topic Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier? in Credit Cards

Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

red259 — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 06:26:48 GMT

Need to rent a car and am wondering which card to use for CDW coverage. Just got a citi premier so would like to use it if the insurance is good. Typically I use my amex plat card, but since I am not renting with my usual rental agency I don't really want to use it unless necessary. I also have cap 1 venture card. My only chase premium card other than the hyatt card is a business ink. Everything else is freedoms or non-AF inks. Other amex premium cards I have are personal gold card and aspire card although not really looking to use those since they don't earn as well and I am not trying to achieve a SUB with them, but my main concern is that I don't have a difficult time with insurance if something goes bad with rental.

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

Loquat — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 06:39:24 GMT

FYI the Citi Premier doesn’t offer Primary coverage.

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

red259 — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 07:12:45 GMT

@Loquat wrote:
FYI the Citi Premier doesn’t offer Primary coverage.

I don't care about primary coverage. I don't have insurance so purchase a personal injury policy from rental company per rental. In the end all CDWs are primary for me.

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

Loquat — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 07:40:11 GMT

That’s my point. The Citi Premier doesn’t offer any car rental coverage. All of that was removed September 2019. Even if you had a card that offered secondary insurance that would mean you’d need to have some sort of coverage own your own and the cards benefit would kick in “secondary”.

Since you mentioned you have no insurance at all you’d need to either rent with a credit card that offers Primary CDW (i.e. Sapphire Reserve/Ritz Carlton) or purchase it from the rental company. And FYI no credit card that I know of offer personal injury insurance.

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

red259 — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 09:52:26 GMT

@Loquat wrote:
That’s my point. The Citi Premier doesn’t offer any car rental coverage. All of that was removed September 2019. Even if you had a card that offered secondary insurance that would mean you’d need to have some sort of coverage own your own and the cards benefit would kick in “secondary”.

Since you mentioned you have no insurance at all you’d need to either rent with a credit card that offers Primary CDW (i.e. Sapphire Reserve/Ritz Carlton) or purchase it from the rental company. And FYI no credit card that I know of offer personal injury insurance.

I'm not looking for personal injury insurance I get that from the rental company. I am just asking about the CDW. I have never heard before that people without insurance need to to only use cards that offer primary CDW. My understanding is the exact opposite actually. That if you don't have an insurance policy the secondary insurance becomes primary by default at least when it comes to the coverage that allows for CDW. If the citi premier has totally stripped out any insurance for anyone on rentals then that will have to be crossed off the list and I will probably look at the venture or the plat.

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

EAJuggalo — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 14:43:47 GMT

Youre understanding is correct. Secondary coverage becomes primary if no personal coverage exists. So you would be covered just fine with the Freedom policy. I don't know what Venture has, but it looks like you would be good on a Platinum as well.

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

red259 — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 01:46:40 GMT

@EAJuggalo wrote:
Youre understanding is correct. Secondary coverage becomes primary if no personal coverage exists. So you would be covered just fine with the Freedom policy. I don't know what Venture has, but it looks like you would be good on a Platinum as well.

Hmm I didn't even think the freedom offered this benefit. I wonder if its the same as the CSR minus being primary vs secondary.

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

TSlop — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 11:19:16 GMT

@red259 wrote:
@EAJuggalo wrote:
Youre understanding is correct. Secondary coverage becomes primary if no personal coverage exists. So you would be covered just fine with the Freedom policy. I don't know what Venture has, but it looks like you would be good on a Platinum as well.
Hmm I didn't even think the freedom offered this benefit. I wonder if its the same as the CSR minus being primary vs secondary.

Both Freedoms (not sure about the Flex) offer the Auto Rental CDW. It's most likely the same, minus it being primary, but you'd have to read about the terms to make sure.

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 15:03:56 GMT

@TSlop wrote:
Both Freedoms (not sure about the Flex) offer the Auto Rental CDW. It's most likely the same, minus it being primary, but you'd have to read about the terms to make sure.

Yes, this used to be the standard on all credit cards! I remember the tables of the benefits of Visa Sig vs plain Visa, and CDW coverage was the about the only thing checked for both columns. Wonder how expensive it is/was for issuers

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

coreysw12 — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 21:25:06 GMT

If it were me, I'd still use the Amex Platinum even if I didn't need the Primary coverage. It has much higher coverage than most secondary CDW coverages offered by most cards. Up to $75k for rental car damage & $5k personal injury per accident, plus $1k theft coverage for items in car.

Many secondary coverages don't offer any injury or personal items coverage, and don't offer enough to cover cars over a certain value (or outright won't cover them at all). $75k should be enough to cover any reasonable car you'd ever be renting, unless you have a habit of spending a fortune renting super-high-end european cars.

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

Loquat — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 22:04:06 GMT

@red259 Sorry, misunderstood. Yes, you are correct that secondary acts as Primary since you have no other coverage. I was still thinking in the mind of the Citi Premier more specifically to which I thought all insurance was cut unless there's something I'm not aware of or something offered by Mastercard themselves.

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

red259 — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 00:45:39 GMT

@coreysw12 wrote:
If it were me, I'd still use the Amex Platinum even if I didn't need the Primary coverage. It has much higher coverage than most secondary CDW coverages offered by most cards. Up to $75k for rental car damage & $5k personal injury per accident, plus $1k theft coverage for items in car.

Many secondary coverages don't offer any injury or personal items coverage, and don't offer enough to cover cars over a certain value (or outright won't cover them at all). $75k should be enough to cover any reasonable car you'd ever be renting, unless you have a habit of spending a fortune renting super-high-end european cars.

Is that the default insurance with amex or the one where you have to pay extra to amex?

Re: Credit card CDW on rental cars - citi premier?

wasCB14 — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 03:00:33 GMT

@red259 wrote:
@coreysw12 wrote:
If it were me, I'd still use the Amex Platinum even if I didn't need the Primary coverage. It has much higher coverage than most secondary CDW coverages offered by most cards. Up to $75k for rental car damage & $5k personal injury per accident, plus $1k theft coverage for items in car.

Many secondary coverages don't offer any injury or personal items coverage, and don't offer enough to cover cars over a certain value (or outright won't cover them at all). $75k should be enough to cover any reasonable car you'd ever be renting, unless you have a habit of spending a fortune renting super-high-end european cars.
Is that the default insurance with amex or the one where you have to pay extra to amex?

$75k is for the less expensive of the two extra-fee options. The more expensive one has higher coverage limits.

$100k damage

$5k personal property ($10k max if multiple covered persons)

$15k secondary accidental injury

I don't often rent cars, and I can be slow to figure out the quirks of unfamiliar cars, so I don't mind paying a few dollars more for higher limits. CA resident rates are pretty modest with either option.