Is It Necessary To Purchase Insurance When Renting A Car? 
My previous career was for a rental company so I have a great deal of knowledge in this area . When determining purchasing insurance when renting a car it is important to consider these main factors . 1 -RRB- Quality of your own insurance policy If you have state minimum coverage dont except much help from your insurance company if something were to happen . 2 -RRB- Purpose of Rental - Yes , The reason why you are renting the car plays a big factor . Some insurance policies will only cover rental vehicles if it is a replacement rental . So if you are renting for a family vacation there is a possibility that you arent covered . Always check with your insurance company . 3 -RRB- Type of Vehicle Another huge factor , a lot of policies wont cover any vehicles that are built on a pick up truck frame . Most consumers are unaware that some minivans and SUVs are in fact built upon a pickup truck frames . The best way to protect yourself against this is to always rent a vehicle that similar to the car on your policy -LRB- If you have a SUV on your policy , you should be safe to drive a SUV -RRB- 4 -RRB- Does your credit card cover it ? A little known benefit -LRB- that most credit cards have -RRB- is rental coverage ! Some will require you to activate it before renting a vehicle while others will give it you automatically . I would always check with your credit card provider to see which type of coverage you have . They often pay for loss-of-use as well which is an extra bonus that most insurance policies wont cover . 5 -RRB- The Length of the rental - The longer the rental the more expensive the rental insurance becomes . At some point the amount of money you are paying for the extra insurance isnt going to be worth it . That breaking point is up to you to decide . 6 -RRB- If something were to happen right now , what can you afford ? I think this is the most important . The most common rental is a 3 day weekend rental . The typical insurance cost for that that length of time can be $ 60 to $ 200 . However , the cost of damage , loss of use , and deductibles can add up to be $ 2,000 and get as high as the total loss value of the vehicle . If you were to total out a vehicle would your insurance cover it ? Or could you afford a $ 20,000 vehicle that you wont drive ? 7 -RRB- Remember it is not your vehicle ! Very often damage happens to our own vehicle and we dont even notice or care because we consider the damage to be minimal . However this is not the case when renting a vehicle . You do not have control over what damages are fixed and which ones arent . So Keep in mind that a ding to you , could be consider major damage to them . At the end of the day , you have to be honest with yourself and determine if purchasing the extra insurance is worth it or not . Not every situation is a same and multiple factors needs to be taken into account . 