both, and hefty tickets will follow.

You may find it helpful to contact http://www.gemut.com/ at their toll-free number, as they're very knowledgeable about car rental in Europe. They also offer a free rental car guide in PDF which can be downloaded. I've always found them to be an excellent source of information.

I have never heard of a US home insurance policy covering a rental car in Europe before

Ditto, pretty sure this is never true.

Hi Tony. My understanding is that the special Italy insurance rules apply only to cars rented in Italy. I have rented in both Switzerland and Germany using my credit card insurance and driven the car in Italy with no problem. But since credit card insurance varies by card, best thing to do is call your credit card company and ask, and/or review the written benefits folder that came with your credit card. Likely you will be fine using your cc insurance, but you won't know for sure until you check. Enjoy your trip!

Your credit card insurance should be fine. Bear in mind that most credit cards are secondary insurance, meaning that you deal with it and then get reimbursed. Some are primary, such as Chase's Explorer Visa and Amex, which are much preferable as they will deal direct with the rental company. You may indeed be covered by your home auto insurance. I have called Geico regarding our rental in Italy and been assured that we're covered under our NH car policy.

First of all, I would make absolutely sure your credit card will provide coverage in Italy. Generally, usually, but not always, credit cards do not provide coverage in Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Israel. After driving many times in Italy and a few times in Ireland I understand why they won't provide coverage.

Taking a car in one country and dropping it off in another country involves a hefty charge, so you should investigate the added cost against some other transportation to Italy, where you can pick-up another car.

Lastly, we rent a car every year in Italy through Autoeurope and we ALWAYS purchase the Zero liability for the added peace of mind.

Buon viaggio,

<<Your credit card insurance should be fine

Here is clip from the Amex website, 12/2/16:

Not all vehicle types or rentals are covered. Coverage is not available for vehicles rented in Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, and New Zealand. This product provides secondary coverage and does not include liability coverage.

There is also the annoyingly hazy issue that rental companies in Italy are, somehow, required to provide some partial CDW coverage with every single rental. That appears to result in failing to follow the credit card company's instructions to "decline". But that may not be true, if you handle it in a way satisfactory to the credit card company.

Your credit card insurance should be fine. Bear in mind that most
credit cards are secondary insurance, meaning that you deal with it
and then get reimbursed. Some are primary, such as Chase's Explorer
Visa and Amex, which are much preferable as they will deal direct with
the rental company. You may indeed be covered by your home auto
insurance. I have called Geico regarding our rental in Italy and been
assured that we're covered under our NH car policy.

Mike I have to disagree with most everything you wrote.
1.) Most credit card insurance in fact specifically exclude Italy (and Ireland for that matter)
2.) Secondary insurance means nothing if you don't have primary insurance for a foreign rental
3.) Primary insurance from a 3rd party like a credit card does not mean what you say in Europe, primary credit card coverage mean you pay on your credit card, you then collect and submit all of the paperwork to be reimbursed by Chase or whoever the card issuer is with primary insurance. The card will not work with Hertz, Avis or whomever you will work with the card to get your money back.
What you describe only works if you buy insurance from the rental agency.
4.) Hope that works out for you with your home car rental policy covering an Italian rental.

I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred which is one of the very few US issued cards that have primary coverage in Italy for car rentals but this works as I describe above, I looked into it rather thoroughly and as Tim states above even their policy states You must decline ALL coverage which for Italy is not possible so actually filing a claim they could pull some fine print at you.

mreynolds, you are partly correct in that my explanation of secondary was off. However, your understanding of country exclusions needs updating as Italy is no longer excluded from many policies. Also, lately more credit cards have started offering primary coverage. Rather than stir this pot any further, I suggest anyone interested should look at AutoEurope's information about rental insurance. The section url is here: http://www.autoeurope.com/go/travel-tips/ and a Visa specific credit card article is here: http://www.autoeurope.com/go/visa-rental-car-insurance/

I just read it and it only shows 2 cards (both issued by Chase, one of which I mentioned already) as having Primary coverage in Italy. Both of these are "signature" cards which is Chase's premium level.
AMEX as stated above as of today's date still excludes Italy and AMEX is considered the gold standard of rental car coverage due to their card holder friendly policies. Discover still excludes Italy. Capital One I am fairly certain does not even have a card that offers Primary insurance.
Very few US cards are primary, a few consumer ones from Chase a couple others and then the rest are business cards that give primary when renting cars overseas for business purposes which probably is useless for people on this forum.
Obviously each reader should check with their card holder to see if their card offers primary rental insurance and also to make sure Italy is not excluded.

