Car Rental Insurance - Protect Your Bubble

What's you track? Can you get back into the initial country to switch cars and back again for the final ? If you can, use visa once and mc for the other since each has rules to prevent close consecutive rentals for the work-around. No help for the basic question, but it might be a solution.

Look into leasing. Full insurance coverage is included. With a 38-day rental, leasing will often be less expensive than renting. Both Renault and Peugeot have well-run, long-established programs. http://www.renaultusa.com/ http://www.peugeot-openeurope.com/

Thirty-eight days, you should definitely lease, not rent.

You'd just have to compare leasing vs. rental. Last time I looked at the leasing programs mentioned, they really didn't seem to be that competitive. It seems as if the leasing programs are best when leased in large French cities.
Surely there's a large city you'll be visiting where you can turn the rental car in. Then, re-rent as you leave that city. All you'll often get out of taking autos into large cities is a $20 per day garage expense.

I used Protect Your Bubble last summer. Had a claim and they were great. I paid $0 deductible and they paid for a scratch that Hertz charged me $1,100 for. Think it is worth using them as they pay out on claims which other insurers don't always do.

As has been mentioned, you can split the rental period to get within the 31 days, if that's logistically feasible. I just did that by returning a car in one city, taking a train to another city, and getting another car a few days later. And there's no need to worry about using different cards, since the limit is only for consecutive days.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I looked into all the natives mentioned, and then some. For leasing, the closest city for my travels is Frankfurt, and with a stiff premium mark-up for car delivery to this airport . I was not able to find a lease for less than $1,700 plus. My rental is for a VW Polo via Kemwel from Europcar at less than half that price. I also thought about returning the car and then releasing it, but this is inconvenient. Once we leave, we will not be in the car rental office area until we return. We are actually renting in Germany and traveling through
Scandinavia. It was another thread where someone suggested doing this based on the rental costs in Scandinavia. They were right; ~$300 less expensive renting in Germany. So Protect Your Bubble is the best native. I just wanted to hear from people who have used them to understand IF they are a reputable company, not a fly-by-night company. What I don't need is problems if I have an accident or some ridiculous scratches that I am charged for. I do plan to take date/time stamped pictures of the car and undercarriage before and after the trip. Special thanks to the one person with their experience with Protect Your Bubble. Anyone else have experience with them? thanks!

JD, pay attention to the fact that the person lauding Protect Your Bubble (which I, personally, have never heard of) has never posted here prior to your question. What are the odds that someone would come here randomly and just happen to see your post and decide to sign up for an account so they could post on it? And that they also would have not only dealt with that company but had a claim?

RE: What are the odds that someone would come here randomly and just happen to see your post and decide to sign up for an account so they could post on it? And that they also would have not only dealt with that company but had a claim? Good point, and thanks for pointing this out. This is also why I was looking for more input. They seem to be a reputable company, but first hand knowledge/experience is better.

An update ... Turns out Protect Your Bubble is a program name that is administrated by CSA Travel Protection and Insurance Services out of San Diego, Ca. The plan is underwritten by Generali US Branch (A stock company) located in NYC. So re-asking the question, has anyone used CSA for car rental insurance, and if so, what has been your experience? thanks, JD

JD, nate plan "C"; buy a supplemental CDW policy thru one of the EU insurance firms that sell them. That is what we just did for our auto rental in Ireland. And you can buy a supplemental policy that will cover you for an entire year, if you choose that option. The policy is 0 deductable, and it covers towing, wrong fuel, lost keys, re-schedule of the rental in case of accident, etc. It also covers tires and wheels and windshields, which almost no company covers. For around $35 US I bought one of these policies to cover the approx $1300EU CDW deductable for my rental period. The zinger; you have to pay upfront, then they re-imburse you. Do I know someone, with prior experience, who has used one of these policies available thru EU brokers; no, but for maximum out of pocket exposure of $1300 EU, I'll take the risk. I found out about these policies thru an article in the London Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2002693/Holiday-car-hire-How-steer-clear-potholes.html

Well after a long (painful) on-line chat with moneymaxim.com I cannot use them. I planned to rent a care with the Basic rate (i.e. decline CDW). They can only sell me a policy for a rate that includes CDW with an excess. But this would cost me an additional $256 before even getting one of their plans. Oh well!