Amex Platinum CDW

Jaylima91 · ‎03-06-2017

Hello everyone, I'll try to make this as short as possible. I am taking a trip in April within the states and want to rent a vehicle for almost 2 weeks. I was a little dumbfounded when I discovered that Amex doesn't offer PRIMARY coverage for their CDW insurance. I could've sworn it has always been offered as primary.

Nonetheless, life moves on and this guy right here has to rent a vehicle. What would you recommend that I do? Should I use a credit card and which credit should I use for CDW? Or should I just pay the CDW fee directly with the Car Rental Agency?

Just want to hear some of the best and worst experiences in all scenarios.

Thanks in advance!

Jaylima91 · ‎03-06-2017

I should probably point that I have the CSP and newly added the CSR.

sillykitty1 · ‎03-06-2017

You can pay a flat fee for each rental to Amex to have primary. I think it is pretty weak that primary CDW isn't one of the new enhancements, considering it is included on all Chase Visa Sig's.

Using your CSR is a much better option because it already includes primary, and 3 UR's vs. 1 MR

Jaylima91 · ‎03-06-2017

Wait how do I pay Amex to make the coverage primary?

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2017

The CSP and CSR offer primary coverage.

sillykitty1 · ‎03-06-2017

@Jaylima91 wrote:
Wait how do I pay Amex to make the coverage primary?

Well, I keep getting lead to this link

http://thepointsguy.com/2015/07/credit-cards-that-offer-primary-car-rental-coverage/

but it's not working for me.

I've never tried it, and don't suggest you do either, CSR already has you covered

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2017

@Jaylima91 wrote:
Hello everyone, I'll try to make this as short as possible. I am taking a trip in April within the states and want to rent a vehicle for almost 2 weeks. I was a little dumbfounded when I discovered that Amex doesn't offer PRIMARY coverage for their CDW insurance. I could've sworn it has always been offered as primary.

Nonetheless, life moves on and this guy right here has to rent a vehicle. What would you recommend that I do? Should I use a credit card and which credit should I use for CDW? Or should I just pay the CDW fee directly with the Car Rental Agency?

Just want to hear some of the best and worst experiences in all scenarios.

Thanks in advance!

I enrolled in the Premium Coverage from AMEX. It's primary, a flat fee for coverage up to 42 days, but also covers cars with a value of up to $100k

More info via the link...

https://feeservices.americanexpress.com/premium/car-rental-insurance-coverage/home.do

Anonymous · ‎03-07-2017

@Jaylima91 wrote:
Hello everyone, I'll try to make this as short as possible. I am taking a trip in April within the states and want to rent a vehicle for almost 2 weeks. I was a little dumbfounded when I discovered that Amex doesn't offer PRIMARY coverage for their CDW insurance. I could've sworn it has always been offered as primary.

Nonetheless, life moves on and this guy right here has to rent a vehicle. What would you recommend that I do? Should I use a credit card and which credit should I use for CDW? Or should I just pay the CDW fee directly with the Car Rental Agency?

Just want to hear some of the best and worst experiences in all scenarios.

Thanks in advance!

I've always always ALWAYS been told the CDW isn't worth the money. Paying AMEX is probably cheaper, and I have seen CDWs that cost PER DAY as much as AMEX charges total.

it may have changed since I was in a position to rent cars frequently, but I believe that, at one time, even the rather expensive CDW was secondary, after the renter's own personal insurance was used. Which is exactly what you get with the cards that give you secondary coverage.

I would definitely try to find a card that offers primary coverage rather than paying for the CDW. And I would even use my personal insurance before paying for it. (Biut if you got that direction, make sure to review your personal insurance to make sure rentals are covered)

Jaylima91 · ‎03-07-2017

Thank you all. I found the page for the primary Amex coverage. I may end up giving it a go with the CSR this time around.

Anonymous · ‎03-07-2017

Jaylima91 cna you porivde some additional details?

1. Do you have existing auto insurance w/ collison and comprehensive coverage?

If you do, then your insurance will pay first and Amex will cover the extras. Amex will typically pay for loss of use and may pay for your auto insurance deductible. You should have very little out of pocket between the two payers. Risk is that you would have a ding on your claims reports and risk higher auto insurance. However, in practice this is slightly different. For example, some insurance companies don't really look at no-fault accidents, hit and runs, etc. In my case my personal car was side swiped while parked and the dirver took off and Geico paid a few thousand to fix the damages. Got a police report and my insurance reamined the same w/ Geico and State Farm.

2. If you do not have current auto insurance or collison and comprehensive coverage - then Amex will become primary. They will pay the damage of the vehicle, plus some additional insurance such as personal injury for you and your passengers up to a small amount (I think it's around $5k). You will no history of the accident on your claims report. The issue here is liability insurance. Typically the car rental agencies only provide the MINIMUM liability insurance. USAA used to provide additional liability insurance for free w/ certain agencies and waive the under age fee so I always used their rate code. However, you can and should buy additional liability insurance from the vendor. You don't want to risk your assets over a minor car accident.

Overall, if you have a Chase product (CSR, CSP, United, etc.) I'd recommend using that product to pay as they offer free primary rental car coverage w/ their products. This is one of the main reasons I always use their card for car rentals.

One more tip. Even though Citi is secondary they have a few things that the other companies don't offer. For example, with the AAdvantage Platinum Select they do not have any country exclusions (this is VERY common w/ almost all other cards). They also have a liberal definition of "automobile" basically it is anything that is desgined to be driven on road. This is valuable to me for renting a UHaul to move, etc.