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Rental Car Insurance Issues -- France

Posted by (San Pedro, CA, USA) on

Through our American Express card we had collision insurance and loss-of-use coverage on the car we rented in Rouen for one week. We were unable to make ourselves understood at the Hertz rental counter that we wanted to purchase additional liability insurance only to cover damage to the other driver's car, property damage or medical. The agent's English was passably good (we speak no French), but the concept of liability insurance vs. collision seemed alien to her. We ended up just taking Hertz's insurance package, with my husband being paranoid that should we have an accident his American Express coverage would be nullified by virtue of us having bought a full package from Hertz. Six days rental on a small car (Clio) cost us 539E/$859.76 -- this was 222E for the car, 132E for insurance and the rest various taxes and local fees. And there was an additional $17.95 for the AmEx protection.

For future reference, was our American terminology (collision vs. liability) at fault? Do they call it something different in France? Or was our agent clueless? Or is it simply not possible to unbundle collision from liability insurance on a rental car policy?

Posted by
3313 posts

Faith - Rental car insurance requires good communication in advance with your own auto insurance agent, the car rental agency you reserve with from the U.S. and your credit card company. The last place to resolve any coverage questions is with the agent at the pick-up counter. These are things you can and should resolve before you leave for Europe.

I think the answer to your question is that France and other countries require liability coverage in the base price of the rental. That's the answer I get when I ask, as I always do, Autoeurope: "Who pays if I crash, kill someone and my car bursts into flames?".

That leaves collision damage. That's either covered by your own car insurance (ask your agent), your credit card (they will tell you) or by the add-on CDW you can buy in advance when you reserve your rental car.

Don't ever expect the counter agent in Europe - or the U.S. - to know what is or isn't covered.

Posted by
157 posts

Faith,

Last year we rented from Hertz in Paris & another company in Germany. We had no trouble waving all the CDW insurance etc, from both rental companies.

We used the Am Ex coverage which was explained to me in detail, before we left.

Doug is completely correct is indicating all these issues need to be ironed out in advance. There can always be some language barriers wherever you travel.

I actually called Am Ex several times and got a copy of their policy to review. I wanted to be sure we had the coverage we needed.

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