Also my main issue is how you described the primary and secondary coverage working in Italy maybe for Europe in general you are correct but not Italy. Primary in Italy at least means you pay a deductible on your card which is held from your available credit for your rental period, you are responsible either out of pocket or on your card for any damage and then you on your have to submit paperwork for the bank (chase or other) to reimburse you at a later date.
I am not saying to always buy insurance if you have a card with primary insurance in Italy just that a.) most cards do not and b.) those that do still don't make it easy should anything happen.
Secondary coverage in Italy means nothing as it wouldn't kick in until after the primary insurance or if you did not have primary insurance and since Italy requires and provides the coverage to you with a deductible which you cannot decline by law secondary is useless.

To calm fear somewhat the fact that Italy automatically gives you coverage (with a fairly high deductible) means even with no insurance at all your responsibility is much less than the cost of a new car should something go wrong ; which is a good thing for the consumer. You might be out 800 - 1200 euro or so that the deductible is if worse case scenario happens.
Your rate in Italy will always include coverage but with a deductible, the extra fees at the insurance counter are only to pay that deductible down. Most offer a couple of less for either a smaller deductible or a zero deductible.
Many don't pay extra since the maximum risk of loss is not that high.

Only primary credit card or other 3rd party insurance could possibly reimburse you if you have to pay the deductible or a portion of the deductible due to damage.

My last point regarding a home or car policy from the US, even if this were to reimburse you for your paid deductible expenses filing such a claim would be a horrible idea. As I mentioned you are likely going to be paying a few hundred euro should something be damaged during your rental and you did not pay the agency to reduce your deductible.
Since your home or auto policy likely also has a deductible it may not help you at all and filing any claim like that is sure to increase your rate in future years so would cost you more money in the long run to file a claim for a small amount of money.

Our car insurance in the US covers us for rentals including rentals abroad; of course there is a deductible and all that and we would have to submit bills and get reimbursed, but it is rather common for home CAR insurance (not homeowners insurance) to cover rental cars.

jane, that's great. Perhaps the auto insurance system is is better shape in Illinois than it is in New Jersey ... But I'm very anxious to avoid any claim whatsoever on my insurance if I possibly can. The multi-year penalties are too great for us. (On the plus side, I've correspondingly increased our deductibles, since I wouldn't make a claim unless the car were practically destroyed!)

One reason this is a controversial topic is that there are enough complaints (I mean, rants on travel sites, like this one) about rental companies either using a fine-toothed comb to "find" scratches on cars, or outright fraud in alleging damages (or loss of use, never mind damage ... ) that didn't actually occur. You also have to add in the problems with (you and me) driving in an unfamiliar place, reading signs we're not previously tested on, and driving on streets older than the entire United States Of America! Have you seen how narrow the aisles and stalls are in under-medieval-town-square indoor parking garages?

You might want to investigate what your home insurance policy will do for liability, theft, glass damage, tire damage, undercarriage damage, and so forth, in a foreign country. It's hard to believe, but true, that all those things are separate fees at many rental companies that are striving to "look" the cheapest on online comparison sites!

The OP is renting in Germany, so Amex's Premium Car Rental Protection would likely cover the car as it only excludes 'vehicles rented in Italy'. Obviously that needs to be verified. This article in Oct. 2015 on creditcards.com lists six Visa cards that provide primary coverage and provides a coherent explanation of primary and secondary insurance http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/car-rental-insurance-coverage-1273.php

I recently got a United Mileage Plus Explorer card because of the primary insurance and they currently offer 30,000 free miles when you get it, as well as no foreign currency transaction fee, and some other goodies. At $100. per year it was a no-brainer as our easiest flight to Italy is on Lufthansa or Swiss which are available with United's FF program.

This link implies that Geico does not cover foreign car rentals:

Geico

I'm really, really skeptical that anyone's US policy covers foreign rentals except for Canada.

