USA Car Hire / Amex Platinum Car Rental Insurance

dkay_2

Hi all,

Need advice. I'm looking to rent a car (picking up LAX, dropping off SFO) for 9 days. I have an Amex Plat charge card which provides car rental insurance.

I've pasted the terms from the insurance documentation below:

1.5 CAR RENTAL BENEFITS – THEFT, DAMAGE AND LIABILITY YOUR BENEFITS

The Car Rental Benefits under this Section provide cover in place of the additional or optional insurances offered by Your car rental companies such as:
• Collision Damage Waiver (often referred to as CDW)
• Loss Damage Waiver (LDW)
• Removal/reduction of excess (Super CDW/LDW)
• Theft Protection (TP)
• Top Up/ Supplemental Liability (SLI)
• Personal Accident (PA)

Where mandatory rental insurance must be purchased from or via the rental company in respect of any vehicle hire, the rental company’s insurance cover shall apply. The Car Rental Benefits provided with Your Card shall apply where rental insurance is not offered by the rental company or You are able to decline optional rental insurance offered.

These benefits apply to drivers named on the rental agreement which You are named on, subject to a maximum of 5 drivers. You may have no more than one rental agreement at any one time.

COVER:

• £50,000 for theft or damage to vehicle (including any applicable
excess)
• £500,000 (US$1 million in USA) for damage to another person or their
property

KEY EXCLUSIONS & LIMITATIONS:

• Commercial vehicles, motor homes, caravans and trailers
• Cover applies only when rental agency allows refusal of their insurance
• An insured person must be named on the rental agreement

My questions are:

• Anyone has any experience with this?
• Is this cover comprehensive?
• How do I book car rental in the US without insurance?
• I have booked a car from Alamo - interestingly by declaring my UK residency, the rate (£220) was much lower than for a US resident. Why is this? I've noticed this with other companies too.

My booking includes full CDW and 'extended protection' with no option to decline. Had a quick look at Avis - they include loss damage waiver (LDW) and additional liability insurance (ALI), again with no option to decline. I presume this would be excluded under the T&Cs of Amex car rental insurance?

Interestingly, if I selected "US resident", I can take these insurance charges off but the base rate is still higher than that quoted above (not including taxes and other charges)!

I would actually prefer to use Avis or Hertz so any advice is much appreciated! I presume taking insurance off will bring the rate down further? - but if it doesn't or if it just isn't possible, is the 'standard' car rental agency insurance (like full CDW and 'extended protection') sufficient?

BTW, I've looked at UK brokers - such as usrentacar. Quotes are similar - except they offer a 'gold' option which includes additional drivers and a tank of petrol. I thought there aren't any extra charges for additional drivers in California???

Also, I've read about errant car rental agents (from the likes of Dollar) adding authorised charges onto your credit card even when using a pre-paid voucher from a UK broker. Any thoughts?

ferf1223

I have a credit card with similar coverage and used to rent via US car hire agencies directly - so https://www.dollar.com, etc...decline the insurance, and use my card for the reservation and payment.

Anymore, the difference between doing it this way and renting through a 3rd party UK agency is so small as to not be worth it...now I just go with the UK 3rd party and know that (mostly) I don't have to worry about anything. If I ever had to claim when doing it the old fashioned way, I think I would have had to pay for any damage, etc...then claim back from insurance - not 100% sure...but the difference in price is so small as to not be worth it...I'd rather pay £20 more for a week and know that I don't have to faff about with anything.

Some US agencies will automatically add insurance if you state that you have a UK licence...when I used to do it, Dollar was one of the only ones that didn't add insurance...I never found a way around it.

I have read the horror stories about Dollar too but have never had any charges I have not authorised - the only charges I have ever had are when I opt to pre-pay for a tank of fuel at the time I hire the car...nothing else and we almost always rent with Dollar (via carhire3000).