Most of us will be renting a car during our travels at some point - either in Queenstown for ski season, or travelling internationally. Recently, as I've been reading through the fine-print of my credit card policies, I've noticed there's a vast difference in coverage for rental cars between banks, and also on the credit cards themselves.
There's two main issues:
- Travel insurance is provided, but rental cars are excluded.
- Rental cars are included, but the excess may be less than the loss damage excess charged.
TSB Bank for example states they offer domestic and international travel insurance - most of the stuff is covered, but there's actually no mention of rental cars at all. Similarly, the American Express Gold Rewards credit card also offers domestic and international travel insurance, but this again does not cover rental cars at all. Where insurance does cover rental vehicles, the excess is usually lower than what rental car companies charge - ASB will cover up to $3000, while Europcar's standard excess is $5,500.
Doing a quick skim of the major NZ banks, it's clear there's a huge variation between all of them.
- BNZ Platinum: $5,000 excess (Applies both domestic and international)
- ANZ Platinum: $6,000 (International only)
- Westpac Airpoints Platinum / World: $5,000 (International only)
- AMEX Airpoints Platinim: $3,000 (International only)
- ASB Platinum: $3,000 (International only)
- Kiwibank Platinum: $2,000 (International only)
- AMEX Gold Rewards: No rental car insurance anywhere.
- TSB Platinum: No rental car insurance anywhere.