What You Should Know About Car Rentals & Insurance

Renting a car can be stressful. Oftentimes, you’re on vacation or traveling for business and need a vehicle or maybe your car is in the shop for work. Either way, there’s always a lot of paperwork with fine print about rules, insurance, and more.

If you’ll be renting a car soon, there are some important details you should know when it comes to insurance for a car rental.

Are You Already Covered?

There are some instances where you may not need to purchase additional insurance converge for your rental. These can include:

• Your personal car insurance covers your rental car as if it were your own
• If you are renting a car for business, you are likely covered under the company insurance policy
• If you pay for your rental with a credit card, your credit card company may offer collision insurance

We highly recommend speaking with your insurance company, credit card company, and/or business before relying on any of the above. You want to be sure you are covered before something happens.

Types of Rental Car Insurance

Here is a breakdown of the most common types of insurance offered by rental car companies:

• Collision Damage Waiver: This will cover damage you caused to the car. There may be some exclusions about what is covered and/or specifics causes of damage.
• Liability Insurance: This will cover damage to other vehicles, property, and people as a result of accidents you cause when driving your rental car. This insurance does not cover you, your passengers, or the rental car.
• Personal Accident Insurance: This will cover the medical costs for injuries to anyone in your rental car during an accident.
• Personal Effects Coverage: This will cover personal items stolen from the rental car or items lost in the event the car is stolen. There may be some exclusions and limits to what is covered.

Before you rent any vehicle, we urge you to do some research to understand what coverage you may have or what you should purchase in addition to your coverage. It’s always smart to know beforehand, so in the event, something does happen, you’ll know what is involved.

If you or a loved one has been in an accident with a rental car and is unsure about the next steps to take, don’t hesitate to contact our team. With our extensive knowledge and expertise, you can rest assured that should you choose to work with us, you will have legal representation that you can trust. Please contact us at (405) 433-7414 for a free consultation.