USA car hire insurance

Muddy68

I have booked rental cars in Hawaii, which is a no fault state for insurance claims. I am really struggling to get clarity on the insurance cover and to get the third party cover that seems normal in Europe but absent in US rental agreements. The rental company info is basically opaque with no real clarity from them on asking for detail. Have booked through an agency as recommended by many, discount Hawaii car rentals. They confirm the following 
“Your confirmed reservation below includes unlimited miles, all taxes and mandatory fee's, Loss Damage Waiver with Zero Excess, Supplemental Liability insurance up to 1 Million and also uninsured motorist protection.  This rate is only valid if you have a drivers license and passport from a country other than Canada or the USA.”

So, no excess for theft of or damage to the rental car that is fully covered, great. SLI seems to cover injury to third parties at a decent level, though prob not for a major accident/event. So what’s missing totally is the third party vehicle damage. I cannot get a straight answer about this and the more I search the more confusing it becomes. I need the third party cover but extra policies I could buy in the UK don’t seem to cover this generally. Mostly they are for excess cover, which I used last year in Europe where the excess was €1000. I don’t want to get fleeced at the car hire counter when picking it up and can’t get an answer about how much that is likely to be anyway so no doubt really excessive. One policy I’ve found gives two options: SLI that does cover damage to third party vehicle or a policy that says it covers anything the car rental policy doesn’t…. Which seems too good to be true ….but you can’t have both options in one policy. 

Really appreciate advice from someone very well versed in this subject. Thank you. 

DullGreyGuy

SLI normally covers third party bodily injury and property damage; I assume this is the company and they do state SLI covers both https://www.discounthawaiicarrental.com/rental-resources/car-rental-insurance/

Muddy68

Yes but on checking with them, SLI does not include damage to the third party’s car. This does not appear to be what is meant by property. The agent suggests collision damage insurance from rental cover.com, which is the policy I have noted above and which does cover the third party vehicle. In trying to understand this, I think that it is the primary liability insurance that is what covers the third party vehicle in the States...is that correct? Is this the UK equivalent to third party insurance? If so, I can’t see where that’s included in the general rental agreement, only the supplemental liability insurance seems to be included. 

DullGreyGuy

Are you sure this isnt an issue of two countries divided by a common language? They would describe it as covering liability for property damage rather than the "third party car"

CDW is covering own vehicle damage, ie the rental. 

Muddy68

Yes I’m sure it could be but whenever I ask the question “does it cover damage to the third party’s vehicle?” nobody seems able to answer this, which inevitably makes me suspicious. I just need to get a straight answer. If it does include it then what they have outlined would seem to be all the cover I need. Can I ask what the primary liability cover is versus the supplemental liability? Thanks. 

DullGreyGuy

These things are much more common in the US market, they exist here too but are much more in the corporate insurance space than personal lines. Buying one policy that covers you for infinite liability is expensive, what's worse is that a small claim would impact the total premium. So in some cases rather than buy a single policy people chunk it up so may have a policy that covers £0-£1m, then another thats £1m-£5m etc thus if you have a series of claims under £1m only the bottom policy's premium goes up materially. 

The primary policy is that first layer of protection you buy, so in the example above it would be the £0-£1m policy.

A supplementary policy extends the cover of another policy to a higher limit under the same terms but is dependent on the primary policy existing and so more of a "bolt on" than a truly standalone policy

There are also excess policies which are similar to standalone in that they are generally intended to sit above another policy but they are fully independent, they have their own terms and technically dont have to have a primary underneath it. 

In the above example the £1m - £5m could be a supplementary or excess policy in principle. If the insured decided that actually they get so many low value claims that buying the £1m limit policy is more expensive than simply paying the claims themselves they could just by the £1-£5m policy but then it would have to be an excess as there is no underlying policy for a supplementary to extend. 


Where you dont have your own auto insurance the hire company should be providing the primary policy which will have to meet the state minimum level of cover ($20k pp/ $40k agg for BI and $10k property in Hawaii) and very rarely goes above it. The SLI will extend that cover to whatever its limit is.