If you are looking for a short term car insurance policy theres a good chance that you may not even need it…
Is short term car insurance required when you are renting out a car?
The rental service will offer you some combination of liability insurance, personal effects coverage, accident insurance, and/or a loss damage waiver (more commonly known as LDW). If you have your own auto and have the respective car insurance, you are most likely covered for each of these 4 insurances. As such, getting even one of them is likely a waste of money. You just have to make sure that you are using the car for recreational and not business use.
Below is a list of the 4 insurance types that the rental car service may offer you and why you probably don’t need them…
Liability coverage: The liability insurance on your own policy will protect you.
Loss Damage Waiver: The collision & comprehensive coverage, which you probably have on you car, make the LDW superfluous. Collision coverage pays for damages to the car regardless of who is at fault and comprehensive coverage pays for damage caused by things such as a thunderstorm or a collision with a deer.
Personal accident insurance or accident coverage: If you already have either Personal Injury Protection, Medical Payments Coverage, or health insurance, you can skip on this additional insurance.
Personal effects insurance: This rental car insurance covers any stolen items. You should know that if you already have renters or homeowners insurance, this insurance is superfluous because both cover stolen property not just inside your house, but outside of it.
To be on the safe side, it is best to call both you car and house insurer to make sure that both policies carry over. Or, you can just read your policy. Its likely that you’ll get some type of insurance from your credit card company as well.
What if you are borrowing a car?
If you have your own car and thus have the respective car insurance, you needn’t worry. Furthermore, the lenders policy (as long as they give you permission to drive the car) transfers over to you. But what if you’re borrowing somebody’s car and don’t have your own car insurance?
If you don’t have you own auto insurance coverage and want to borrow someone else’s car, liability coverage may come back to haunt you. Although the lenders liability will transfer over to you, if it is not enough to pay for damages, which you are responsible, you have to pay the difference. If you don’t have a car you can make sure this doesn’t happen by getting a nonowners policy. Of course, if you’re not guilty in an accident, the other persons liability coverage will pay for the damages (although this may not be the case in some states).
But whose going to pay for damages done to the car that was given to you? The owner of the car will pay if they have comprehensive and/or collision coverage. Or you may pay if you have these two coverages.
Tags: auto insurance, car insurance, insurance, short term car insurance, temporary car insurance