The answer to this question is that it depends! It is always tempting to purchase the insurance at the car rental desk because you would rather be safe than sorry. And also that sales person on the other side of the counter makes it seem so necessary…even it if isn’t.

When we are faced with a convincing sales-pitch, regardless of if we have done the research or not, sometimes we actually believe that we need something we don’t. Don’t let this happen to you!

Renting a car under the age of 25 is difficult to almost impossible. If you are able to rent through certain companies, the insurance that you pay for is definitely at a premium under 25. Make sure you do your research before you even look into renting a car. If you know that you will need a rental car, do the necessary pre-work so you don’t end up paying extra per day.

You have several options that you should consider when renting a car:

1. Buy the Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) through your car rental insurance – This can cost you anywhere from $5 – $20 per day (on top of what you are already paying for the rental car itself). Keep in mind however, that this may be a duplication of what you already have.

2. Check Your Own Auto Insurance – Ask your insurance policy what they offer for renting cars. However, be careful because sometimes this isn’t a complete coverage and you may want to supplement it with something offered by the rental insurance. Even if your auto insurance says that they do not cover anything with rental cars, at least you checked first and know for future rentals.

3. Check With Your Credit Cards – Often times your credit card will cover you when you put the rental car purchase on that specific card. Make sure to call your credit card ahead of time to be sure what it offers (and for how long the offer lasts) to make sure. Each credit card usually has different restrictions and these restrictions can change over time so check each time before you rent a car!

For example my mum recently found herself needing to rent a car in England for over 3 weeks. She found a loop-hole in renting using her credit card as her car insurance. One credit card would only cover her rental for about 15 days. To get around this, she decided to go back to the rental company location half way through her trip and switch it to another credit card.

4. For Business Travelers, Check What Your Company Offers – Even though it might not be your money you are spending, you can save your company money by checking how they may cover you when you rent a car. Often times companies are so used to their employees renting cars that they provide full coverage to avoid any confusion or extra charges.

If you discover that you do need to purchase from the rental car insurance because you aren’t covered otherwise, make sure to not get sucked into something you do not need. Rental companies will try to get you to sign up for anything and everything they can.

Consider each option they offer you and make sure you think you actually NEED it. If they offer you something that also protects your passengers, but you know nobody will be in your car but you…then obviously this option isn’t necessary (no matter how appealing they might make it sound). Although individually the insurance might not seem like much per day, but it definitely adds up to a considerable amount of money that could be spent elsewhere!

Photo: Álvaro Daniel González Lamarque

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