Car Insurance in America - America/Canada Discussion Forum, Holiday Forums

Car Insurance in America

Zoomer21

2008-09-08 20:27:50

I was hoping somebody would be able to help explain American cover on car Insurance. We have been to the States twice and the first time to Florida with Virgin I took out the extra cover Platinum Car Insurance so we were fully covered. When we went to Las Vegas though Thomas Cook only covered us for basic liability cover. Further cover was no offered when booking.

The guy at Dollar rental told us with this cover we had no insurance and could be stopped by the police and without explaining the option tried to load on another $780 insurance. With a bit of a fuss I had the insurance dowgraded slightly to $575. Trying to get him to explain the different levels of cover was impossible and it was clear he was trying to make money on commission.

I was hoping somebody could explain to me clearly what the basic liability cover does cover you for as I plan to go to Vegas again and want to be covered but not ripped off by the car rental company.

Thanks in advance for any help given

pebbles

2008-09-08 22:08:16

Re: Car Insurance in America

As far as I'm aware, you weren't ripped off by Dollar, you were ripped off by Thomas Cook. Their extra insurance prices are about the same as the TOTAL fully insured price with Dollar.co.uk or netflights.co.uk.

It is always more expensive to get the insurance on the day.

An example, not necessarily always true, but this is what has happened to us twice.

FREE car with TC - Extra insurance around £280 for the two weeks.

Direct booking with Dollar - Around £250 INCLUDING insurance.

It appears to me that TC books the car, but pays absolutely nothing towards the cost. That is the only way I can explain it to myself. I may be wrong, but I have yet to hear of a person who thinks that TC/Airtours FREE car hire is cheaper than booking direct for yourself.

TeeCee

2008-09-08 22:57:06

Re: Car Insurance in America

Basically, when driving in the USA I would ALWAYS ensure you sort the car fully here because they will try to sell you insurance you don't need, it's happened to me more than once and even when I've been arguing that I know I have full insurance, they have tried to sell more.

It's harder to know if it's part of a package but if you were to book a car seperately through someone like Airline Network, when you buy the Platinum package, you know you are covered for everything.
Always makes me laugh when I see a holiday advertised with 'Free Car' for two weeks......you know it's gonna cost a fortune in insurance anyway!!

Cheers,

TC

Hi De Hi

2008-09-09 06:57:14

Re: Car Insurance in America

The tour companies only provide the basic cover. However if you were involved in a serous accident the medical bills for you or your victims could easily exceed that amount. I have alway taken of top up insurance in this counrty before leaving. It usually comes in at about 20% of what the hire company charges. Best firm I found was the Co-op although its been a few years since I used them and there may be better deals now. We still got the arguement at the car hire desk though while they tried to sell stuff you didn't want or need.

AL38

2008-09-09 14:33:46

Re: Car Insurance in America

Hope this will help, the Gold insurance seems to cover every thing booked mine about 3 months ago for May 09.

http://www.uscarhire.co.uk/HireTypes.aspx

Alan :tup

Zoomer21

2008-09-09 19:56:36

Re: Car Insurance in America

Thanks for the replies. This has helped a lot, looks like I need to book the insuarnce in the UK before we go next time. Virgin have just made and extra £200 plus from me for insurance aswell then!!!! :whoops

nowton

2008-09-10 14:59:14

Re: Car Insurance in America

I would definitely recommend booking your car hire with their gold / premium cover before you go, this should include petrol as well so you then will not get stung for any additional costs when you collect or return the car, these are the two sites we use all the time for car hire and would highly recommend:-
http://www.usrentacar.com/ or http://www.airline-network.co.uk

AL38

2008-09-10 16:26:20

Re: Car Insurance in America

I based all the prices from Usrentacar, airline-network, and uscarhire,on a 2 door compact with Dollar rental as I know it is on Airport just across from arrivals.
usrentacar came out at £7 cheaper but a £50 deposit and no mention of CDW.
airline-net was £268 and also no mention of CDW.
uscarhire was £231 with CBW and only £25 deposit.
So if you take the option of saving £7 pounds you would not it seems have CDW, and if you had the misfortune to have to cancel you would have lost £50.
There may be better deals out there but I haven't seen one yet, I was happy with Dollar this year, and will still say no thank you to all the extras I was told I should have

Alan

nowton

2008-09-11 07:24:37

Re: Car Insurance in America

Maybe, the best thing to do is to book the car hire close to when you are going so you know you won't have the misfortune of cancelling and losing out on a deposit or anything.

AL38

2008-09-11 18:18:23

Re: Car Insurance in America

Nice idea, but Will it cost more in a few months time ? £ sliding against the $ Oil Going down but will it be cheaper or dearer in 9 months time, Odds are very slim that we have to cancel we know that the absolute we will loose is £25 if the worst comes to the worst, We can handle that, so no worries, peace of mind means a lot, happy that I know that it is booked and sorted.
Have seen some fantastic late deals and some dearer than a early booking so throw the dice and good luck :tup

Alan

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