The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: spartana on December 08, 2019, 11:53:55 PM
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It's definitely a thing. Whether or not it makes sense compared to buying insurance from the rental company would depend on the rates you get for a non-owners policy (which will be specific to you) and how often/for how long you rent a car. I'd talk to an insurance agent and call some of the companies that don't use agents (like Geico) to see what they offer. I found this: https://www.thesimpledollar.com/insurance/auto/best-non-owner-car-insurance/
Regardless of the cost comparison between buying a policy and buying through the rental company, you'll likely need a policy if you want to get an umbrella policy.
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We had a non-owner insurance policy with USAA when we lived overseas.
It covered us for rentals when we visited during summers and the holidays.
And . . . it kept us from having a gap in coverage when we returned to the States.
The USAA rate was about $30/year . . . one of the biggest bargains ever (though ymmv)
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I have looked into this before and in doing research on it, I learned that most (if not all) car owner insurance policies covers people borrowing your car (particularly if they do not live at the same address). At least in the US.
From what I can tell, you having non-owner insurance is just a nice boost to assuage any fears that your friends might have about you borrowing their car, being at fault for an accident, and having the victim come after them, the car owner. It’s a weird system.
Where I landed was that it probably isn’t worth the ~$500.
Can’t speak to your umbrella liability policy, though. Given that you can sometimes pay less overall by bundling more (seriously, insurance is weird), it might be worth it in your case to take on the non-owner insurance and keep your existing umbrella liability.
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Shop around for another price. I had it for about $200 a year when I was carless and renting several times a year.
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I will shop around but I have all my other insurances bundled with State Farm - home owners, earthquake, umbrella, and car - so I'm not sure I can get it lower here in expensive SoCal. I will mainly be using it for rentals while travelling in the US. I usually rent for a month several times a year (maybe 4 months total) and liability from rental companies is around $10-$20/ day so $500/year is cheaper. The comp/coll is covered by my CC for 31 days for each rental. I will occasionally drive someone else's car but that wouldn't be often as I can bike or walk most places when home.
I wonder if anyone would rate you for coverage only outside the region you live in so that you can avoid the high cost of SoCal but still have liability insurance while traveling. That wouldn't provide any coverage when driving someone else's car locally.
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Does the credit card rental car coverage not cover liability as well when you rent?
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If I remember correctly (and perhaps terms vary) credit card insurance is only secondary insurance and if you do not have a primary insurance then it was not active.
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We had a non-owner insurance policy with USAA when we lived overseas.
It covered us for rentals when we visited during summers and the holidays.
And . . . it kept us from having a gap in coverage when we returned to the States.
The USAA rate was about $30/year . . . one of the biggest bargains ever (though ymmv)
I did this too because I didn't want a gap in coverage and pay more when I moved back to the states. My memory is around ~$15/mo, so a little higher.
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...the Insurance Information Institute recommends you consider a non-owner liability policy."
Yes of course the Insurance Information Institute recommends that you buy extra insurance!
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If I remember correctly (and perhaps terms vary) credit card insurance is only secondary insurance and if you do not have a primary insurance then it was not active.
I have one where it's primary (Chase) and one where it's secondary, but primary if I'm on a business trip (Cap One). So YMMV.
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FWIW, we would lose money to bundle our homeowners and auto with State Farm. Their auto coverage was like 2x Geico.
$500/year for a non-owner's policy seems really high. Also, it does seem like a good thing to have, since you could borrow a care from someone carrying the minimums and be stuck with their minimums. What's a quote from Geico?
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I had no idea this was even a thing; we've been carfree for about 15 years and it's likely that within the next 2 or 3 years we'll be moving someplace with very limited public transport, unlike our hometown. I assume our insurance rates are going to be horrible since we'll essentially be treated like brand new drivers with no history (even though both our histories were spotless, no accidents, no tickets)
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Hopefully, it will soon that driverless cars (or driverless taxis) and the liability indemnification by the manufacturer make this all a moot point.
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I looked into getting this and because I don’t have insurance currently it was expensive to buy because I am in the uninsured pool which is ridiculous because I don’t own a car which is why I don’t have insurance now!
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Like Fuzz, my recent State Farm quote on auto was more than 2x Progressive. I had SF for everything until about 6 years ago, when their auto rates seemed to skyrocket.
Thanks for the info on the auto-less coverage.