Scotland and Rental Car Insurance

The person who posted that you can't use credit card insurance and rental counter insurance is right. The first rule of using credit card coverage is to turn down the rental counter insurance. In some countries, liability insurance is included in the price of the rental by law. Not sure if this is true of Scotland. Your best source of an answer is your rental company.

Damage to others is liability. The owner (rental company) covers that. To use credit card insurance or whatever you found you must decline what the rental outfit offers. Nobody wants a three-way fight. This is a standard fact of life. You may take a car from any of the major firms to any of the islands of Scotland. That you can't is a myth that keeps getting passed around or confused with Iris Sea crossings. I've always done it, always knew I could, but have asked specifically the last few trips just so I could post with double assurance.

Thanks Nancy and Ed. Thus if I understand correctly now, i can turn down the (reportedly more expensive) CDW offered by the rental car company and use my credit card travelers coverage for the CDW coverage instead. As far as the liability coverage is concerned, it is actually included in the price of the car through the rental car company. All I have to do is to make SURE the liability is included in the rental car price (checking the rental contract). Thus the rental car insurance is covered. Also --- if I stick to the larger rental car companies, it should not be a problem to visit some of the Scottish islands via ferry. Now I will just have to coordinate renting a car twice since the major credit card companies only covered you for a maximum of 30 days and we need a total of 48 days. Just a revision of our itineary should make that work. Thanks --- If I interpreted correctly what you two provided I'm nearly through this last "hoop" of travel planning! Appreciate your advise very much
Bruce

Liability WILL be included in the rental car price even if it is not included in the contract. It can run to millions of dollars. Think about death suits if you destroy a full school bus. I'm in rental cars six to nine months out of the year, trust me. Also, if it helps, AmExp provides coverage for either forty or forty-two consecutive days. One further thing: if you're going to need an automatic, the switch-out is going to have to be at a major location such as an airport. Smaller facilities might not have one. For Scotland, this would be either Turnhouse or Glasgow. One more thing to check: some credit cards won't let you swap cars to duck the consecutive days rule. You'd need some dead space or you might have to switch credit cards as you switch cars. Or you could choke the CDs cost for the shorter period. Another thing: make each rental period at least a week to keep the daily rental cost low.

Thank you to everyone who has offered their rental car advise. I will post how all this worked out for me when we return in October. Today I made two reservations with AutoEurope for National Car rental at Edinburgh and Glasgow Airports. ed to ensure availability of a automatic. Reservations using AutoEurope via American Express card. AMX representative told me I could use AMX for BOTH rentals as long as there were two separate contracts. No need for delay inbetween rentals. Pickup in Edinburgh - turn in Glasgow; pickup Glasgow turn in Edinburgh. Additional cost of $74.00 per contract. Insurance: I called AMX 1-800-338-1670) excellent customer service! AMX will cover CDW for $24.50 PER contract not per day. As a WA State resident I am limited to 30 days per contract. I ed basic package. Liability insurance is covered in rental price by rental company. Additional driver included in cost. Also informed of a daily road tax of 1.65 pounds. I did experience a problem with the online reservation. I called AutoEurope (1-888-223-5555)and received exceptional service from a lady name Fiona who completed my reservations flawlessly. Actually called her a second time (senior moment) and she called right back with a answer! Within about a minute I received two emails with confirmation of my reservations! Now we'll see what happens when I go to pick up the cars and how the trip goes overall. This is how I resolved my particular travel situation with your helpful experienced suggestions. Thanks will post again with the outcomes. I have a happy wife and I'm ready for a drink!
Bruce

I'm having the same trouble because my car rental place on Skye won't tell me exactly what coverage we'll have. And there are only about 3 places in Skye that rent cars. We got an excess coverage policy from Questor, but have not yet got a supplemental liability insurance (SLI) policy. I've read that the UK laws require that a car rental company must provide liability, which I believe they refer to as third party liability, but I'm not sure exactly how much coverage is required by law for each car hire company. So, if anyone knows where an American can get an SLI policy, I'd appreciate having that information as well.