Rental car insurance for Canadians?

[squiffynimrod]

Folks, I'm in the planning mode and researching car rentals for FLL.

There are some cheap add on insurances ($9/day CDW) but they state "Plan only available to residents of the U.S."

What have my fellow Canadians experienced? Are there any deals to be had?

[DanJ]

I've never seen where it says only for US residents, but are you sure you didn't specify you are a US resident on the main rental page? It probably defaults to that and many people overlook it when doing the date and car selections. I always get the rental insurance even though my own car insurance covers it to a certain degree. However, I don't want to have to deal with it after my vacation and some things that your insurance won't cover that the rental company will go after you for would be loss of use of that vehicle should you be in an accident. They will basically charge you the daily rental fee for it while it's being repaired or replaced and good luck getting your insurance to pay that. I think it's the LDW that usually runs $25 or so per day that covers this. Cheap insurance in the grand scheme of how much the vacation costs.

[Kamloops50]

I always use the Rental Coverage part of my car insurance . It has the overages and deductibles as my regular policy . I have a card that I show the rental company for proof of coverage . If there are any questions , there is an 1-800 number they can call to check.

It seems that most rental companies in Canada and the US charge somewhere between $20 to $35 US per day for optional coverage.

[LHT28]

Check you car insurance policy you may be covered for rentals in the USA

Also you Credit card may also have coverage

[hockeyluver]

both our car insurance and our credit card ( when that card is used to pay for the rental) cover our rentals

[squiffynimrod]

Thanks for the replies.

I am aware of the coverage supplied by the CC companies and piggybacking on your car insurance.

In my situation, I need to purchase the coverage separately. I don't use CC's often so I have a basic card with no rental card provision. And our car insurance is run by the provincial government (think monopoly) and rental car coverage is not offered.

But now the good news!

I kept playing around and looking for options and found via Hotwire and using the CDN dollar tab I can get 5 days of rental insurance for $74.95 CDN. That works out to $14.99 CDN daily and converted is US$11.29 at todays rate.

Looks like I have my answer!