Non Owner Car Rental Insurance in Ontario

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kukucanuck
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Non Owner Car Rental Insurance in Ontario

Post by kukucanuck »

Can one buy Non- Owner Car Rental Insurance in Ontario? Is so, what insurance companies provide such coverage.?

These days, there are lot of folk who do not own cars and rent on a regular basis locally and while on vacation in Canada, US, Hawaii, Europe etc.

Whereas, CDW is normally covered by Credit Cards, my question primarily relates to Third Party property damage liability coverage, uninsured coverage etc. Car Rental companies do include limited coverage but that may not be enough. Minimum insurance requirements in many US states and Hawaii are very minimal ( as low as 10K in some cases). Supplementary third party insurance from rental companies may run as much $15 US per day. I am looking for an alternative to that.

Can one add an adult independent family member (son), living in another City, as an additional driver on his auto insurance to provide such coverage?
Typically, auto insurance include a rider extending coverage to non owned vehicles.

Hopefully, there are some Auto Insurance experts on this forum who can assist
Hammerer
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Re: Non Owner Car Rental Insurance in Ontario

Post by Hammerer »

It would be interesting to know how much liability insurance rental car fleets actually have, even if a state minimum is pitifully low.

And to what degree is the driver responsible for a claim that exceeds the insurance? Or is it still an expense of the owner?

From what I recall from my rentals, the rental car's insurance that I'm opting out of is for damages/loss of use of the vehicle I'm driving and nothing to do with liability.
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DavidR
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Re: Non Owner Car Rental Insurance in Ontario

Post by DavidR »

kukucanuck wrote: 27 Jan 2018 15:49Can one add an adult independent family member (son), living in another City, as an additional driver on his auto insurance to provide such coverage?
Typically, auto insurance include a rider extending coverage to non owned vehicles.
Hopefully, there are some Auto Insurance experts on this forum who can assist
Not an expert, but my own experience is that my 27 year old lives on his own (same city as me,in Ontario) and was added to our policy a few years ago.
He doesn't own a car of his own. I recently confirmed with my insurer that he is covered for rental cars in Canada and US too - since we have that rider on our policy.
I have been told that an additional benefit of being covered on the parent's policy is that if/when he gets a car of his own, he will pay less for insurance because he will have been previously and continuously insured..
Spudd
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Re: Non Owner Car Rental Insurance in Ontario

Post by Spudd »

Locally, liability insurance is required to be carried by the rental car company in Ontario. So that's not an issue.

Depending on jurisdiction this may be true in vacation destinations as well.

Personally, I would (and did, when I was car-free) not worry about liability for local rentals, and just google the laws for my destination when traveling to see if I should buy the insurance from the rental car company or not.
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