The short answer is … it depends. It depends on where you are renting the car. It depends on the coverage on your personal auto policy, if you have one. It depends on the type of vehicle being rented.
Let’s start with where. You must rent within the Coverage Territory as defined in your policy. In a NY Personal Auto policy, it’s typically the US, its holdings and territories, Canada, and Limited Mexico. So, if you’re not in one of these, it is Yes.
Now, let’s look at your Personal Auto policy. You will have liability and certain statutory coverage on your policy. These follow you within the coverage territory. So, if you get into an accident and there is injury to you, a passenger, or a third party, you will have coverage subject to the limits on your policy. If you have comprehensive and collision on at least one vehicle on your policy, you will have this coverage subject to your deductible. This covers damage to the vehicle itself.
Consider the type of vehicle that you are renting. This will vary by company, so a conversation with your agent about this is advisable. It may seem like a great idea to rent a Lambo in Vegas and cruise the strip, but many companies have a monetary limit for the value of the car they will insure. The last thing you want is to crash a $250K Lambo and find out that your company will pay only up to $125K.
Another vehicle type that is an issue can be a large truck like a U-Haul or similar. Many insurance companies exclude these altogether based on gross vehicle weight. If the GVW is not an issue, you may be operating outside of the class of your license, which could pose an issue for you at claim time.
The largest gap that exists in the coverage for a rental car on your NY Personal Auto policy is in the loss-of-use claim. There is NO loss-of-use coverage afforded by your Personal Auto policy. The contract with the rental agency reserves them the right to charge you the rental fee for every day that the car is not in the fleet for rental due to the accident. So, if it takes them three weeks to fix the car, they will charge you for each of those days as if you have the car. This can add up very quickly; and if you have had to have a car fixed recently, you know that a few weeks is not out of the ordinary.
The simple answer that we give at Fraleigh and Rakow is always taking the coverage from the car company. It may be slightly duplicative, but I’d rather have it and not need it that need it and not have it.
Any content, resident submissions, guest columns, advertisements, and advertorials are not necessarily endorsed by or represent the views of Best Version Media LLC (BVM) or any municipality, homeowners associations, businesses, or organizations that this publication serves. BVM is not responsible for the reliability, suitability, or timeliness of any content submitted, inclusive of materials generated or composed through artificial intelligence (AI). All content submitted is done so at the sole discretion of the submitting party.
