Does Capital One Cover Rental Car Insurance
Many Capital One cards offer car rental insurance coverage through the card network, either Visa or Mastercard. It’s always important to verify that your specific card has coverage and to check what is and isn’t covered. Examples of Capital One cards that may offer rental car coverage include: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and Capital One Platinum Credit Card.
Is Credit Card Car Rental Insurance Enough
Wondering if your credit card car rental insurance is enough to cover you in a worst-case scenario?
That depends on what kind of coverage and how much you already have on your other policies.
Keep in mind that auto insurance covers car rental in most cases. But it’s always important to review all of your insurance coverage, read the details of the policy offered by your credit card and also review options for insurance you can buy from the rental car agency.
In general, credit card rental car insurance may be enough if you:
You should also consider your policy limits, deductibles and how much you want to avoid filing a claim on your personal insurance.
Limitations To Car Rental Insurance On The Platinum Card From American Express
As good as the AmEx rental car protection is, it doesn’t cover every car rental. For example, car rental insurance on The Platinum Card® from American Express doesn’t cover car rentals in Australia, Italy or New Zealand. Also, AmEx’s car rental loss and damage insurance doesn’t cover rentals of the following types of vehicles:
-
Full-sized or cargo vans.
-
Limousines.
-
Off-road vehicles.
While your card covers damage to the car you rented, it doesn’t cover liability for damage you cause to other vehicles or people. Check your car insurance policy to see if your liability coverage extends to rental cars. If not, consider purchasing liability coverage.
The Platinum Card® from American Express provides secondary coverage. That means you’ll need to file with your insurance company first before you file with American Express. Terms apply.
Read Also: Where To Buy Gold Coins In Usa
American Express Car Insurance
With American Express, both the gold card and the platinum card users benefit from a rental car guarantee. The insurer is Chubb European Gourp SE, while the implementation of all gurantees is done through AXA Travel Insurance. The AMEX car rental gold covers all damage and theft of the vehicle of up to 75,000 euros. This guarantee is effective once you are at least 100 km or more away from your place of residence.
How Do I Enroll In Premium Car Rental Protection
To enroll, visit the American Express Premium Car Rental Protection page and click Enroll Now. Youll need to log into your American Express account, select the card you want to enroll, choose the plan youd like and review the programs terms and conditions.
You can enroll cards for which you are the primary cardholder online but will need to call to enroll authorized user cards at 1-866-518-0259.
You wont be charged anything until you use an enrolled card to rent a car, at which point the premium will automatically post to your account. Youll remain enrolled until you explicitly terminate your enrollment. So, if coverage wont be necessary for a specific car rental reservation, be sure to terminate your enrollment before the rental by calling 1-866-518-0259 or the number on the back of your card. Otherwise, youll continue to be charged for coverage each time you rent a vehicle using an enrolled card.
Related: Is credit card travel insurance sufficient on its own?
Read Also: Where Can I Watch Gold Rush Season 10
When Your Standard Insurance Covers Rental Cars
- You have personal auto insurance
- Your personal liability coverage limits are equal to or higher than the limits required for the vehicle that you’re renting
- You’re only using the rental car for personal reasons, not business-related
- You’re only traveling inside the United States
- You have homeowners or renter’s insurance
Primary Vs Secondary Coverage
Most credit cards offer secondary coverage, which means the coverage kicks in after your personal car insurance policy. In the case of an accident, theft or damage, you’d first need to file a claim with your own car insurance company before submitting a claim through your credit card’s insurance provider. If you don’t have a personal auto insurance policy , secondary coverage may still kick in just check your policy to make sure you’re covered.
Primary coverage, on the other hand, is just like the name suggests. With credit cards that offer primary insurance coverage, you can submit an accident claim right away by calling the number on the back of your card, without first submitting to a personal policy.
Also Check: What Is The Price Of Gold And Silver
Whats The Catch With American Express Rental Car Coverage
American Express offers basic rental car insurance coverage on most cards. If you pay for your rental car using your American Express credit card, then you should have collision damage waiver insurance on your vehicle.
However, theres a big drawback to this rental car coverage: it provides secondary rental car insurance coverage not primary coverage.
Because this is secondary insurance, its only activated after you exhaust the limits of your primary insurance. In this case, you would file an insurance claim with your personal insurance companyfirst and then activate the American Express CDW coverage.
