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Email this7:10 pm
January 3, 2013
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Hi,
I am interested to know about your experience when in need of Credit Card insurance help. Mostly curious about car rental insurance details. Did it go as expected?
I always decline any extra insurance and hope the promised CC insurance works but gladly never needed to use it in any of the 35+ countries I rented a car in.
Thanks.
9:49 pm
October 21, 2013
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I had a very good experience with a BMO card's extended warranty. They paid about 1000 for a repair a few years ago.
Have used the car rental insurance a lot but never had to put it to the test. You do need to check, however, on what the local mandated liability insurance is. After driving around southern California for 3 weeks in a big fat white Lincoln (not my choice; the whole lot at LAX was full of them!), I discovered that I only had 25K in liability insurance because I'd declined extra without realizing the local limits. Fortunately, no incidents.
I would be wary of CCs that do not offer Primary CLDW. It could end up being charged to your home car insurance, to the limit of same, before CC pays.
9:51 pm
May 15, 2007
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I had a small windshield chip in a rental car, and the insurance process with Amex was smooth. The hardest part was getting the relevant documentation from the rental company.
Note that you must use a traditional car rental company, and not a peer-to-peer service such as Turo, which is often excluded from credit card insurance.
12:31 am
January 3, 2013
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Loonie - Thank you. Almost all CCs insurance say we have to decline any extras to utilize the CC or won't be eligible.
Regarding being charged to home car insurance, I read all the details and never seen any card saying home car insurance kicks in first. I'd definitely don't want that to happen ever. Are you aware of any card that doesn't offer Primary CLDW?
12:33 am
January 3, 2013
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Peter - Thank you and glad you got it sorted out with Amex. The issue is that Amex isn't acceptable everywhere so I can't rely on it as the "go to" card everywhere. Need to be Visa or MC.
And yes, the documentation gathering worries me but then if they don't provide the document, can always charge back.
7:51 am
March 14, 2023
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I had asked a similar question a while back -
https://www.highinterestsavings.ca/forum/credit-card-reward-programs/rogers-bank-world-elite-mastercard-insurance-claims-experience/
I learned that many (maybe most?) CC offerings are secondary. Both of my cards that offer coverage are secondary (one card with a fee, one without) and I checked out several others that I don't have and only found one that was primary (Amex, I recall, but not sure which version). The CC insurance certificate needs to be read carefully.
12:20 pm
October 21, 2013
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Save2Retire@55 said
Loonie - Thank you. Almost all CCs insurance say we have to decline any extras to utilize the CC or won't be eligible.Regarding being charged to home car insurance, I read all the details and never seen any card saying home car insurance kicks in first. I'd definitely don't want that to happen ever. Are you aware of any card that doesn't offer Primary CLDW?
I can't name any specifically, as I don't keep track, but, generally, the free or low-cost ones will more likely be Secondary. You kind of get what you pay for, as it were. The one we use for car rental is a BMO card with a fee of about 120 or so. We haven't had occasion to rent a car in quite a while so I have not checked to see if it is still Primary. I can no longer drive, so spouse looks after that area now.
They will never say in so many words that they would get your own insurance to pay first, but look for words like Primary and Secondary or some other evasive phrase.
12:24 pm
October 21, 2013
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P.S. There was a previous thread on this subject, but good luck finding it. I recall that some disagreed with my interpretation, but don't recall details. i think they were saying that it would end up as a mark against you with your own insurance company regardless, but not sure about all that now.
3:15 pm
January 3, 2013
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I see. This is kind of disturbing honestly. I have to read more I guess. Thanks a lot.
The thing is that my insurance does NOT have "Rental car" coverage so I assume I don't have any other coverage for rental car which means even if it is secondary, it will become primary as there isn't any replacement (Or I think/hope so, haha)
12:27 pm
October 21, 2013
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This is a difficult and potentially expensive issue. You should definitely read everything carefully, talk to your insurer etc. I can't guarantee that everything I have said is up to date. I'm a bit rusty on this issue, but raising flags.
I think there is a rider you can get on your own car insurance which covers rentals, quite cheap, maybe $40 or so, but not sure what-all it covers.
1:35 pm
January 3, 2013
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Thank you. Certainly.
1:36 pm
September 29, 2017
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Aside from cost, one of the big motives for using a CC rental auto insurance coverage is that in the case of an accident, the goal would be for this to not show up on your personal auto insurance record.
Otherwise, as you point out, you could simply add a rider on your personal auto insurance (some policies make this a standard inclusion).
5:33 pm
April 6, 2013
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Loonie said
P.S. There was a previous thread on this subject, but good luck finding it. I recall that some disagreed with my interpretation, but don't recall details. …
I think this is the previous thread.
7:12 pm
October 21, 2013
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Thanks, Norman. I'm not going to re-read the old thread, but OP should and no doubt will.
@smayer: Yes, that's what I thought too about the rider counting against you if you used it, but someone said (maybe on the old thread) it would count regardless, so I'm not sure any more. If you have proof I'm sure we'd all be interested.
8:10 pm
September 29, 2017
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I have no direct experience. I also have not rented in a very long time. But I know that was a point of discussion a lot in the past when I used to. I do not know how it applies today.
9:09 pm
January 3, 2013
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Thank you, all. I read the previous thread.
I also confirmed:
1. SAAQ (Quebec Insurance) doesn't cover owned / rental car at all
2. My own car insurance doesn't have rental car coverage. I can add this option which will only cover rentals in the US / Canada.
3. As mentioned above, the point of using a CC is to avoid getting hit on home insurance.
4. I am now in the process of finding a new travel CC since HSBC is gone and RBC card isn't adequate. Eyeing National Bank WE MC or Scotiabank Visa Passport. Will check their policy in details before next steps.
I hope I got this right 
11:43 pm
October 21, 2013
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Sounds like you're on the right track - or at least as good a track as any of us know about! Quebec is often an exception to whatever, it seems.
We always used Diners' Club card, and were told by the car rental people we used a lot at the time that it had the best insurance. I don't know if they knew what they were talking about. Diners Club was bought up by BMO, and policy may not be as good now, but maybe it is; I don't know. The card exists still, but not easily found on their roster. You could ask, I suppose. Rewards for travel reimbursement are not great, about a 1% return.
We'll be interested to hear what you decided on, and why.
Here's another tip that just came to mind: We have found that the actual policies, where the details are, change from time to time, as do the carriers, and the card issuer doesn't necessarily tell you when this occurs. Most likely they wont. So it's a good idea to review them before every trip. Perhaps some of these are online now. We used to request a new set of policies annually.
Really too bad about HSBC. That should never have been allowed IMO. We need more competition in this industry, not less. RBC is plenty big enough.
4:26 am
April 27, 2017
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Yes, I had very good experience with HSBC Premier. Claimed twice, very fast reimbursement, no quibbles. RIP.
9:17 am
January 3, 2013
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Loonie - Thank you so much.
And yes, RIP HSBC! It was a fantastic CC. Oh well.
10:21 am
April 6, 2013
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We looked into it previously. Diners Club is only a brand now. The Diners Club card network is gone.
The company was bought by Discover and the cards integrated into the Discover card network.
The North American Diners Club franchise was bought by Bank of Montreal. Bank of Montreal uses the brand on some of its MasterCards.
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