Consider credit cards with deductible insurance to save money when renting a car this summer

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If you don’t take out insurance at the rental company, you avoid a costly intermediary. Multiple credit cards have self-insurance included with the card, so you can save several thousand kroner on car hire.

 

Travel-loving Norwegians fly to distant destinations during the summer months, and many prefer the car as a means of transport once they arrive.

Many people, therefore, don’t hesitate to rent the car of their choice in the destination country, but the rental price often comes with a somewhat bitter taste, Dinero.no wrote in a press release.


When you lease the car, you’ll be shown an attractive array of supplementary insurance. You can nicely say ‘no thank you’ to the majority of additional services. In the sea of overpriced insurance, the only one you really need is car insurance.


If you rent a car abroad, you’ll be welcomed to a vast cask of liability insurance on your purchase. If, on the other hand, you receive damage to the rental car during the rental period, you’ll have a relatively high deductible cost.


You won’t have to pay this deductible cost if you are self-insured for a rental car. Rental companies therefore, break an arm and a leg trying to ensure that you only take out your rental car insurance when you hire the car.


The hitch is that car insurance companies’ insurance rates are sky high. Depending on where in the world you rent, and how long you rent for, this insurance may cost you thousands of kroner.


When examining the insurance rates for an ordinary car at Hertz and Europcar, deductible insurance costs were between NOK 1500 and 1900 per week.


If you have a credit card with deductible insurance, it’ll cost a maximum of a couple of hundred kroner annually , or it may be included free with your credit card travel insurance.


Dinero.no mapped the Norwegian credit card market, comparing the terms of 19 different cards which included this insurance. The table gives information about prices, and the degree of insurance coverage.


Some cards offer car rental insurance as an inexpensive additional service, while others include insurance with the card,usually in conjunction with the card’s travel insurance. The cards that have the insurance included without additional costs,
usually have high requirements for granting, as well as a relatively high annual fee.


The low-threshold cards that stand out are Bank Norwegian Visa, Cresco Gold, SpareBank 1 MasterCard, yA Bank Visa, and Remember MasterCard, as these cards don’t charge annual fees.


Some require an annual sum for insurance as an additional service, but the annual fee for insurance in total is much cheaper than the price you’d pay for the same insurance at car rental companies.


The cards that really appeal for giving good car rental terms are American Express Platinum Card, Handelsbanken Platinum,and the SAS EuroBonus Platinum American Express Card, but these have annual fees of NOK 5000, 1500 and NOK 1700,
respectively.


These cards are also characterised by high income requirements. In other words, these cards aren’t sought for the rental car insurance alone, but for the total package of the cards.


There are many credit cards that come with free travel insurance. If the self-insurance insurance includes travel insurance, it’susually required that at least 50% of the travel costs for the trip are paid with the credit card, and as a rule, 100% of rental car
expenses are required payable with the card. This includes petrol, ferry parking and similar expenses.


Dinero.no recommends that each individual studies the conditions of their insurance before departure.

Source: Dinero.no / Norway Today