If you have ever rented a car for a limited time period, whether during a vacation, a business trip, or while your own vehicle was in for repairs, you have probably faced the question of whether to take out insurance at the rental agency desk when you rent the car. Paying your rental company for insurance on your rental car is sometimes necessary, but not always. In fact, much of the time rental car insurance ends up adding some fairly steep fees onto your rental even though the coverage you’re paying for may be completely redundant.
To find out whether you need to write a check for the hefty chunk of change that many car rental companies collect for insurance coverage, all you need to do is spend a bit of time finding out exactly what type of coverage you already have. In many cases, your regular auto insurance is more than sufficient to protect you financially if you do damage a rental car. Anyone who owns their own vehicle has an insurance policy that gives them some level of coverage in case of damage to the car from an accident, theft, vandalism, or other mishap. It varies a bit from policy to policy, but most of the time this same coverage will apply to a car rented in the policy owner’s name. This means that if your car is fully insured, any rental car that you drive will probably be just as well covered as your own vehicle.
Whether you find out that you need to take out a non-owner auto liability insurance policy, or whether you discover that you don’t need to pay anything above what you already do for insurance, a bit of forethought and planning can save you a lot of money at the car rental desk. Your rental car may be temporary, but the savings will be permanent.