5 Steps to Make Your Rental Car Look like a Local

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

make your rental car look like a localThieves are happy to target the rental cars of tourists. Why? Because they know you are carrying some stuff: perhaps a little jewelry, certainly a camera (or two), a few electronics, that kind of thing. Those items are easy to sell. Even worthless, but irreplaceable items like a thumb drive with your pictures or a journal with your thoughts, are stolen if they are left in a bag in the vehicle.

Therefore, we recommend the following steps to making your rental car look like a local:

  1. Leave no tourist papers lying around – put your airline tickets in your purse or suitcase, keep the car rental documents with you too. Any piece of paper that looks like you are passing through gets carried with you or tossed immediately.
  2. Put a local newspaper in the car and take care to place it under the rear window so thieves will see it before they try to smash the window.
  3. Put your suitcases immediately into the trunk and don’t open the trunk until you arrive at your lodging so a potential thief doesn’t happen to see what you’re hiding.
  4. Leave your glove compartment open and empty so the thief can see it’s useless to break into the car. Same for leaving the cover off your trunk or lying down the seats so they can see there’s nothing available to steal.
  5. Last, but not least, don’t leave your camera and other electronics lying around. If you cannot take them with, they are safer in the hotel room in the safe.

Remember to ask your lodging staff where the safest parking is to be found. Once you get there, take a minute to look around – is the asphalt is glittering with lots of small glass bits, it may not be the safest parking space despite the information you’ve been given.

If a thief does manage to smash the window of your rental car, be sure that you have car rental collision coverage – either with your own automobile insurance, through your credit card coverage, or with travel insurance. See our review of car rental collision coverage to be sure. If a thief does manage to make off with your baggage, you’ll want to have some protection for that as well. See our review of baggage coverage to decide.

Do you need an International Driving Permit?

December 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

International driving permitMost countries do not recognize U.S. driver’s licenses, but they will accept an International Driving Permit. When you travel overseas, it can be useful to carry an International Driving Permit because, just like in the U.S., it acts as a recognizable form of identification even if you never plan to drive in a foreign country.

What are the requirements for an International Driving Permit?

To qualify for an IDP, you must be at least 18 years of age and have a current U.S. driver’s license.

How do you apply for an International Driving Permit?

Two automobile associations are authorized by the U.S. Department of State to issue IDPs:

U.S. citizens can secure an IDP by visiting one of these offices or through the postal service. Start by completing the IDP application and taking or mailing it along with:

  1. 2 passport-like photos (2″ x 2″) – sign the back of each photo
  2. a permit fee of $15.00 U.S. (as a check or money order, no cash)
  3. a photocopy of the front and back of your current U.S. driver’s license
See the application for the mailing address. The permit is valid for only 1 year and it must be issued within 6 months of the application date.

Overseas auto insurance

Car accidents can occur overseas just as they can back home, and if you will be driving in a foreign country, it’s recommended that you purchase adequate car insurance. Travelers using a credit card usually have adequate car rental coverage with their credit card protection, but of course, you’ll need to check with your credit card company and review the card agreement to be sure. You can also purchase car rental collision coverage through your travel insurance company.

It’s important to note that neither travel insurance nor credit card protection cover your personal liability. These plans are designed to protect travelers from the high costs associated with repairing a damaged vehicle, so these plans are not comprehensive coverage like you may have with your own automobile insurance back home.

Three countries: Mexico, Jamaica, and Ireland do not accept car insurance from outside their own country, so you’ll have to purchase car insurance inside those countries for it to be valid.

For additional overseas road safety facts and road travel reports, see the Association for Safe International Road Travel.

How rental car insurance works – and doesn’t work

November 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
car rental insuranceMost travelers decline collision coverage at the rental car counter, because their credit cards cover the rental if it’s paid for with the credit card.The key, however, is to understand that the credit card policies change frequently and by a lot. So, instead of simply re-affirming with your credit card that the rental car coverage is automatically in place, have the issuing company send you the details of the coverage. The reason for this is because the customer service representatives may not be aware of the fine print or even recent adjustments.If you own an automobile, your coverage may extend to the rental car but with some limitations. Often, this coverage does not include ‘loss-of-use’ fees charged by the rental car company because in the case of a crash with your own vehicle, you’d either rely on family and friends while your car is repaired or have the option to rent a car which is what you’ve already done on your trip.

No liability – no way, no how

Collision is only half the auto insurance story, of course, and neither travel insurance nor your credit card rental protection provide liability coverage, which protects you in case the rental car the rental car you are driving damages other property (or even worse, people).

