Rental Car Insurance

Most people at one time or another have rented a car. Whether you are traveling, or your car isn’t working, or it’s been in a wreck – you need the ability to get around and use someone else’s car for a couple of days. So you go to the rental place and they ask you if you want the optional car insurance through them.

Many people would remember that their regular car insurance covers the car and decline the optional auto insurance, but is that actually the right thing to do? It depends on several things.

If you take their car insurance, if there is any sort of accident you are covered as long as you are operating the car and not some other unapproved driver, and you aren’t at fault – meaning you were driving safely and soberly. It also usually covers the fact that while that car is being fixed it is not making any money for the company. That is called “loss of use” and their car insurance should cover that as well.

Your auto insurance should cover any car you are driving, so you should check with them to see if they offer it. But if you are using your auto insurance there will be money out of pocket for deductibles and policy exclusions. If you have a high deductible then you will have to pay a portion of the damages. You also have to make sure that they cover both the car and the damage to the other car, and not just the other car. In this case you would have to pay for the damage to the rental.

If the rental is worth more than your car, you also have to make sure that they will cover the cost between what your car is worth and what the rental is worth. If your car is worth less, you may end up paying the difference between the cars.

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