I think we have all experienced it at least once in our lives. We touch down in a city for holiday or whatever reason, we go get a rental car and when going through the documentation we stumble when we get to the insurance part. The problem is that almost all of us aren’t sure how to handle the insurance side of things. They use big words and tell of all the possible things that could happen to you. It is almost as though they are just pushing you to the corner and almost forcing you to sign up for every insurance package that they offer. It is quite normal for people to be confused when it comes to rental car insurance. In this article, we hope to educate individuals on how to properly deal with rental car insurance.

Let’s first explore the common insurance items that are available for car rentals: We’ll list them below, and yes, it is important to know them:

CDW (Collision Damage Waiver), LDW (Loss Damage Waiver), PDW (Physical Damage Waiver) It is the most basic of rental car insurance coverage that you need. Basically, if you cause an accident an anything happens to the car, you don’t need to pay for the damage. There are however limitations. The limitations will be set by the policy and are normally things like mileage, distance from city or even if you were caught drunk driving.

LIS (Liability Insurance Supplement) It is a little something extra on top of the basic coverage that you have on top. This may come in many forms but mostly to cover any other eventualities that might have occurred if there are many third parties involved in the accident.

PAI (Personal Accident Insurance or Coverage) This coverage item takes care of any passengers that you might have and any eventualities that might occur should they be maimed and hospitalized.

PEC (Personal Effects Coverage) or Personal Property Insurance This coverage item looks after any belongings that could either be damaged in an accident or be stolen or lost for whatever reason.

The insurance coverage options that we have listed above are listed from the most important and essential to the extra ones at the bottom. You shouldn’t even think of driving away the rental car from the lot without some sort of combination similar to what is available with CDW and LIS coverage. Without these basic coverage options you would certainly be risking too much for just a rental car. If you get into an accident without these coverage options then you could be in for a very inconvenient time indeed.

One thing that many people don’t know is that if they have comprehensive car insurance for their car, it might even be comprehensive enough to cover the CDW and LIS needs of your rental car. What this means is you might actually be covered right from the get go from your own car insurance. This is a situation that happens more often than you think. It is however vital that you check with you current insurance provider to see if your policy extends to rental cars. Never get a rental car assuming that you already have rental car insurance from your own comprehensive coverage. There are times when your policy changes from year to year and your rental coverage may change without you knowing.

In some rare cases, credit cards may even have some insurance coverage that can be extended to rental car insurance too. This is particularly the case with higher end “gold” or “platinum” cards which have a focus on the regular traveler. Most of the time these cards will have some sort of personal effects coverage or even extend an personal accident coverage too. Again, each person would have a very different circumstance and it would be prudent to check with your credit card provider before signing on the dotted lines.

We think that the best way to approach this is to first check with your current car insurance company and also your credit card company. Give them a call before you even venture to the rental car agency. There really is no point in doubling up your insurance policy as you won’t be able to make use of both. If you already have the coverage from either your car insurance provider or your credit card an overlap will simply be a waste of your money.

It should also be noted that if you opt to get insurance from the rental car agency that it will actually cost more than what you can get from your own car insurance company or as provided by the credit card. It isn’t abnormal to find that rental car agencies will charge almost double for the insurance coverage. This is a part of their profit model to catch customers with no insurance so they are forced to get it or not get the rental car.

Here is a pretty got saying for you to go with. It is necessary to get rental car insurance however it isn’t necessary to get it from your rental car agency. This rings so true most of the time. Insurance policies from rental car agencies are often very expensive and sometimes you might already have the coverage from other sources like your comprehensive car insurance policy of your credit card. Always check first so you don’t end up paying more than you should.

Follow Ryan Parker in his quest to demystify the world of car insurance for everyone. Not everyone thinks he is packing a full deck but he certainly provides information that is very useful. Have a look at what he has to say about rental car insurance.

Related posts:

1. Searching Choices for Auto Insurance Coverage Searching
2. Cheaper Vehicle Insurance Rate — Things That Make It Easier To Get You can sa
3. How to Simplify the Process of Making an Insurance Claim Insurance
4. Affordable Car Insurance — Steps For Cheaper Rates You can re
5. Discount Car Insurance — Five Sure-Fire Tips An afforda

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.