Rental Car insurance coverage
If your car is damaged in an accident, this coverage will help pay for a rental car while yours gets repaired.
What is Rental Car insurance?
Sometimes called rental car reimbursement, Rental Car coverage is an optional insurance you can add to your policy to ensure you’ll have transportation when your vehicle is being repaired after a covered accident. If you rely on your car to get around everyday, this coverage could be really helpful.
What is covered by Rental Car insurance?
Rental reimbursement pays for a rental car until your vehicle is fixed or replaced after you’re in an accident—or if your car is damaged from another covered claim. Depending on the insurance company, you can usually add this optional coverage to your policy with a variety of price-point options.
How do limits work with Rental Car coverage?
Just like Liability insurance, rental reimbursement insurance comes with limits of how much the insurance company will pay. But Rental Car’s limits are per accident and per day. Because third party rental car companies (like Enterprise or Hertz) usually charge a per-day fee, you’ll choose a per-day limit when you select your insurance coverage. If you choose a limit of $30 a day, you could choose any car that’s less than $30 per day (or pay the difference yourself).
You’ll also choose a limit for the maximum amount the insurance company will pay per accident. If you need to use the rental car longer than the maximum amount covers, you’ll have to pay the difference yourself. For example, if you choose a rental plan that covers up to $30 a day and up to $900 an accident (it may appear 30/900 for some insurance companies), then you would have up to $900 to use total, up to $30 a day—which equals out to 30 days of use.
Learn more about how much Rental Car coverage is best for you.
What does Rental Car insurance NOT cover?
It’s easy to confuse the Rental Car insurance on your policy with the coverage offered by companies like Enterprise. These are not the same thing. The type of Rental we’re talking about covers the cost of renting a car when your car is being repaired after an accident—not the coverage for when you’re actually behind the wheel of a rental car like Liability, Comprehensive, and Collision insurance.
Protection behind the wheel
But the good news is Root provides the same coverage for your rental car that you purchased for your own vehicle (in the U.S. and Canada). So if you have the minimum required Liability coverage on your covered car, you’ll also have the minimum required Liability on your rental, too. If you don’t think you could afford to pay for damages in an accident you cause while driving the rental, consider adding the coverage sold by the rental company.
Rental car reimbursement also does not cover the cost of renting a car when you’re on vacation or when your vehicle is in the shop for regular maintenance.
How much does Rental Car coverage cost?
It depends on the limits you choose. If you choose higher limits (for a nicer rental car or longer rental time), this coverage will cost more upfront. In the Root app, you can easily see how the different limits will increase or decrease your insurance rate. The difference between the highest coverage and lowest is usually only a few dollars, so it’s usually considered an affordable coverage—especially compared to how expensive rental cars can be.
Stay on the road with Root
Even if you’re in an accident, you can stay on the road with Rental Car coverage.