Renting cars in America

B

Bee

Registered User
Messages
27
Hi - can anyone tell me what the story is with renting a car in America and insurances?

We went to rent a car in Alaska and were asked if we had our own liability insurance - that we needed to have it to rent a car - plus they tried to sell us something extra. Also we couldn't buy the liability insurance there


Now I really have to say that I don't understand - do I need my insurance from my own car to cover this - does it automatically cover it?

And if not then how are you meant to travel to America/Alaska in particular and rent a car?


Any help would be appreciated
Thanks,

Curious Bee.
 
Hi Bee,
I dont know if this is any help to you or not. I have been in the States a few times and when I have hired a car they had offered my collison damage waiver insurance. Unfortunately for us second class citizens in Ireland, people with certain American credit cards can get coverage for this on there credit card, hence the question about whether you want to take it out or not. If you dont have this on your credit card then you need to pay for this cover although I have had no problem getting it. Hope this helps!

Blarney
 
It is very difficult to make smart decisions about this stuff when waiting at a car rental counter with a queue of people behind you and impatient family and others waiting for you. Bee is dead right to get to the bottom of this beforehand.

I was talked into paying for the additional insurance at JFK a few years ago. After several angry calls to Avis once I had got my thoughts together, they agreed to cancel the insurance and refund the cost. The explaination given to me at the time was something about covering me for legal costs that could arise out of any incident, rather than the car or medical costs.

Having said all that, I've found ebookers.ie very good for providing all-inclusive quotes for car hire at very competitive rates and they are very patient about answering all your questions up-front. The only problem I've had with them related to booking a baby seat - where the size of the baby was not logged on the Hertz system so Hertz didn't know what size seat to reserve. This lead to some delays in getting/fitting the baby seat.
 
Hi Bee,
myself and my boyfriend rented a car from Enterprise Rent a Car in LAX when we were over there in March which we drove down to San Diego and back to LAX in (with a couple of days in Los Angeles as well). We were talked into getting the super duper insurance which we decided to take as it was our first time driving in America and we weren't hugely confident. It turned out to be well worth the money as after we got home (unscathed!) we got a call saying that one of the tyres was badly damaged and they just wanted to know how it happened (we're still not sure ourselves), but the insurance covered it anyway so all was well ; )
hope this helps a bit.
 
For what it's worth, I have used sidestep.com when booking car rentals in the US twice in the past year. It's a search engine that looks for the best deals. Each time it has come up with a cracking deal (with Thrifty.com - don;t let the name put you off) which was not apparently available by going direct to the Thrifty website.
 
muffin1973 said:
after we got home (unscathed!) we got a call saying that one of the tyres was badly damaged and they just wanted to know how it happened (we're still not sure ourselves), but the insurance covered it anyway so all was well ; )
Click to expand...
Aren't they obliged to highlight any faults/damage when they inspect the car on return, as otherwise it could easily have been caused by one of their staff or by the next renter?
 
Well yeah I would have thought so. When we got back to the rental place, one of the guys working there came out and had a look at the car and everything seemed hunky dory. I suppose because there wasn't an issue with having to pay for the damage we didn't pursue why they hadn't noticed/said anything when we'd left it back....
 
Hi Bee,

I've had a similar problem to you (and I think everyone isn't quite getting what your question is). I was renting a car recently in the US and when I went to pick it up I was asked what the name of my insurance company was. I was very confused because I was pretty sure that my insurance didn't cover me abroad, but when I asked I was given some blurb about third party cover. I tried to follow it up, asking could I purchase third party cover, and I was told that they only sold LDW cover (if I damaged the car it would be covered), but my own third party Insurance would cover it otherwise. In the end I bowed to their (superior?) knowledge, thinking that they would know best considering they must get lots of people from Ireland renting cars and I told them my insurance name, but to this day I have no idea if I was really covered (I didn't purchase the LDW). Luckily nothing happened. If anyone can clear this up I'd also really appreciate it.

T.
 
In my experience, you are better off booking US car hire from abroad as a kind of package which includes unlimited mileage and insurance. I have always had nothing but hassle when I've done it any other way. www.holidayautos.com or Argus which has a link from Pigsback. You get a voucher then which you just hand over to the car hire company in the US and there's no hassle with questions about insurance etc. ebookers.ie is mentioned earlier so I guess that's similar.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top