- Your policy includes rental car coverage: Many auto insurers will provide coverage for rental cars, amongst the standard features, or even as an additional supplement. Your policy should include this coverage, which may be your solution during the rental of a car in the USA. Moreover, the fact of the matter is that you always need to read the terms and conditions of your coverage to see how much it covers, if any limitations apply, or whether you have to pay extra for any additional services.
- Credit card rental car insurance: For example, some credit cards will cover your rental car insurance if you use the card to pay for the rental. With this insurance, it becomes your secondary cover, and can be used to pay for losses not covered by your primary auto insurance policy. Once again, you should recheck the credit card rental car insurance terms and conditions to know what is covered and may some circumstances may be excluded.
- No coverage from your policy: If the auto insurance policy you now have does not offer insurance for rental cars and you don’t have rental car insurance available through credit cards or some other means, you may have to purchase insurance from the rental car company. This type of insurance is usually in the form of a collision damage waiver (CDW) or a loss damage waiver (LDW) that covers damage to the rental car in case of an accident, theft or vandalism. On the other hand, this choice may result in higher expenditure compared to using existing coverage.
Make sure to ask questions before committing to a car rental agreement, especially what kind of coverage options are available, and ask if you are required to buy additional insurance from the rental car company first. Doing that will save you from taking responsibility for the accident or vehicle damage through the completion of necessary documents.
