Car Hire Excess Insurance - USA

nosietoes

Hey ya,

I'm planning on renting a car when I go to Houston in the summer. Last time I did, I was stung with a very steep extra insurance bill when I got to the rental office. I'm looking at blue insurance's car hire excess insurance and by using its daily rate, and including SLI, it's working out under €60 (in contrast to the more than $200 I paid last time).

Does anyone have any experience with this? Will Enterprise rent a car accept it? Does it definitely cover the same stuff the expensive extra insurance covers?

BailMeOut

When you rent the car Enterprise you just decline CDW insurance. They may give you a hard sell saying theirs is better but ignore them. They will however put a hold on your credit card for the CDW deductible and IF you damage car they will take this amount from you automatically. You then claim this money back from the 3rd party excess insurance company.

So just make sure you are ok with your credit card getting hit for this amount while you process the refund from the 3rd party and that you trust that the 3rd party will indeed refund you.

I always get 3rd party excess insurance but have never made a claim.

BailMeOut

When you rent the car from Enterprise you just decline CDW insurance. They may give you a hard sell saying theirs is better but ignore them. They will however put a hold on your credit card for the CDW deductible and IF you damage car they will take this amount from you automatically. You then claim this money back from the 3rd party excess insurance company.

So just make sure you are ok with your credit card getting hit for this amount while you process the refund from the 3rd party and that you trust that the 3rd party will indeed refund you.

I always get 3rd party excess insurance but have never made a claim.

nosietoes

Thanks a million! Just wanted to make sure that I completely understood the process involved.

danger_mouse_tm

Have a quick look at Turo.com, There's a few hoops to jump through to get registered but once you're approved you might find you can get a slightly older car for less money than you might have paid at a rental desk without all the extras (especially if you're renting at an airport location). You can use the blue insurance too if you want, but one lady that booked my car down in here Florida took the Turo insurance for the week she has my car and she said it was an extra $25 for the entire rental period. If it's something you might be interested in, I can give you a link that will get you $25 off your first rental.

gmurphy70

Definitely the car hire excess insurance is great but know the car rental company will put a hold on your CC ,the amount varies depending on the size of car. You decline SCDW even though they will try the hard sell. For a mid size car they could put a hold of $2000 dollars on your CC so just be aware of this before renting.this will be released if there is no damage on return of the car.