by Rich Schlueter

You’re standing at the rental car counter and the car agent asks if you would like to purchase the insurance on the car you are about to rent. The insurance seems so expensive. What do you do?

The insurance the rental car companies are trying to sell you is called “the loss damage waiver”. Purchasing this coverage from the rental agency relieves you of any responsibility for damage to a rented vehicle. Sounds good on the surface, but is it? It’s possible that you have probably already purchased the majority of what the rental agent is offering. When you purchase physical damage coverage (comprehensive and collision) for a car you own, the coverage will extend to any short-term rental vehicle. In some states (Minnesota included) the coverage for the rental vehicle extends from the liability coverage you purchased for your own personal vehicle.

Think twice before you purchase coverage you may very well already have.

Drive carefully!