Renting A Car Overseas? Think Twice About Relying On Your Credit Card's Collision Damage Waiver Protection

You've already planned your route, worked out all the best places to stop, and decided which company to rent a car from for your trip to Europe — but what about insurance? When you go to pick up your rental car, they will probably offer you extra insurance for collision damage, but a lot of credit cards offer some emergency coverage. Unfortunately, it might not be safe to turn down the extra coverage and save a little cash for the rest of your trip's budget.

While you might be able to reduce your risk of car theft by putting a local newspaper on the dashboard, there's not much you can do to prevent collisions. There are ways to steer clear of reckless road trip mistakes, like keeping your eyes glued to the GPS instead of watching the road, but accidents are uncontrollable. If you've looked into your credit card's benefits, you may already have some coverage for emergencies overseas, especially if you have a card that caters to travelers. However, getting your credit card to cover damage to your rental car during your vacation is not as easy as converting points to airline miles. While some credit cards offer some insurance coverage for rental cars, exactly what and where you are covered depends on the card you have, so you will have to do some digging into your benefits if you want to say no to an extra rental insurance charge at pickup.

While credit cards can offer coverage for rental car damage overseas, exactly what countries are allowed varies from card to card. Some won't cover luxury cars. Others only offer coverage for a certain length of time, so if you plan to have your rental car for more than two weeks, there's a risk that your credit card won't cover any accidents you have. Most cards only offer reimbursement options, which can result in higher upfront costs that could take weeks or months to recover. Similarly, you should check with your own car insurance company to see what their rental policies are, as coverage from credit cards may only work as a secondary insurance.

Even more frustrating, even if your credit card company does theoretically offer coverage for collision in a rental car in Europe, there's a chance you won't be able to provide the information needed for a claim. Often, credit card companies will require you to provide some kind of proof of the cost of the repair. While you can easily show what the rental car company charged you, it can be significantly harder to get them to hand over itemized proof of the repair costs. Because of this, plenty of travelers have found themselves unable to get paid back, even though they are supposed to have coverage.