Note : this template is about using your own car indemnity to protect the car you ‘ve rented at a party like Enterprise, Hertz or Avis. For the car insurance coverage that pays for a rental car while your vehicle is being repaired, see our guide on lease cable car reimbursement coverage .
What does my own car insurance already cover?
Most of the common types of rental car protection are exchangeable or identical to coverages available on a regular car insurance policy, and coverages you have for your own fomite broadly translate to rental cars as good .
If you have indebtedness, collision and comprehensive indemnity on your own vehicle, you will already be protected, at least improving to the policy ‘s limits, for most of the coverages that are typically offered by lease companies.
In addition, most renters or homeowners policy policies cover personal items that could be stolen from your rental. You should review your policies before deciding to purchase coverage at the rental counter .
|
Policies rental companies offer |
Car insurance equivalent |
|
|---|---|---|
| Liability insurance supplement | Bodily injury and property damage liability coverage | |
| Collision damage waiver (CDW)/Loss damage waiver (LDW) | Comprehensive and collision coverages | |
| Personal accident insurance | Personal injury protection and health insurance | |
| Personal effects coverage | Homeowners or renters insurance personal property coverage |
For each of these forms of indemnity, certain exclusions may apply. For exercise, many policies exclude lavishness vehicles, commercial vehicles ( such as U-Hauls ), cargo or 15-passenger vans, or rentals made for business trips. Check your policies to ensure you ‘re covered before declining coverage at the rental counter .
Liability insurance supplement vs. your liability insurance
Liability policy for bodily injury and place damage is about always required nationally, so if you have car insurance, you ‘re probably already covered. additionally, car rental companies are required by law to include at least the country minimal coverage, so you do n’t have to worry about driving off the distribute without coverage .
When deciding whether to purchase a rental company ‘s liability indemnity addendum, consider the fact that you may be driving more while you ‘re on vacation than you would normally, in an unfamiliar car on unfamiliar roads. We recommend carrying at least $ 25,000 of bodily indebtedness policy per person, $ 50,000 of bodily liability per accident and $ 25,000 of property indebtedness ( 25/50/25 ), as lower limits may not cover the wax costs of a crash .
Collision damage waiver/loss damage waiver vs. comprehensive and collision
If you own collision and comprehensive coverage on your personal car insurance policy, you can normally choose to decline this release, which typically costs about $ 9 to $ 19 per day in the U.S. But, your collision and comprehensive policy limits should ideally cover up to the actual cash value ( ACV ) of the rental vehicle for adequate security .
Renting luxury vehicles
Your comprehensive and collision coverages cover the monetary value of repairs to a vehicle similar to your own. But if you ‘re renting an expensive car like a convertible or luxury car, your coverage might not pay for the fully price of rectify after an accident .
The collision or personnel casualty price release ( CDW/LDW ) relieves you of fiscal duty for wrong done to the rental vehicle. It besides eliminates the fee a rental company might otherwise charge you for the personnel casualty of use of their fomite while it is being repaired. Your collision and comprehensive policies often cover these costs, depending on the type of damage, but you should check your policy to make certain it does n’t exclude loss-of-use coverage for a lease vehicle .
Personal accident insurance vs. PIP, medical payments and health insurance
If you already have medical payments, no-fault or personal injury auspices through your car indemnity policy, or adequate personal health indemnity, you may safely decline the personal accident indemnity that rental companies offer. This covers the medical fees incurred due to a car accident .
Depending on where you live, you may be required to carry such insurance on your personal policy. Currently, 15 states require PIP coverage to be included with car indemnity policies. Where PIP coverage international relations and security network ’ thyroxine required, you may buy it .
alternatively, you can turn to your health insurance to cover your aesculapian bills from an accident. Since these costs can easily amount to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, be sure your health policy policy is adequate to protect you. Insured drivers from these 15 states have at least some overlapping coverage from their PIP policies .
States that require personal injury protection coverage
|
State |
Minimum PIP Limits |
|---|---|
| Arkansas | $5,000 |
| Delaware | $15,000 |
| Florida | $10,000 |
| Hawaii | $10,000 |
| Kansas | $9,000 |
| Kentucky | $10,000 |
| Massachusetts | $8,000 |
| Michigan | Unlimited* |
| Minnesota | $40,000 |
| New Jersey | $15,000 |
| New York | $50,000 |
| North Dakota | $30,000 |
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Personal effects coverage
If you have renters or homeowners insurance, you can safely decline this coverage. personal effects coverage reimburses you for personal items that may be stolen from your rental vehicle, but renters or homeowners insurance policies typically already include this coverage. For model, State Farm includes off-premises loss in their renters policy policy worldwide for 16 types of risk ( fire, larceny, explosions, etc. ) .
Which insurers cover rental cars?
Most car insurers include rental car coverage in their policies. All 10 of the biggest insurers nationally cover rental cars in most cases :
- State Farm
- Progressive
- Geico
- Allstate
- USAA
- Liberty Mutual
- Farmers
- Travelers
- Nationwide
- American Family
however, you should check the linguistic process of your policy or speak with your policy agent to be certain you ‘re covered .
