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Whenever we rent a car on vacation, we stand there at the rental car counter and ask ourselves the same question: should we get the loss damage waiver, or should we decline it and just use our own car insurance + credit card coverage? Loss Damage Waivers are supposed to basically cover any damage that occurs to your rental car as long as you aren’t at fault.

Now we’ve only rented a car twice for vacation, and both times we declined the loss damage waiver after deciding that the extra $20 or so per day was really going to add up since we had long rentals. And BOTH times our rental car was damaged.

The first incident took place in Seattle, WA. As near as we can figure, someone must have swiped the side of our rental car while it was parked in a car parking lot. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Since we had rented the car using my husband’s credit card, their insurance kicked in and he was able to get it covered. But it was a lot of paperwork. Normally credit card car insurance is secondary insurance, which means that it only covers you AFTER you have filed a claim with your own insurance company. But my husband’s card wasn’t like that at the time, so we lucked out.

The second incident took place in Whistler, BC. Once again, our car was hit while in a parking lot. This incident turned out better though, because a bus driver saw the person who hit our rental car, took down their license plate number, and left us his contact information as a witness. We filed a police report. The police there told us that since the other car was from BC, the whole thing would likely be handled by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia who would just pay the car rental company. And that is what eventually happened.

So in both cases things turned out fine for us. The worst things about the incidents were the uncertainty, paperwork, phone calls, faxes, and emails. But we weren’t out any money and didn’t have to file any claims with our own insurance, so that was great. Still, after the second incident we decided that we would just go ahead and get the LDW next time. It would probably be less trouble all around. But today I logged in to check on my American Express, and saw a little ad for Premium Car Rental Protection. This actually sounds like the best deal of the bunch:

There is no cost to enroll in Premium Car Rental Protection, and there are no monthly, annual, or cancellation fees. The Cardmember pays a flat fee of $19.95 or $24.95 per rental ($15.95 or $17.95 for California Residents) each time a rental car is charged to his or her enrolled American Express Card, until coverage is terminated.

It covers “Up to $100,000 of primary damage and theft coverage for the rental car.” Have any of you used this service? Is it worth it? It sure sounds good to me, and so we will probably do it, but I’d like to hear from someone with personal experience as well.

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