As secondary rental car insurance, American Express rental car insurance covers the loss of the rental car and damage to the rental car. It covers you in incidents where the rental car is damaged or stolen, for example.
Theres another catch with this coverage: you need to decline the rental car companys collision damage waiver. If you accept the rental car companys collision damage waiver coverage, then your American Express CDW coverage will not apply.
American Express Conditions Of Use:
Here are the conditions to benefit from the advantages of Amex car rental insurance:
-
Your American Express bank account must be valid
-
Use of the American Express credit card to pay for all costs related to the rental of the vehicle
-
The car rental company must be a professional agency which has all the obligatory licenses in the country where the vehicle is registered
-
The vehicles considered by the Amex car rental guarantees only designated four-wheeled motor vehicles who are registered
-
The insured is covered for a single contract that is to say that the validity of the contract is limited to 90 days, you must therefore renew it for a longer period
-
The contract is valid worldwide
-
The cover is effective beyond 100 km from the home of the insured.
Recommended Reading: How Do You Purchase Gold
Getting Rental Car Liability From The Rental Company
If you do not have a personal car insurance policy and your credit card doesnt cover you, you can purchase supplemental liability insurance from the rental car company. However, this can quickly get expensive, especially since liability insurance for the rental car is sold separately from other coverage.
If you rent cars frequently, it might be more efficient to buy rental car liability insurance from another source. For instance, travel insurance companies offer rental car liability insurance, often at lower prices. You can also buy a non-owner car insurance policy, which offers liability coverage. Another option is to compare
Info About Using Amex Platinum For Car Rental Insurance
I hope this info will help someone with decision whether or not to use their AMEX CC for car rentalinsurance in Ireland.
My husband and I have rented many times from Eutoeurope and received wonderful service, always declined CDW and their excess insurance, always used either our Capital One Venture Card or Platinum AMEX . Never any problems, never had to produce anything other than a copy of our policy.
After reading that our Capital One would not cover Ireland and confirming that our AMEX Platinum would up to 75K total loss, I decided to contact EutoEurope directy and AVIS to make sure they would accept AMEX’s coverage.
This is the e-mail I received from AutoEurope/ Ireland/ Dublin airport:
“Please be advised that while American Express cards are generally accepted by Irish rental car suppliers for the security deposit and any applicable local fees, if you are planning to use your American Express card for your Collision Damage Waiver and Theft Protection in Ireland, you will be required by the rental car supplier to provide a letter from your credit card company stating that you have coverage specifically in the Republic of Ireland, and once this coverage is processed and accepted by the supplier, an authorization of up to 5,000.00 will be held against your credit card for the duration of the rental period in addition, some suppliers may have an additional Processing Fee that will be paid locally when taking a basic rate.
If you have any queries, please do let me know”.
Read Also: Where To Buy 24k Gold
Insure Your Rental Car With Your Bank Card
Renting a car usually involves taking out temporary car insurance. However in some instances your card company already offers this possibility within its package. With such cards as Visa Premier, American Express, or Mastercard Gold a potential client can rent a vehicle with a complete peace of mind. Find out from your banking institutions what type of insurance and assistance guarantees you will be afforded as a client.
What Is Amex Premium Car Rental Protection
AmEx Premium Car Rental Protection is an optional insurance package that can be purchased for an additional one-time fee of $24.95 per qualifying rental. This add-on upgrades the typical American Express rental car coverage to a primary insurance that offers additional protections such as coverage for longer rental periods , a wider array of covered vehicles , and the added bonus of secondary insurance for personal injuries and property damage in the event of an accident. Incidents that occur with primary insurance such as this will not affect the driver’s personally-owned vehicle’s insurance in any way.
Recommended Reading: How To Melt Down Gold
Do Car Rental Companies Accept American Express
We currently accept American Express, Discover Network, MasterCard, and Visa credit cards at our US Airport Locations. At the time of rental, a credit card must be presented with available credit, in the renter’s name. In addition to the anticipated cost of the rental, an additional security deposit may be required.
No Cdw / Ldw In Italy Australia And New Zealand
American Express rental car coverage still does not extend to three key countries: Italy, Australia, and New Zealand. But this is a moot point for Italy.
In Italy, car rentals include collision and theft insurance by law as a default. Car rental quotes automatically include coverage and there is no option to remove it. Typically, for your credit card coverage to take effect, youd decline the coverage provided by the car rental company. In the case of rentals in Italy, you dont have the option to decline this coverage. Bottom line: Theres no need for Amex to provide insurance in Italy since all renters automatically have it.