I'm also thinking that a lot of the primary/secondary discussion here is not on solid ground. If there is no primary coverage the secondary automatically becomes primary, i.e. if there is insurance then there is always some insurance acting in a primary capacity in every crash.

Amex primary add on insurance will deal with the car rental agency and handle a lot of the paperwork, so that's why people buy it. Other primary insurance from a credit card, unless it also offers to work with the rental agency on your behalf, has no increased value over ordinary credit card coverage outside of the US. It's only value in that case is to act as the primary insurance domestically when your personal home auto insurance is in effect to keep a rental car crash off your insurance record.

I have a Citibank PremierPass (Expedia) MasterCard which provides worldwide car rental insurance. I use it for all my travel. I called Citibank to verify that they do not exclude any countries such as Italy, and they stated Italy is covered as is all countries. No exceptions. They provide "primary" coverage and because Italy has mandatory coverage requirements and you must decline the car rental's coverage, Citibank requires you contact them at their card benefits department on line or call them and they will issue you a letter verifying coverage by them, and the letter is good for only 30 days. I needed to know this myself as I will be renting a Hertz in Agrigento, Sicily March 2017 and dropping it off at the Cantania, CT airport. So here is another bank card to consider.

Title of the post states Car Insurance in Italy so while may not be so helpful to the OP I think the thread should make sense for other readers by having it be accurate for Italy.
To the Op who we know is renting in Germany but don't know where they are dropping off , their questions really need to be brought up to whomever they rent from as they must inform them of their plans to travel to Italy and likely will incur additional costs for doing so.

The points I am making are unique to Italy because Italy requires and gives included with your rental Primary Insurance that cannot be declined!
This carries with it a sizable deductible so when you pay extra for insurance in Italy you are not paying for insurance but rather paying to reduce or eliminate that deductible.
Any home or car policy from the US likely has a deductible as well, so the mere thought of filing a claim for an amount below or not much over your US policy's deductible makes absolutely no sense, your annual rate will increase for years and you will pay more in the long run for doing this. Those policies you would submit a claim if the loss was a large amount but since Italy includes insurance your loss would never be large enough for it to make sense. Even if you are covered, which I don't think you are it doesn't matter it would never be worth filing a claim for what we are talking about.

Also for Italy only, secondary insurance means nothing because you have primary insurance on your rental which you cannot decline. A secondary policy will not pay for a primary policies deductible.
Any company telling you any differently doesn't understand or know that in Italy with a rental you are already getting primary insurance.

So the only option is primary through a credit card or primary through a 3rd party policy like a trip insurance plan that includes rental car coverage.
The sticky issue here is in Italy primary insurance is included as stated, can you decline that even with a letter I am not sure, I have heard stories of folks that are told at the counter it is just not possible to decline letter or not.
What happens when your US credit card that does offer primary and not secondary insurance does not pay your claim because you didn't decline insurance since you were not allowed to. I am also not sure, they may understand and pay or may decline due to this. But either way any primary insurance not through the car renting source is the type where you pay first, collect receipts and submit your claim after the fact for the insurance to pay you back.

Point of my entire post and the carry away for most anyone:
A.) Italy includes insurance so worst case scenario you are out the deductible only if you don't pay for extra insurance
This may be 800 euro, it might be 1200 euro should something horrible happen but much less than the cost of a new car.
If you have a credit card that offers primary insurance use it and you may even get lucky and not have to pay should something happen.
B.) if 800 or 1200 euro is very scary for you, just pay at the counter or when making your reservation to eliminate the deductible instead of trying to figure out ways for you to be covered elsewhere. Folks who are risk adverse and those that value there post trip time should go for this option.

We have actually rented a car in another country (France), and driven it to Italy. At the time, I made very sure to be clear on the insurance questions. The bottom line was that it didn't matter where we drove to, with the exception of specifically forbidden countries, mostly eastern Europe. Italy's insurance requirement had no relevance.
We always rely on either the insurance provided by our cc or the AMEX Premium Insurance. With 3 "incidents" we've haven't had a problem getting the charges fully covered. My advice is that you check with your cc provider; then make a decision.

mreynolds, There is confusion evident here about the terms Primary and Secondary. In connection with credit card insurance coverage for a rental car, Secondary means that first you must claim against other insurance coverage that you may have and Primary means that you go directly to the credit card insurance.

