What your credit card covers for car rentals

Mastercard’s insurance coverage varies by the issuing bank. A USAA World MasterCard, for example, provides largely the same benefits as Visa, but caps loss of use reimbursement at $500.

A few credit cards automatically offer primary coverage, meaning you are covered even if you have your own car insurance. They include Discover Escape, Chase Sapphire Preferred and United Mileage Plus Explorer.

That could be helpful if you do not want to risk a premium increase on your own car insurance. A study early this year by InsuranceQuotes.com found that a single claim of $2,000 on average boosts rates by 41 percent.

American Express card holders are afforded the opportunity to a pay a one-time fee per rental of $16 to $25 to change their coverage from secondary to primary. You can enroll online or by calling the company.

Most credit card companies require you to refuse the collision damage waiver insurance offered at the car rental counter or it negates the card’s coverage, says Robert Harrow, research analyst for credit card and insurance analysis site ValuePenguin.com.

That can sometimes be difficult with an insistent clerk. Eva Glasrud, who runs a travel blog (TheHappyTalent.com), says she repeatedly tried to reject rental car insurance on a trip to Mexico last November. Eventually, the San Francisco resident gave in and took the $20-a-day additional insurance.

“I thought maybe we could get part of it back if I complained when we got home,” she says. “But we never heard anything back.

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EXCLUSIONS

The fine print can be lengthy. Among the limitations:

* Typically, only physical damage to the rental vehicle due to a collision or theft is covered, but injuries to you or others are not, Harrow says. Those would be covered by your auto insurance policy- if you do not have one, you should take the rental company’s additional personal injury coverage. You can also buy a non-owner liability policy from many auto insurance companies.

* Loss of personal items is typically excluded.

* When traveling overseas, credit cards will not cover you in certain countries, including Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, and New Zealand, Harrow says.

* While it might seem obvious, the card you use to pay has to be used for the entire rental and the bill needs to be in the name of the cardholder, notes Rachel Drake, insurance expert for the insurance shopping site Obrella.com.

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COLLECTING CLAIMS

Collecting payment from a card company can take a while, as Nitzsche found out. Some pay directly to the rental car company while others will reimburse cardholders.

New York media executive Andrea Garcia is still dealing with several hundred dollars in damage to her rental car when it was broken into during a vacation to Miami in May. She says it took some work to file a detailed claim form, provide photographs and jump through other bureaucratic hoops.

Unlike Nitzsche, she had to lay out cash and is still waiting to be reimbursed.

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(Editing by Beth Pinsker and Dan Grebler)