Hi all,
Just about to book a rental car for our gold coast trip in July. I have the AVIS AWD# Code - however not sure if i should pay the extra to add "Cover"?
Do the cars come with insurance if you dont buy any "cover" or are they a must have?
The cheapest cover we can buy is $160aud for the 7 days and includes : Windscreen & Tyre Protection, Roadside Assistance & Loss Damage Waiver (LDW)
In Oz you've got third party by default and the car will be insured but the excess will probably be significant. Do you have travel insurance? That often covers rental car excess.
Yup, have travel insurance through my amex airpoints platinum. Thanks for the headsup mate!
Check your amex policy or call them as some travel insurance policies specify that you must have some level of cover on the rental
Forgot to say $70 with rentalcover.com
With excess insurance (either travel insurance or rental company insurance), what happens if you're in an accident and you're at fault due to say speeding, or running a red light etc? Are you still covered?
No, your cover only applies if you're driving within the law. If they can prove you've been speeding, breach of license conditions etc. they won't pay out.
Always bought full cover insurance when in Oz the excess on the rental car page often show over $4000, not willing to take the risk.
There's fish hook in a few of the TI policies I looked at, which don' t cover the excess on the optional cover items, underbody damage and tyre damage, as I recall being optional. You'll want to make sure you have reviewed the policy wording so you know what's excluded even though it looks like you have coverage for everything.
Technically have cover thru BNZ Platinum visa but didn't want to take the risk fee was marginal and we had an early flight so unable to argue any dents etc if they found any
Rental excess is often higher than travel insurance excess cover but I take out travel insurance whenever I rent in NZ instead of getting insurance from the rental company. Recently AirNZ insurance added to the flight has been the cheapest cover ($20 for a week in Queenstown). Over Christmas I took out additional cover for $10k rental excess for 10 days in Europe for $70