Please sign in to post.
Holiday Sale! Save 20% Storewide!

Car Rental, Mandatory CDW, Iceland, while I have useful Credit card, Confused

Posted by (PA) on

Okay, I admit it. We have been going to Europe for 1 or 2 trips/year for 9 year now, and have never once touched a car. But we are going to Iceland in May for several days to visit our son and d.i.l. (she is Icelandic) and the way this falls out is that we will need a rental car for at least the last half the week to follow them to Stykkisholmur and then back to the airport, the buses will not do. And while I can figure out a lot of this from having on this board for some time, I am running into the following issue that is stumping me.

We have at least good credit cards with car rental insurance. Yet, as I look for rentals, it seems that all the agencies have CDW included in the deal. So how are we supposed to have our credit card provide this coverage when there is a CDW that we cannot get rid of? Also, at what point is a hold put on our card for insurance purposes, and how much? I am totally confused as to what to do next, while knowing that for late May I had better get this done soon. At least getting the smallest car available is not an issue, it is all we require, and we have driven only sticks for 40 years.

Thanking in advance for useful replies.

(and we will meanwhile not worry that our return flight on Icelandic is a 737-Max, booked last week)

Posted by
5697 posts

Call up the credit card you plan to use and ask them this question. When we went to Italy, I checked with Chase Sapphire Reserve and they confirmed they knew about the mandatory CDW, we just needed to decline all optional insurance to be covered by the card.

Posted by
466 posts

Same answer as Laura when we rented in Italy. The CDW was mandatory. We were offered zero deductible coverage for an extra fee. I knew from a conversation with customer service at VISA that we had to expressly decline that coverage. Then, if we had an accident and had to pay a deductible, VISA would reimburse us. We actually had the opportunity to see how this works! When we returned the car, they found scratches on the wheel. The charge they put on our card to cover this was 100 Euro -- our deductible amount. I submitted a claim to VISA when we got home, and after gathering the paperwork they wanted, we were reimbursed.

Posted by
6790 posts

Nobody here can tell you the answer. But all the advice directly above is good.

Call the credit card insurance people. Make sure you understand everything they say. Get it in writing (they will send you details in email if you ask). Be 100% sure you understand all the details, what's covered, what's not, what the limits are, what you need to do when at the rental counter. Be prepared. Then go enjoy your trip.

Posted by
3 posts

I second the advice from other people to check with your credit card company.
But I can also tell you that I am going to Iceland next month in April, and the company I am getting a car from (Lotus Car Rentals) gives you the option to decline all insurances when you are adding/deleting the extra options for the rental. So if the stuff that the CDW covers would be covered by your credit card, you could book with a company like Lotus which gives you the option to decline all insurance coverage through them.

Posted by
2857 posts

Thanking you all for the replies.

I did call CapOne, transferred to their benefits, and they explained I could in fact refuse the otherwise included CDW, and that they could also get me a "Letter of Coverage" to present at the counter. So I am now trying to figure out the most convenient way to do this, as we do not need a car the 3 days in Reykjavik. Our son and d.i.l. will take us around in her mom's car, we do not need to get a rental until we go to her father's guest house in Stykkisholmur, which they will be helping with, and then return to Keflavik. I actually had seen Lotus, but they do not have any office pick-up. Reykjavik Rent-A-Car and My Car look like their offices would easily be reached for the pick-up.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.