Anyone with experience renting a car in Germany with Hertz and declining their insurance while relying on Amex Premium Car Rental insurance? Any problems with either Amex or Hertz?
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8319 posts
You'd certainly be covered with the optional AMEX rental car insurance. It's not badly priced and you shouldn't have any problems with them or Hertz. In most European locations, Hertz is company owned and not a franchise. Some of the European franchised American named rental companies don't have the best of customer service.
But first check with your auto insurance agent and see if you're covered on rentals within Europe. Rentals charged on certain gold credit cards has coverage that's secondary to your primary auto insurance policy.
Posted by
OP
Oakland, CA
23 posts
Great. Thanks. My auto insurance is with AAA in Northern California and they don't extend coverage outside the US and Canada.
It is amazing that when you start looking at the fine print on the car rental website, including Hertz and Avis, they don't fully explain the insurance situation. So I called both Hertz and Avis and discovered that if you accept their insurance when you pick up the car, the daily rate more than doubles! This is very deceptive, and talk about sticker shock. This is true even if you pre-pay before you leave. So it looks to me that booking the car with my Amex card and taking out their Premium rental insurance (for $20) and declining the Hertz insurance is the best deal.
But we'll find out for sure in a few weeks.
Cheers.
Posted by
1221 posts
Have done that in Munich and explained it to the clerk as 'we pay extra to our credit card to get their Super Cover instead'. IIRC, it's not as common over there for credit cards to include car rental insurance whether standard or extra pay premium policy,but if you just say you talked to Amex and they said you're covered, they'll nod and give one last warning about how their Super Cover is surely a better policy before giving you the keys, remind you to get your vignette if you're driving in Austria, and turn you and car out into the wild.
Posted by
Portland
3643 posts
Just to reassure you . . .We always rely on our AMEX Premium. We had a small dent on a car in Croatia. They handled it very efficiently and with no hassle for us.