Questions and Answers

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been a keen reader of the blog for about a year.

Being pretty new to this I was hoping to get some advice about car rental insurance when travelling abroad. I have the southwest premier credit card for all my travels and we are heading to the UK at christmas and planning on renting a car. Do i need to purchase any other coverage? Or is the visa coverage sufficient?

Thanks everyone

I’m looking for the same answer. I did find this link with advice though. It has a section on International and a link to cards that charge no international transaction fee. Hope you get a better answer and I look forward to seeing it.
[URL]https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/best-card-rent-car-insurance-1273.php[/URL]

Steph wrote a more extensive post earlier this year, if it helps: [URL]https://onemileatatime.com/credit-card-rental-car-insurance/[/URL]

If your Southwest card was issued as a Visa Signature, your guide to benefits is here, and you should be fine: [URL]https://cdn.f9client.com/api3/file/1130109/inline/VisaSignatureAirlines_V0000011_BGC10303_ENG.pdf?__gda__=exp=1544484647~acl=/api3/file/1130109/inline/VisaSignatureAirlines_V0000011_BGC10303_ENG.pdf*~hmac=7b73b11978109a92a2509bab7889af6b879ee95060bd4aed13638e757c738d98[/URL]

That being said, if you are using the Southwest card for all your purchases, you are missing out on a TON of points, and I’d definitely recommend branching out.

For years I’ve been renting cars in Europe and trying to find the “answer” regarding CDW coverage on credit cards. First, there’s a big distinction between renting in the USA and renting abroad. More than likely, your USA car insurance company covers you in the States (I know mine does and I decline all coverage within the USA when renting) but not overseas or even in Mexico. It’s gets complicated overseas. Even though many cards offer primary rental coverage abroad, it takes a Chicago Lawyer to interpret the fine print and the numerous exclusions. I’ve spent lots of time on the phone with Customer Service people from the card company Insurance divisions and still haven’t been able to sort through the minutiae. It’s hard to know unless you have an accident or loss while utilizing card coverage abroad whether or not the card coverage worked out. The one time I had problem, and it was a big one, my rental car was stolen in Naples, Italy. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on one’s viewpoint), Italy requires that you buy CDW when renting a car. I had the zero deductible CDW so I just turned over the keys to the company and said, “It’s your problem.” No further action on my part nor charges against my card required.

I’ve heard others say they get a statement of coverage in advance from their card company before renting their car abroad and declining the insurance. I’m not sure which cards offer this service.

I’d like to hear some success stories about card insurance coverage following an accident by a US citizen in a foreign country.

I’d like to echo Gia’s comments. I recently had a stone hit my windshield in the UK … about $1000 to replace, thanks very much. Anyway, I found out that my US car insurance covers Canada and the US, not elsewhere. I did get some refund on my Chase Visa card, for which I’m grateful.

Nowadays if I rent outside of the US and Canada (and I really try not to!) I bite on my wallet and get full coverage. It’s so much more relaxing.