Types of rental insurance covered through credit cards
In accession to personal car policy and renters or homeowners indemnity, many major credit cards offer auxiliary coverage if you use that circuit board to pay the full counterweight of the rental .
however, this indemnity is sometimes secondary, meaning it applies entirely after your personal indemnity plans are applied. Further, it often comes with other caveats, such as a requirement that you decline the CDW offered by the rental policy .
For example, eligible Mastercards merely leave coverage if the tenant declines the lease company ‘s CDW, the lease does not exceed 15 days and all other policy policies available to the driver have been exhausted. In addition, Mastercard excludes from coverage all trucks, life-size vans and antique vehicles. Carefully examine your batting order ‘s benefits and exclusions before relying on it for car rental insurance .
When should I buy rental insurance, even if I’m already covered?
There are a few cases when you might want to purchase policy from a lease company, flush if you ‘re already covered by your personal policies :
- You only have liability insurance.
- You only have the state-mandated minimum liability insurance.
- Your personal auto insurance policies have high deductibles.
- You’re an at-risk driver or you want to protect your personal auto policy premiums.
- You have very low limits on your collision or comprehensive plans.
If you only have liability insurance, we recommend purchasing the collision damage release ( CDW ). Your indebtedness indemnity will help protect you if you damage another vehicle, but it wo n’t cover any of the costs of repairing your lease vehicle. Without a CDW or personal collision and comprehensive insurance, you ‘d be responsible for any compensate costs and loss-of-use fees you incur on your rental, flush if you were n’t at demerit for the accident .
If you only have the state-mandated minimum liability insurance, you might want to opt for extra liability indemnity from the rental ship’s company to protect yourself from the costs of damaging another vehicle and its passengers. For model, Arizona ‘s state-mandated minimum bodily injury liability is equitable $ 15,000 per person. If that ‘s the come you carry on your policy, and you cause an accident that results in $ 200,000 in medical expenses for the other driver, you ‘d be responsible for the difference of $ 185,000. Additional liability protection would allow you to eliminate the risk of such a gap .
If your personal auto insurance policies have high deductibles and you ‘re worry about having to pay for minor damage, such as dings or scratches on your rental, the CDW will relieve you from responsibility for these repairs. For example, repairing a cancel on a cable car can cost anywhere from $ 150 to $ 900. On your own fomite, you can choose to turn a subterfuge center to minor defects. The rental company, by contrast, may not do therefore, and, with a high gear deductible on your policy, you ‘d wind up paying out-of-pocket for any want repairs. Just make surely any CDW you buy does n’t come with its own comparable deductible .
If you’re an at-risk driver or you want to protect your personal auto policy premiums, you might want to purchase their CDW, liability or personal accident policy. This is particularly dependable for drivers who have already had an at-fault claim in the last three years and do n’t want to see another dangerous increase in their car indemnity premiums. Drivers who make their first at-fault claim will likely see an modal premium increase of 10 % to 25 % for three years .
If that driver makes a second claim within that clock period, another increase of at least 45 % is probable. Those hikes in premium could promptly eclipse any sum you spend on auxiliary insurance from a rental company. however, no claim made on an insurance policy purchased from a rental ship’s company will affect your personal indemnity premiums, since the policy is underwritten by a separate insurance company .
If your personal vehicle is much less valuable than your rental, your personal collision and comprehensive policies might have moo limits on the maximum coverage they provide. For exemplar, let ‘s say you drive a standard 2009 Nissan Altima in commodity condition with 100,000 miles on its odometer. The actual cash value ( ACV ) of your car is about $ 2,700. Any collision and comprehensive policies you have on the cable car would likely cover you only up to that sum, less the deductible .
now let ‘s say you drove off the rental company ’ second lot in a 2016 BMW 2 Series with 10,000 miles on its odometer. The ACV of that vehicle is about $ 22,000. Were you to get into an accident that totaled the BMW, your personal policy might only cover up to $ 2,700 of the damage, leaving you on the hook for around $ 20,000 after the deductible is applied. If your rental car is much more valuable than your personal vehicle, it ‘s wise to purchase the CDW to eliminate the likely for such fiscal responsibility .
Frequently asked questions
Will my car insurance protect my rental car?
In most cases, yes, the coverages you have on your own personal car will besides apply to a rental car. But if you have a liability-only policy, you wo n’t be covered for damage to the rental car.
Will my credit card insure my rental car?
Read more: The 7 Best Car Insurance Companies (2022)
many credit cards, particularly travel cards, have a damage release that pays for damage to your rental car while you drive it, american samoa well as trip pause coverage. however, these waivers do n’t provide coverage for liability or your own medical bills, so make sure you ‘re fully protected before you drive.
Should I buy additional rental car coverage, even if I’m already protected?
It may be worth buy supplementary coverage from your rental car provider, even if you ‘re already covered. While on vacation, you ‘re driving a new car and probable in an unfamiliar area, so the electric potential for things to go wrong is higher than when you ‘re at home .