Do You Need Rental Car Insurance?

Have you ever noticed that when renting a car, it always seems to play out like the "lightning round" of a game show where you have mere seconds to consider all the papers that are put before you to sign before you are allowed the prize of driving away.

Perhaps it is because it seems as though every time you are faced with the prospect of renting a car it comes at the end of either a frustrating experience such as a long or canceled flight, or after dropping off your car for expensive repairs that will require you to have this rolling reminder of how much those repairs are going to cost you as your mode of transportation in the interim. In either case, my point is, the process of renting a car is something you want to get over with as soon as possible, so you'll pretty much sign anything.

Except for when you come to the page relating to the accepting or denying of rental car insurance. For some odd reason everything comes to a screeching halt here as we actually consider this particular item very carefully, but the person handling the paperwork wants to get it over with as quickly as possible, even more so than you. It isn't as much fun as it used to be however, as they seem to have given up trying to talk you into actually accepting the rental insurance that no one ever seems to accept. At least that I have heard of anyhow.

Recent conventional wisdom seems to always be that you probably don't need to pick up the insurance, but there may be certain circumstances where it would be wise to do so, so I have broken it down by category items that might need coverage to help sort it out for you.

Starting with the "Collision Damage Waiver". First lets define exactly what and why this is. Simply put, this is the part that covers damages and or the theft of the vehicle. The question is, "do you need it?" Well, maybe. If your auto policy of credit card, if that is how you are paying for the rental, do not cover rental car insurance, it probably is best not to roll the dice, so check your policy out for possible coverage, or call your credit card provider.