Your own automobile insurance coverage may include liability, but again, if you’re using your auto insurance to cover your rental car when you travel, get your hands on the coverage details and understand the benefits and limitations. Plus, check your limits because if you drive a 15-year-old car at home and rent a nice, new minivan on vacation, your limits may not be enough to cover damage to the rental car. If liability insurance isn’t available as part of your travel insurance or credit card insurance, see if you can add a third-party liability (often called an “umbrella” rider to your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance).

See the full details about car rental collision coverage.

Without a credit card, rely on travel insurance

While the protection you have with a credit card is typically included in your annual fee (unless you purchase a specific insurance product from your credit card issuer), travel insurance collision coverage costs (on average) $7-$9 dollars per day, which is a lot less than the $18-$21 per day often charged by car rental agencies.

Related posts

These these posts related to rental car insurance:

Does travel insurance cover my stuff if my rental car is broken into?

October 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

car rental coverageUnfortunately, no. Travel insurance companies don’t cover anything that is stolen from the car or destroyed in a collision –  just the car itself.

Specifically, most travel insurance policies read like the following with regards to car rental coverage:

The insurer will pay the lesser of:

(a) the cost of repairs and rental charges imposed by
the rental company while the car is being
repaired; or
(b) the Actual Cash Value of the car

Up to the maximum limit shown on the insurance policy’s schedule subject to the policy’s deductible.

The exclusions in a travel insurance policy typically list personal possessions as not being covered with the (often optional) rental car coverage.

If your rental car is broken into in a ‘smash and dash’, you’ll be responsible for the loss of anything stored inside it. This is true as well for anything destroyed in a collision. Read the full details on car rental collision coverage and who offers this with their travel insurance plans.

 

It’s a vacation, so why should I be concerned about my alcohol intake?

October 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

drinking and travel insuranceTravel insurance providers, just like the providers of all types of insurance (home, auto, life, etc.), want to limit their risk. In the case of travel insurance plans, they list alcohol as a general exclusion. The intention of this exclusion is to ensure that the travel insurance company won’t have to be responsible for losses that occur as a result of intoxication.

This makes sense when you think about it. Automobile insurance companies limit their risk for losses due to reckless driving by increasing the premiums, or even dropping coverage, for drivers with high numbers of moving traffic violations and speeding tickets.

Because the intake of alcohol can blur a person’s ability to make appropriate decisions, the travel insurance provider shouldn’t have to be responsible for reckless behavior. It’s important to remember that all travel insurance providers require documentation for a claim to be processed.

  • If you are making a claim on the medical coverage portion of your travel insurance coverage, for example,  and the presence of alcohol is noted in the medical documentation, your claim could be denied.
  • If you’re making a claim on the car rental coverage portion of your travel insurance and a police report reveals a positive breathalyzer result, your claim could be denied.

How much can a traveler drink while on vacation? That’s a judgement call. Most travel insurance providers will look at the level of intoxication noted in the documentation provided to support the claim and make their decision based on the legal limits of the jurisdiction.

 

Travel disasters and your credit card

August 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Travel and credit cardsFinancial experts often recommend traveling with your credit card – not your debit card – along with some cash. It’s important to note that not all countries are as card-savvy as others and in some places cash is the only way to go. Either way, traveling without a credit card can spell disaster, and here is why:

  1. If you get sick, your credit card can speed treatment. If you’ve purchased a travel insurance plan with travel medical coverage, sometimes that travel insurance company will guarantee payments to the medical facility to get your treatment moving along, but if not, your credit card will and you can later claim reimbursement from the travel insurance company, depending on the circumstances and your policy’s description of coverage. If your travel medical coverage is secondary to your home health insurance (this is especially true if traveling within your home country), then your credit card can fill the gaps until you can make a claim on your travel insurance policy.
  2. If your wallet is stolen, only the credit cards can be easily replaced. If you’re mugged on the streets of Italy, your first call should be to the local authorities, but your second to the bank issuing your credit card. The best credit card companies will send you a replacement via your lodging address and make sure you are safe for returning home or continuing your trip – that’s part of their customer service. With a debit card, if you contact the bank quickly (typically within 2 days is required), you may get the money the thieves cleaned out of your account back, but you won’t see it the next business day. This could mean sleeping on a park bench for a night or two.
  3. If you’re making foreign purchases, the credit card exchange rates are better. True many credit cards charge you a foreign transaction fee, but it’s still usually cheaper to pay the fees than to convert U.S. dollars to foreign currency because the credit card purchases are exchanged on the interbank exchange rate and currency exchanges are out to make a profit.
Look, credit cards may have a bad rap sheet, but they simply make it easier to rent a car, get cash, secure a hotel room, get medical treatment, and book a flight when traveling.
« Older Posts