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 Your flight landed an hour or so late. Now, you'll be late for that important meeting. You can already imagine your visitors sitting around a meeting table waiting impatiently. You step to the leading of the line at the automobile rental counter, with six other exasperated businessmen behind you who're late due to their meetings, too. The rental agent plunks the contract down in front of you, and circles most of the places on the contract that you're supposed to sign or initial. Then she stares at you, like to say, "Hurry up!" The print is small. The sentences are written in Legalese. You'd like to prevent and see the fine print, but you are able to feel the folks behind you getting more upset rent 4 keeps. You thought you were renting an automobile for $35.00 per day. With the add-ons, the cost is now $70.00 per day.

Oh...the pressure...the panic! You cave in, signing and leaving your initials in most the right places. You take your contract and keys and head for your car or truck, inwardly feeling such as for instance a failure and mad because you didn't remain true for yourself.

If the preceding story is too familiar, there's hope just ahead!

It doesn't matter if you're a regular car renter or just a periodic traveler who must rent an automobile, you'll likely face most of these choices at the automobile rental counter. Some folks just decline everything. Some folks purchase all the coverage offered.

But...are you wasting bunches of money on unneeded coverage or leaving yourself dangerously under insured? Before leaving on your trip, I suggest that you make two phone calls - one to your auto insurance company and another to the bank card company you'll be using to pay for the rental car. You'll need to find out when you yourself have automatic coverage for your car or truck rental from each company, and the various terms and conditions for that automatic coverage.

FIRST...CALL YOUR CAR INSURANCE COMPANY

In your individual or business auto insurance plan, there is coverage for damage to your auto. The Insuring Agreement in many policies says: " We shall pay for direct and accidental loss to 'your covered auto' or any 'non-owned auto,' including their equipment, minus any applicable deductible shown in the Declarations."

Another phrase is VERY IMPORTANT!

"If there is a loss to a 'non-owned auto', we will supply the broadest coverage applicable to any 'covered auto' in the Declarations." Here's a good example of how this may meet your needs:

You have two vehicles. One is really a 2006 Toyota Camry with full coverage. It's worth $24,000. The other is really a 1980 Chevy S-10 pickup worth $1,500 that you merely use for trips back and forth to the local home improvement store, and you merely have liability coverage on the pickup. If you rented an automobile and it got damaged, your insurance company would provide the entire coverage for the rental car, which will be the broadest coverage in your policy.

If you normally drive an older car with only liability insurance onto it, there will not be any property damage insurance extended to the rental car. In this instance, you should either use the credit card's Collision Damage Waiver or choose the CDW from the automobile rental company.

Ask your insurance company representative simply how much coverage you've on your car. Ask if you have a control of value on your Collision coverage. If there is a control, and you drive a 7 year old Ford Taurus that's worth $5,500...and you rent a brand new Cadillac Escalade that's worth $55,000...will your individual auto insurance cover the damage to the bigger valued vehicle? REALLY important to understand this...you could owe the rental car company tens of thousands of dollars to fix or replace a high value rental vehicle if you're not properly covered.

Discover the limits of liability. Make sure that your limits are higher compared to the minimum limits required by your state. Limits above $100,000 per person/$300,000 per accident for Bodily Injury, and $100,000 for Property Damage are very inexpensive. Make sure that you limits are no less than that amount...higher could be better.

Discover what collision and comprehensive deductibles you've on your car or truck, because those deductibles will apply once you rent an automobile and use your own personal insurance for rental coverage.

Make sure that you've Uninsured Motorist and Underinsured Motorist coverage on your individual or business policy. If you should be in an incident by having an uninsured motorist, and the accident is his fault, recovery will be practically impossible. Likewise with a motorist who is underinsured. Best to have your own personal coverage protection.

Q: Imagine if I don't own an automobile, and don't have car insurance?

A: If you don't own an automobile, you won't have an automobile policy. You should purchase the rental car coverage, the CDW and liability coverage. Or, you should use your credit card's CDW and choose the optional liability coverage from the rental car company. If you're a consistent car renter, however, you are able to still buy a "non-owner" liability policy. This solution might help you save money over the coverage available through the automobile rental company.

Q: What are the results if my personal property inside the automobile gets damaged or stolen?

A: Most Collision Damage Waivers provide coverage for theft of the car, but no actual personal property stolen or damaged in the vehicle. Check your homeowners or renter's insurance plan because you may have coverage through them for the stolen or damaged personal property. A deductible will likely apply.

Here's a super important tip! Some individuals believe, when they purchased the Collision Damage Waiver or used the CDW from their bank card, and the rental car got damaged, they don't have to report it for their own insurance company. They're hoping that as the CDW covers the damage, it won't affect their own insurance policy....and they won't get a rate increase. WRONG!!! Don't be misled into convinced that you will get away without reporting your accident to your own personal insurance company. In many accidents, more things get damaged than the rental car. Even when your accident is just you running into a guardrail, whoever owns that guardrail is going to look for you to pay for the damages. Also, other folks could have been injured. You may have a large liability exposure, and you may want your individual or business auto policy to cover your loss. Your insurance plan includes legal representation when someone files a lawsuit against you for damages.

If you're going to use your own personal personal or business auto coverage, decline the Collision Damage Waiver on the automobile rental contract.

NEXT...CALL THE CREDIT CARD COMPANY

Ask your bank card company about the benefits they offer. Each company is different, and each degree of credit is different. Like, a regular card could have different insurance benefits than a gold or platinum card. Ask the card company to give you your benefits IN WRITING. If you're in a hurry, question them to fax or email it to you.

Some cards may only cover collision and comprehensive, and leave you uninsured for liability. Some cards only offer coverage once you rent from a certain rental company. Some restrict how many days of coverage. Some cards don't automatically cover you and need you to sign up for a certain program. Still others limit the kinds of vehicles you are able to rent. (see below for many exclusions)

When you have several bank card, call each one of these and find out the card with the very best benefits. Then, use that bank card to pay for your rental car, and use their benefits.

If you're planning on using the bank card company's coverage, you need to decline the Collision Damage Waiver shown in the rental car contract rent 4 keeps. Otherwise, the bank card company's coverage can become excess to the coverage in the rental car company's Collision Damage Waiver. "Excess" implies that any available coverage would pay first, and the bank card coverage would pay any remaining part of the loss.