Many people find it difficult in deciding whether to decline the car insurance when renting a vehicle for local use or while away on vacation.
If you’ve ever opted for full rental supplemental coverage, you’ve likely noticed that it can be costly. But, if you already have insurance in New York for your personal vehicle, you likely don’t need it.
The main reason you would want to decline the insurance at the rental counter is when you have a personal auto policy or are a rated driver on a policy that includes appropriate liability, collision and comprehensive coverage.
- Liability – The liability and property damage coverage you have on your personal vehicle policy will extend as your coverage while driving a rental car. Protection for injuries and damage to other vehicles and property.
- Collision – If you have collision coverage as part of your regular policy, it will cover accident-related damage to the rental vehicle.
- Comprehensive – If you have comprehensive coverage on your personal vehicle, it will cover your rental car for comprehensive perils such as vandalism, theft, hit a deer, hail damage, etc.
Some credit cards include rental car insurance if you use that same card to pay for your rental car. But liability, personal injury and personal effects coverage is often excluded. For this reason, relying on credit card rental car coverage may not be your best option. Liability coverage is so important in the event of an accident with a serious injury. Without liability protection you can get into deep financial trouble if you are deemed at fault in an accident and someone is seriously injured.
An option for those that don’t have car insurance is to use your credit card insurance for physical damage coverage and purchase liability coverage from the rental car company.
In any event, before using your credit card rental insurance coverage, make sure to read up on the terms and conditions of that coverage. There can be exclusions for certain types of vehicles or may not cover certain types of damage. Rental periods may be capped and there are property damage limits as well.
So, if you currently have a NYS personal vehicle policy with adequate liability, collision, and comprehensive limits you should be okay to decline the rental insurance coverage at the counter.
Some people with older cars that don’t have much value opt for cheap NY car insurance that does not cover physical damage. If your personal insurance policy doesn’t include comprehensive or collision coverage or you carry high deductibles, it may be wise to at least purchase the physical damage coverage from the rental company.
Also keep in mind that most NY insurance companies will not extend auto policy coverage beyond the US or Canada. So if you intend on renting a vehicle and driving outside of the US, you will need to get coverage from the rental car company that covers driving outside of the US in order to be protected.
So as a recap, if you have current NY car insurance with adequate liability and physical damage limits, you shouldn’t need to buy the rental car agency policy. But, if you don’t have comprehensive and collision on your personal policy, you’ll want to go for the physical damage protection option with the car rental company.
For those not currently insured, you’ll want to purchase the full insurance from your rental company for liability and physical damage protection. You could also choose to use your credit card rental protection for physical damage coverage and buy the liability protection from the rental agency.