In your last comment, when you said, "Italy requires and gives included with your rental Primary Insurance that cannot be declined" I think you meant that Italy requires that, except for a deductible, CDW insurance be included in the rental.

I don't know why anyone would be 'skeptical' that their home car insurance doesn't cover rentals abroad. Either it does or it doesn't; this is an empirical matter. Read your policy, talk to your agent. Now whether it is prudent to use is another matter and I quite understand the hesitation. We rarely get separate coverage but have on occasion as part of travel insurance purchased for other reasons.

We are very aggressive about documenting every tiny scratch having been hosed in the past for things we didn't do. Last year in Hawaii while I was insisting on documenting a few scratches the agent noticed major undercarriage damage that had not been picked up when the car was returned; he told us that without that being documented we would have had a bill for $1500 for the damage and it is not covered on the insurance because they exclude 'off road use' damage which that was. Apparently he was going to go after the previous driver for it. When I insisted on documenting in Rome; the agent brought out a stamp for our paperwork that said that no scratch smaller than 5cm would be charged. They had the stamp but only brought it out if you were nitpicky. Photos are of no use -- but careful documentation signed off before you leave the agency is useful. And we always return the cars to live people and get a receipt that we are gassed and undamaged.

"mreynolds, There is confusion evident here about the terms Primary and Secondary. In connection with credit card insurance coverage for a rental car, Secondary means that first you must claim against other insurance coverage that you may have and Primary means that you go directly to the credit card insurance.

In your last comment, when you said, "Italy requires and gives included with your rental Primary Insurance that cannot be declined" I think you meant that Italy requires that, except for a deductible, CDW insurance be included in the rental."

I am sorry but I think you are 100% incorrect.
The provided insurance which you cannot turn down covers damage to the vehicle and acts as primary insurance (with a deductible) therefore secondary coverage can never kick in. This renders a secondary policy useless it cannot be used to pay for your primary's deductible which is really your only risk as a renter in Italy.

You are also totally incorrect about the paperwork. Primary from a credit card or a 3rd party on an Italian still means you Mike have to pay the rental company the deductible, collect paperwork and then submit your claim to the insurance orcredit card provider. The responsibility to do that is completely on the card holder along with deadlines and paperwork requirements - Chase will likely refer you to their insurance company when you claim for processing so you probably will be working with another provider. You are only in this case paying the rental company the deductible at max.
As I mentioned secondary in Italy basically doesn't count.

Italy is just unique in that it provides mandatory insurance for you already, comparing it to other countries doesn't work, as mentioned the good thing is if you buy extra insurance it is not a new plan just reducing the deductible. And if you don't buy any extra you only are responsible for the deductible.
To the OP none of Italy's rules when renting may matter if he is renting from and returning to Germany and just driving through Italy, German normal rules may apply so he needs to make sure of that with his rental company. Make sure to get a vignette for driving through Austria on your way.

I love trains. :O)

My sentiments exactly, Kathy.

But there are times and places when I'd be tempted if I could drive a manual.

Some more issues, as this has devolved into a general insurance topic:

1. CDW or LDW may have many exclusions, and not just for off road use or having an unauthorized driver. Vandalism, or glass, or storm damage (hail, falling tree, water), or tires may not be covered at all. The policy may not be very clear on this, and also the policy on the US website may be different from the one in effect at a franchise in another country in another language

2. Many credit cards recognize that insurance may be required to rent, and in this case waive the "must decline the insurance" clause. Although like all insurance, you won't know what you will have covered until something happens and find out how the personnel involved interpret the language and what exceptions they will make for you.

3. The primary Amex coverage is owned by Amex itself, not a vendor.

4. I have searched all kinds of different ways for home (non-travel) US auto insurance that covers foreign rentals and come up empty. I am skeptical because I suspect it was miscommunication over the phone with the insurance company if someone thinks this is true for their policy.

I agree with Tom's points which are good to know.
1.) This is true but does vary from policy to policy ; some cover Windshields and other glass others do not same as tires and undercarriage and worst case it cannot be more than your deductible. I believe Auto Europe has a all included option without any exclusions.

3.) Amex does handle their primary car insurance differently than Chase, Citi and all of the other credit card issuers. They are considered the gold standard in this regard UNFORTUNATELY they exclude Italy