Please sign in to post.

Auto rental insurance in Scotland

We recently rented a car through Avis at the Glasgow airport. I had been concerned about CDW coverage for the rental. I checked with several travel insurance companies who offer CDW coverage, finding that many did not provide coverage in Scotland. Others were not authorized to issue insurance for residents of Washington state.

I contacted Visa and confirmed that their CDW coverage benefit applied in Scotland so we decided to use it. Visa sent us a confirmation of coverage letter which I presented at the Avis counter. They accepted it with no problem and with no pressure to purchase their coverage. Fortunately, we did not have any accidents or damage that required a claim. If you decide to use your Visa CDW benefit, you should confirm that the particular Visa card you use provides the coverage.

The one coverage option the staff at Avis Glasgow strongly recommended was their roadside assistance. It was very cheap, about $3 per day, so we decided to take it. We are so glad we did. We hit a curb in St. Andrews which blew a hole in the side of our tire. We discovered that the car had no spare, just an air pump like many cars seem to have these days. It, of course, wouldn't do anything for a tire with a big hole in it.

We called the Avis roadside assistance toll-free number and in about two and a half hours, our tire-replacement person arrived, replaced our worthless tire with a new one, and we were on our way with no cost to us. Best coverage we have ever purchased.

Posted by
1641 posts

One thing you need to remember when asking is the jurisdiction for insurance for Scotland is Great Britain, ie the same policies for Scotland, England and Wales. It is possible Scotland is not on their drop down menu, but Great Britain might be but they have not done the link when you've called.