my fyre blog: Which Credit Cards Have The Best Rental Car Insurance? [Travel Tips]

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Which Credit Cards Have The Best Rental Car Insurance? [Travel Tips]

via Consumerist by Meg Marco on 8/7/08

One of the tricks that seasoned travelers know is to always deny the insurance when renting a car. Why? Because the credit card that they are using already comes with insurance that they are familiar with, and because you are required to deny coverage from the rental car company in order to take advantage of your credit card's insurance. But how do you pick a credit card that has good rental insurance?

We found this handy chart on CreditCards.com (a credit card comparison site):

Payment network	Do all cards offer basic coverage?	Amount of coverage	Vehicle exclusions	Limit on rental length	Country exclusions
American Express	Yes, but you can upgrade to to premium protection for a fee	Up to $50,000 for Green, Blue, Gold, Optima, Small Biz, & Small Biz Gold cards; up to $75,000 for Platinum, Centurion, & Small Biz Platinum cards	Any type of pick-up truck, full-sized SUV, luxury van, any exotic sports car and any type of cargo van	Up to 30 days	Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica New Zealand
Discover	No: Available to holders of only Platinum, Miles by Discover, Discover Motiva, Discover Titanum, Discover Business & Discover Business Miles cards	Up to $50,000	Off-road, antique or limited edition motor vehicles; trucks, recreational vehicles, campers, pickup trucks, and minibuses; limited edition motor vehicles or high value, exotic, high performance or collector type; any vehicle which has not been manufactured for 10 years or more	Will not exceed 31 consecutive days, or 45 consecutive days if the insured is an employee of an organization which has provided a card for business use	Coverage applies to vehicles rented in the U.S. and Canada only
MasterCard	No: Available only to Gold, Platinum, World & World Elite cardholders	The lesser of the actual repair amount, current market value (minus salvage), or $50,000 per incident	All trucks, pickups, full-size vans mounted on truck chassis, campers, off-road vehicles, and other recreational vehicles; trailers, motorbikes, motorcycles, and any other vehicle having fewer than four wheels; antique vehicles	Up to 31 consecutive days	Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica and New Zealand
Visa	Yes	Up to actual cash value of the vehicle as it was originally manufactured	Expensive, exotic, and antique automobiles; certain vans; vehicles that have an open cargo bed; trucks; motorcycles, mopeds, and motorbikes; limousines; and recreational vehicles	Up to 15 consecutive days in your country of residence or up to 31 consecutive days outside your country of residence	Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica and New Zealand

As you can see, you're not automatically covered just because you have a credit card, so make sure you read and understand your credit card's rental car insurance policy. That way you can avoid wasting money on an unfamiliar policy offered by a rental car company.

If you're currently researching credit cards, try CreditCards.com or Bankrate.com to compare offers easily.

Compare credit cards' rental insurance policies [CreditCards.com]
(Photo: Marike79 )