Aspect Car Rental BlogNews and views about car hire and rental world wide.

Many US and Canadian drivers coming to UK and Europe for the first time can get quite confused about the insurance offered on their rental car.

In the States and Canada it usual for the rental to be for ‘time and mileage’ only, they would then expect to pay for additional aspects of the insurance, for example CDW (Collision Damage Waiver).

Many of them will be able to use their own insurance policy to cover the CDW and others will have it as part of a credit card deal. so when they get to Europe they expect the same thing to apply here.

This is where the confusion comes in, even if they rent with a US company like Avis or Alamo they will find that US or Canadian insurance policies and credit card policies are not valid in Europe and so they have to pay the extras.

Car rental that is time and mileage only looks very cheap when you go to book, it can however turn out to be far more expensive by the time you’ve bought all the ‘extras’ you need. Nothing is guaranteed to spoil a trip more than finding the budget you set for your car rental is woefully inadequate.

Always check the insurance when you rent a car for your trip to Europe and specifically the difference in price between paying it all up front when you book (usually the best deal) or buying the ‘extras’ at the car rental desk.

If possible you want to get confirmation by email of the rates involved, or at least a name of the person you speak to if you do it by phone.