Car Rental Collision Damage Insurance

thanks Ed I could not find any exclusion either.

Cap One has always been a sucko deal - - their max rental period is some crazy day limit, maybe a couple of weeks max. Look at AmExp with their twenty-five bucks per rental operation that you sign up for and which then kicks in automatically when you rent a car.

I have that now but can not get a informed reply regarding the VAT, does anyone know if AMEX excludes the VAT from reimbursement. Do not plan on another damage claim, but you know what happens when you do not carry an umbrella !

I just read my junk and checked the web site - - no mention of a vat exclusion.

I have the Amex premium insurance too. True, the policy doesn't list the VAT as an exclusion - but it's also not INCLUDED in the breakdown of covered benefits. My guess is it's not covered. Just like if you total a new car here in the US, your insurance isn't going to reimburse you for the sales tax you paid when you bought it.

Jeff, Be very careful with credit card coverage for rental cars, and be sure to read the "fine print" thoroughly! I read of a case last year where a traveller used their AmEx card to rent a car somewhere in the U.S. southwest. Unfortunately, the car was "totalled". AmEx refused to cover the damages, as the driver had been on an unpaved road at the time (that's all there was in that location), and the car rental contract considered that to be "off road" use. An Ombudsman tried to intervene, but AmEx wouldn't budge, and the renter ultimately got a bill for the full cost of the car, about $15,000. Ironically, the rental agency said that their CDW would have provided coverage in that situation. Cheers!

I second to that! Beware of rental car cover. Some cards will only act as the primary insurer of the car, e.g., you must refuse insurance coverage from the rental agency. The problem is in some countries, especially Italy and Spain, you can't legally rent an uninsured car, regardless of having other insurance that will cove the expenses.

Tom, do not know about the sales tax on a totaled car, but I have never heard of the sales tax that a repair shop pays on a repair part
being excluded from the claim reimbursement, at least it has never happened to me. Thanks everyone for your thoughts, in the end I guess it is always hard to nail down insurance except for the premium.

The preceeding two posts don't match my experience and, since I have a rental car for five or six months out of the year, I pay pretty close attention to the coverage my credit cards provide. Regarding Ken's post: My AmExp stuff (as well as Visa and MC) has no bar to non-paved road use, but does not cover off road vehicles (dune buggies and stuff, I guess). I have, however, seen many rental agreements that prohibit use of the vehicle on unpaved roads. For example, I've had to make other arrangements to drive from Buenos Aires to Tierra del Fuego since I was going to use dirt roads for parts of the trip. Additionally, I've had to make similar arrangements for rental cars in the far beyonds of Australia and Cambodia. I've never seen a rental outfit located on an unpaved road in the United States and there's a heck of a lot of paved roads in the southwest. It'd be interesting to see the article since there must be some facts missing. Regarding Andre's post: There seems to be confusion on liability and the cdw issue. Liability coverage comes with the car - - cdw is either bought from the rental outfit or covered by a credit card (or a third party, I understand) - - nobody in their right mind would let you drive off without liability coverage, the loss potential is just too great. I rented a car in Spain a year ago, declined the rental outifit's cdw, and had a boulder chunked through the window in Portugal. I'd used either Vissa or MC. I paid for the temporary plexiglass repair in order to keep on moving. When I turned the car in, the permanent repair went on the credit card. I waded up the temporary repair bill and mailed it in as soon as I got home with a note explaining the mishap. The next statement showed both a plus and a minus for the permanent repair. A couple of days after that I received reimbursement for the temporary repair.

@Ed, If I can find the article about the car insurance, I'll post a link.

Here are a couple of links that may help (or confuse): http://www.insurance4carhire.com/guide/Super_CDW.html http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~feic/vacation/car_rental_in_europe.pdf Whether you decide to use credit card coverage or buy from the rental company, do your homework and be certain you are fully covered, including the excess (deductible in US-speak) .

Hmmm, don't know why the formatting didn't work on the second url. I'll try again. http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~feic/vacation/car_rental_in_europe.pdf

I guess that's what cut and paste is for.

Gary, Is This the Link you were trying to post? It's a PDF file, but seems to provide a fairly comprehensive report on driving in Europe.

Hi Jeff and Everyone! I am located in Lakewood, CO. We travelled to europe every two years. We have done both, lease and car rental from Germany. Since the AUS dollar is the same as the U.S. dollar, we are changing plan to rent the car instead for next August trip to Europe. Quick question, is the CDW covers the windshied breakage or flat tire? It was nice to rent the spankign new Renault, Peugot, and Citroen, but I cannot pay double. I am also a travel agent, but with my 5 consolidator suppliers, I will end up booking our plane tickets online as publish fare. Not many airlines do not pay commissions nowadays. We're hoping the airfare will decrease to $900 as I have researched and watch it last year and the airfare was down to almost $900 for adults and slightly cheaper for children under 12. We are travelling as family of 4 to attend 3 weddings and one Christening, so it's going to be expensive next year. I hope the Euro dollar will go down and the diesel prices. I recommend booking everyone's trip to Europe in a diesel than in regular gasoline because it's more economical.

glms, a few points from your post... Since the AUS dollar is the same as the U.S. dollar If you are in Lakewood CO what does that have to do with the price of eggs? We have done both, lease and car rental from Germany. If you have done both don't you have better information than most of us? If you are a travel agent don't you have better information than most of us? I am also a travel agent, but with my 5 consolidator suppliers, I will end up booking our plane tickets online as publish fare. So even travel agents can't beat published fares? Why use a travel agent? Not many airlines do not pay commissions nowadays. Do you mean that most don't, or most do? I hope the Euro dollar will go down
Surely as a travel agent you realize that the currency in Europe is not the Euro dollar and the diesel prices. That's not very likely is it? Is the only question you need an answer for if the CDW covers a flat tyre or broken windscreen? Welcome to the Helpline. We help where we can and please keep asking questions, but some of the other stuff is confusing.

I've leased and rented. Next trip I will do one or the other again. If leasing is a particularly good deal, I'll build the trip around that. I like using trains and busses, when possible. Driving, however, allows you to move on your schedule rather than planning around transportation and connections. It seems to get harder and harder to know all the ins and outs of CDW insurance - and more important than ever to read your policy options carefully. With a lease, I like getting the car you want . I prefer a manual diesel and was able to plan on it rather than ask the question on arrival. I especially liked that it includes full CDW, no deductible/excess. Although I didn't get a scratch, I'm not sure I'd bet on it in Italy. Since I was picking up in A'dam and dropping in Rome, the pick-up, drop-off charges for the lease were way cheaper than the comparable rental car charges. I didn't like that pick up and drop off locations for the lease were very limited (especially outside of France), which reduced some of my options.