When renting a car you will be asked if you want to purchase rental insurance. There are pros and cons to purchasing insurance. Some of the factors to consider are your age, weather conditions and location. You should also check with your primary insurance agent and see if your vehicle coverage will also fully cover you when renting a car as many car insurances will.
Some of the pros of purchasing rental insurance are:
It is an opportunity for people that do not have automobile insurance policies on other vehicles to insure the vehicle that they are renting. If you don’t have vehicle insurance, then it would be advisable to purchase insurance when renting. It will fully cover any damage to the car that may occur while you have it.
Some companies choose not to rent to individuals under a certain age such as 25, or they may charge a higher fee for younger drivers. It is important to make sure you are fully covered in the cases where you will be driving in high traffic areas as there is a greater chance of an accident. Most rental insurance policies will pay for damage even if you are not at fault; they will often also pay for damage of both vehicles if you are at fault.
If you do have an accident, then if you have rental insurance it should be cause your main auto insurance policy to be affected. With regular auto insurance policies your premiums may rise if you report an accident and repair expenses. Some states may have a higher requirement for the amount of insurance than your home state. Determine if your policy meets these requirements; if not you may need to purchase some additional insurance at the time of the car rental.
Some cons of rental insurance are:
If you have determined that your current auto insurance policy will cover the rental car, then you will be paying money you do not need to by purchasing rental insurance. The car rental agent may try to talk you into purchasing more insurance than you need, since they may receive a commission on the amount of car insurance they sell. Check your agreement and receipt to make sure the agent has not added charges for insurance that you have turned down. In some cases, car rental agencies may charge you for insurance even if you turned it down.
There are pros and cons when considering if you should purchase rental insurance when you are renting a vehicle.