Does American Express Cover Rental Car Insurance

DOES AMERICAN EXPRESS COVER RENTAL CAR INSURANCE

When you land up at a car rental desk for renting a car, they would push you to buy additional insurance for rental car. If your insurance does not have liability coverage it might be a good idea to pay for the collision damage waiver that would be pitched by the car rental desk. However, there is another way by means of which you can do away without buying the additional insurance from the rental services. In the event of an accident where you were driving a rental car, your credit card company would cover the damages that are caused by the accident. If you are wondering does American Express cover rental car insurance or not, you may want to be relived knowing that yes they do cover rental car insurance, but there are certain terms and conditions to that. 

What is covered?

does american express cover rental car insurance
To begin with, American Express will cover the car insurance of the rental car only if you are a valid card member of American Express and use your card to reserve as well as pay the full price that is required to be paid as the rental charges of the car. If you use your American Express card to reserve the rental car and pay the final charges with some other card, or vice versa, American Express will not cover the insurance of the rental car. 

If you are breathing a sigh of relief and your question of does American express cover rental car insurance seems to have been answered, you may want to know a little bit more about it. The benefits provided by the credit card company on rental cars include only the secondary coverage, which are damages which are not covered by your primary insurance. It does not cover any personal injuries, any liability, or any damage of other vehicles or personal properties which might have been caused by the accident.  

The coverage limits of the car rental loss and damage insurance is about $50,000 which would cover any damage or theft of the rented car. However, for Platinum cards the coverage limits are extended to $75,000. Platinum card holders also get the benefits of $5,000 per person as medical expenses, if the cardholder or a passenger gets injured inside the car or while getting out of the rental car.

Vehicles which are not included

There are certain vehicles which are not covered by the American Express even if you use their card for paying the rental services. These vehicles include the following:

Trucks and pickup vans
Full-sized o cargo vans
Customized or recreational vehicles
Antique cars
Premium cars like Limousine
Commercial mini vans
Full-sized SUVs or Sports Utility vehicles
Off-road vehicles
Any vehicle which has a manufacturer suggested new retail price of $50,000 or more
Vehicles which has a manufacturer suggested new retail price of $75,000 or more for platinum
cars
Mopeds, motorcycles
Vehicles which are rented in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, Jamaica and Israel.

If you have paid the rental charges with your American Express card in full and get involved in an accident, do call up your credit card company without any delay and inform them about the accident. 

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