We are in the same dilemma. We still really haven't gotten a straight answer from our Allstate rep. Why is it so hard to answer.. we are either covered or we are not. My husband call Budget and they said the insurance only covers "the rental car". What happens if someone or something gets damaged?? We are awaiting that answer. Anyhoo - we will let you know if some more info comes up - but right now we are, unfortunately, leaning more towards putting the money out (great less Painkillers to buy).

Hmmm....reminds me that my Nationwide guy never DID call me back about this. My agent seems pretty useless.

I think I would by the Avis ins. if I were going to 10 days or less.

Kelly - my Allstate agent had to call somewhere else to find out, but he said that we are covered in the US and its Territories (includes VI's). The AMEX card will only cover the car itself- no liability, and the AVIS insurance is SUPPOSED to be full coverage (at least that's what the lady at the STT desk said).

I think we will bite the bullet and pay the $32/day and then know we have nothing to worry about. I assume if we get a dent in it - we can just "here ya go!" and take off. No need to involve our own insurance.

Last time we went we rented a minivan for 10 days from Budget. Just relied on our insurance and Mastercard's. No worries! All went well and we saved a bundle by passing up on their insurance. To each his/her own!

It's a rip-off. You have insurance, and you're paying with Amex....you aren't going to have to pay more than $1000 if you crash the car, so I would think it's worth the risk. Chances are that everything will be fine, and if it's not, well, then, at least you're paying for the car to be repaired. Isn't it better to pay for something you actually damaged than pay for something you probably won't damage? If you have the extra $30/day to spend on statistically useless insurance, then go for it, but chances are you won't need it. Should you choose not to take it, make sure you sign the "decline of insurance" form due to paying with your AMEX.

I'd like to hear from someone who had an accident /fender bender/scrape/dent and didn't have the rental car loss damage waiver.

The concern is what hoops you might have to jump through if there's an accident. My deductable is $500 on my policy. Paying that is the least of my concerns. I don't want to have to receive countless phone calls, emails, fill out paperwork, deal with the ins company, rental agent, credit card company, mediate who pays what.....and all for a car that is in the VI and I can't even see what is going on with it.

Yes, I'm sure most people have no accidents. When you buy the LDW from the rental agent, IMO, you are buying the ability to simply hand them the keys and simple form if you have an accident (most likely a small fender bender), board the plane and go home - and never think about it again.

I've been at the rental car counter when others have done that. They return the car, hand over the form, say "it's damaged"....and the rental agent says "ok"....and off they go. That's what you pay for. Is that worth $200 - $300? For me, yes.

Here is a link to American Express PREMIUM coverage, for a flat fee of $25 or less.

https://www152.americanexpress.com/fsea/travel/car_rental/coverage.do

You will notice that this is for Primary coverage, not secondary. That means that if there is damage to your rental car, so long as you opt in to this coverage with AMEX, the rental company will charge your cc for the damage, and AMEX will reimburse you for said damage. Further, it offers much more than just damage and theft.

Again, this is a flat fee and covers the rental during the ENTIRE rental period...it's not a per day charge, it's a FLAT FEE.

In my opinion, this would absolutely be the route to go.

Crystal - you beat me to it! The Divas are going through this insurance inquiry thing right now.

I don't understand these agents who give these conflicting opinions. We have State Farm and have always been covered in the VI with same coverage. Secondary coverage is provided by our MasterCard (reimbursement of deductible, loss of income to rental co., replacement of vehicle, etc.). Our agent has always told us to forget about the coverage offered by the car rental company. One of the Divas also has State Farm, and her agent initially told her she was NOT covered so I called our agent to inquire if things had changed. My agent called her SF underwriter who confirmed "coverage in the US and it's possessions and territories and 50 miles into Mexico" as standard for State Farm. Three of the Divas have Allstate and have been told NO coverage in the VI. Interesting that another poster was told by Allstate that they were covered - I'm wondering if the agent sent a copy of the coverage indicating that. But, one of the girls found this Amex policy Crystal found which would indeed take care of insurance at a great rate.

We did have a little bender in the VI and reported it to the car rental company. It involved a natural stationary object and not another vehicle (no details, no details, lol). Anyway, the car rental company never called us about it. We took complete photos of the damage from all angles before we returned the car. When we got home we reported it to our insurance agent but a claim was never filed with SF by the rental company. We called the rental co several times to inquire about the status of any claim but never heard another word back and that was several years ago. Don't know what else to say about that except that we got very lucky.

hmmmm....so you hit a bush? :-0 just teasing...that's actually REALLY common on the islands. I think that the rental companies are so used to these cars getting beat up down there that they probably didn't give it a second glance. I don't know if you have noticed, but many of the major rental companies don't rent out vehicles older than a couple of years. We rented a suzuki grand vitara with only a few thousand miles and the alignment was already soooooo messed up. The rental company told us that happens all the time and they just constantly replace brakes, fix alignment, etc. Nobody cares how pretty the rental cars are; only that they're safe. That being said, as long as you didn't ruin the vehicle or require it to have any non-cosmetic repairs, the rental company might have just not wanted to deal with it.

Margy,
At first my agent said we weren't covered, but that he'd call and check for us. Later he called back to say yes, we are covered in US territories including the VI's.

Definitely I'm going to check into this $25 AMEX thing!

Crystal - thank you so much for that info about AMEX!! I just called and got enrolled in the program. Its great, primary coverage with no deductible! the only thing its not liablity - but we can either get that cheap from Avis or just use Allstate should we involve someone else in an accident. Hopefully, that won't happen but who knows. I was just worried that if someone smashed a window to steal something or if someone backed into it in a parking lot... stuff like that. 25 bucks is definitely a deal compared to 32/day!!

thanks again

I do love this message board!