If youre renting a car in Australia or New Zealand, youll need to use a premium card that covers you. Alternatively, you can pony up for the insurance provided by the car rental company. But that can sometimes cost more than the base rental cost itself.
Also Check: 18k White Gold Cuban Link Chain
Do You Need A Credit Card To Rent A Car
You don’t always need a credit card to rent a car, but you may in some cases. Most U.S. car rental agencies allow you to reserve and pay for a rental car using a debit card that has the Visa or Mastercard logo, but there are exceptions. For example, airport locations of Enterprise Rent-a-Car require you to have a ticketed return travel itinerary to use a debit card for a rental car. Otherwise, you must have a credit card. Car rental agencies typically place a sizable hold on your debit card when you reserve a car, and those funds may be unavailable to you for a week or longer. Also keep in mind that debit cards may or may not offer car rental insurance coverage.
The information related to Capital One Platinum Credit Card and Journey Student Rewards from Capital One has been independently collected by ValuePenguin and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this card prior to publication.
These responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Advertiser Disclosure: The products that appear on this site may be from companies from which ValuePenguin receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site . ValuePenguin does not include all financial institutions or all products offered available in the marketplace.
How To Get Coverage
To activate coverage for your Amex car rental insurance, you must reserve and pay for the entire cost of a rental car with your eligible Amex card. You will also need to decline a full collision damage waiver and other similar rental car coverage. Once you do the above and sign the rental agreement, you’ll be taking the car into your possession and will be able to utilize your Amex car rental insurance benefits.
Recommended Reading: How Much Does 1 Troy Ounce Of Gold Cost
The Guide To Amex Platinum Rental Car Benefits
Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This may influence which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list ofour partnersandhere’s how we make money.
The Platinum Card® from American Express provides a slew of travel benefits including access to over 1,400 airport lounges and up to $200 in Uber cash each year. Among these marquee benefits, the less-glamorous ones can often get overlooked. However, these other travel perks and protections can really make a difference to your travels. One great example of this is the rental car benefits that come with The Platinum Card® from American Express. Terms apply.
Let’s take a look at some of the rental car perks that holders of The Platinum Card® from American Express enjoy, including rental car elite status perks and complimentary car rental insurance.
Purchase Protection And Extended Warranty
The Amex Gold Card also comes with a variety of purchase protections. For example, if you drop your recently bought phone, you may be eligible for up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per calendar year to replace lost, stolen or damaged items.
Youll also enjoy extended warranty protection when you use your Gold Card for a purchase. You can get up to one extra year added to a manufacturers warranty of 5 years or less. Terms and conditions apply.
Read Also: How Much Gold Is In The World
What About Liability Coverage
Liability coverage isn’t included in most credit card and/or rental car CDWs, which only cover damage to and/or theft of the rental car . If you’re involved in an accident resulting in injury to another person, you probably won’t be covered.
Full liability protection comes with the rental company’s insurance. You typically have to add it on at the counter and/or at the time of reserving the car, unless you have extended rental car coverage through your personal auto insurance policy. Liability protection is likely more expensive for rental cars than for your own car it runs about $8 to $25 per day. Some countries may actually require that you opt into liability coverage when renting a car.
More Info About The Amex Gold Card Npsl
While not having a preset spending limit can offer you some flexibility, it can be difficult in emergency situations. You can know roughly what youre able to spend based on past months, but with most NPSL cards, you never know exactly when a future purchase will be declined.
American Express makes it easier to plan for future purchases, though. If you’re unsure whether a large purchase will be approved or not, simply use the Check Spending Power tool in your online account or mobile app.
Recommended Reading: Is Gold Plated Worth Anything
The Amex Hotel Collection
While Amex opted to go with a more restrictive travel bonus category than Chase , they did include a hotel-specific benefit that carried over from the old version of the Amex Gold Card.
When you use your Gold Card to book hotels through The Amex Hotel Collection, youll earn 2x points and enjoy an up to $100 property credit and space-available room upgrades on stays of two nights or longer. This might be a good option to consider if you dont have a card that gives more bonus points for hotel bookings. And on short, cheap, stays, the up to $100 property credit can end up being a pretty serious rebate.
Related: Everything you need to know about The Hotel Collection
