[Idyllchat] Auto Insurance

[Bob Bestor]

Booking cars in Europe for our readers and 
customers has been part of our business for 15 
years. Our recommendation is: never buy CDW 
(collision damage waiver) LDW (loss damage 
waiver), or theft insurance offered by a car 
rental company unless the purchase of such 
insurance is required by law (Italy) or your 
credit card does not provide those coverages. 
Some cards don't offer CDW/theft at all and most 
cards do not provide it on rentals originating in 
certain countries such as Italy, Ireland, and 
Israel. (Note: even though your credit card may 
not cover rentals in Italy, you are still covered 
while driving in Italy if the rental originated 
in another country such as Germany, France, 
Switzerland, etc.).

In Italy you will be unable to rent a car without 
purchasing CDW and theft insurance. The question 
here is the amount of the deductibles. These can 
range from zero to $3000. Find a company that 
offers a low or zero deductible and/or check with 
your credit card to see if it will cover the 
deductible. If they say 'yes' I would get it in 
writing.

When booking any rental car in Europe, be sure to 
determine if CDW/theft (some companies call it 
LDW) is included in the price. Some 
overseas/online brokers, such as Nova or Argus, 
always include CDW/theft in their rates. The 
problem with these is the high deductibles. In 
order to get the deductibles down to zero you 
then must buy "super CDW/theft" at a high daily 
rate - often as much as 25 euros per day. If your 
credit card covers that deductible, don't worry 
about the "super" coverage. If it doesn't, look 
for a rate quote that excludes CDW/theft, thus 
enabling you to rely on your credit card's zero 
deductible coverage.

A final Italy thought: Here you are required to 
purchase CDW/theft, but not all companies provide 
the same level of coverage. One popular Italian 
rental company, AutoEuropa (not Auto Europe), 
covers damage to the car only when a second 
vehicle is involved. In other words, if you 
scrape a fender, and no other car is involved, 
you are not covered and will be required to pay 
for that damage.

The bottom line is, rely your credit card's 
insurance whenever possible; it's free, zero 
deductible, and reliable-they will reimburse if 
you have a loss.

Bob


>Patricia,
>We will have a car on our Idyll Untour in France 
>in July and we are going to depend on the 
>coverage provided by Travel Insured. We are not 
>going to buy the CDW sold by the car rental 
>company --
>don't like redundant insurance. The risk is 
>having to pay "out of pocket" for any damages 
>and then get all the paper work together to file 
>a claim with Travel Insured.
>I have never had to use the CDW included with Travel Insured.
>Bob Meyer
>
>

-- 
Gemütlichkeit, The Travel Letter for Germany, Austria & Switzerland
288 Ridge Road, Ashland OR 97520
Tel. 800-521-6722, 541-488-8462, Fax 541-488-8468
Email: travel at gemut.com, Web: http://www.gemut.com

Can we give you quote on European Auto Rental,
consolidator air tickets, or European Rail Passes?
Try us at 800-521-6722
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.dca.net/pipermail/idyllchat/attachments/20070620/52bf2593/attachment.htm