Rental Cars – Are you Covered by Car Insurance?

Not all car insurance policies cover you when you rent a vehicle. The policy typically will not extend coverage to friends or relatives unless they are listed on the policy.

To ensure that your policy will cover you while using a rental vehicle, check your car insurance policy or call your agent or insurance company directly. If you call your car insurance company, be sure to record who you spoke to and what department or extension they are at since some employees do interpret policies incorrectly and if they are wrong and something happens, you want to be sure that you record who gave you the erroneous information.

When you rent a vehicle, your coverage will typically only provide temporary car insurance coverage for a rental vehicle. It is usually defined as up to 30 days. If you have rented a vehicle over 30 days, an insurance company does not usually consider it a temporary vehicle and it must be added onto the policy for coverage to continue.

This means that that your car insurance policy will cover you with the broadest amount of coverage listed on the policy for up to 30 days. Therefore if you have a vehicle listed on the policy where you purchased liability and property damage, the insurance company will transfer liability and property damage coverage only.