TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin car rental Insurance

I have read many threads about the different car rental companies in St. Martin. My question specifically is about the difference from renting from the French side versus the Dutch side.

I did email Kenny and asked about liability I was told for six dollars a day this would provide me with $50,000 worth of liability with a $750 deductible.
I did check with my Visa and American Express cards they do not provide any liability coverage in the United States.
My auto policy with Allstate also does not provide coverage out of the country it would seem to me that any serious accident $50,000 in liability coverage would not be sufficient.

It is my understanding and I may be incorrect on the French side the rental company must provide unlimited liability on all rentals. From people who do rent on the Dutch side what do you do about this liability issue.The other issue I found in investigating car rentals in Aruba that any accident that that did not involve another party "one way accident" was not covered so if you hit a pole or tree you are not covered under Dutch insurance law I did not know if the same thing applied in St. Martin


Also Kenny did tell me that he has a Toyota Corolla available with this car be able to hold five people

The Corolla can carry 5 adults

thanks for quick reply anybody have any idea of liability issues

I always rent from hertz on sxm as they provide the liability for free. Some people will say hertz charges more for this but my last Corolla from them in May was 170.00 a week that included all taxes, fees and the free liability.

I just looked in their site and they do provide free third-party liability with a $400 deductible but they but they do not tell you how much coverage there actually giving you

Email them and ask directly.

will do I was try to see if I can make reservations tonight but I'll wait for the reply does make you wonder though if you do actually have adequate coverage if for some reason you actually need to use this policy

I trust that I do with Hertz. Don't forget to get your 10% discount when you book on line.

Sorry not trying to be difficult but renting out of country hertz not owned by their parent company but rather owned by a local company under a franchise agreement and the parent company will not help you in any issues

Trust me. You won't have any issues. Don't know of any rental companies that aren't locally owned. Even the ones that have national names are locally owned. Been renting from hertz sxm for 18 years with no issues. You be the judge.

Always use Hertz and always get a white corolla, some have French Plates some have Dutch plates, never had an issue, although they don't have any corollas for our November trip, don't know what we will end up with!!

Several years ago we rented a car from Hertz for 3 days and then a "space wagon" for a week as we had more people coming. No problem returning the car but when it came time to return the wagon, Hertz (on SXM) tried to play the damage scam with me. Threatened me with making me miss my flight if I did not pay in cash, etc. Never again for me. There was no damage and I ended up paying nothing but I would not personally recommend them.

Many years ago we rented a car from a big name car rental company in SXM and had a dispute since they had confirmed our car reservation but did not have a car for us when we arrived. Local firm basically ignored our complaint but national US company made things right (even though they were not legally required to do so). We were grateful that the national company was more concerned with their name reputation than their legal obligation.

I think people are missing my question I am sure the angency provides great services I am just worried if I have adequate liability coverage if I was sued in cas a accident I am sure all of us have much more then 50000 dollars of liability on our own car policy That amount seems totally inadequate . I am sure my credit cards are the same as most while they cover collision they don’t cover liability

I understand what you mean......possibly something to think about is what is the law as it pertains to lawsuits in SXM? It certainly is possible that the right to sue is limited to $50,000? It certainly is possible that there is no right to sue for bodily injury?

So hertz answered me back

The third party public liability with deductible has unlimited liability coverage as per the jurisdiction of each Country of our Island.

I am still not sure as per jurisdiction. Of each country means

Is 50000 enough for the Dutch side while thefrench side has unlimited

Maybe Lesley. Could give clear up this issue

I think your putting to much emphasis of the liability insurance coverage. It's going to be the same whichever rental company you use on St Maarten. Difference will be in the cost of adding that insurance or if it's included in the bottomline price of the rental and the service you expect to have through that rental.

I think your missing the point as to what the writers concern is......the price of the liability insurance is not the issue, his issue and concern is what limit of coverage should he/she be getting. If the car rental agency provides a $50,000 policy limit and he hits a pedestrian and is sued for $1,000,000 than the $50,000 policy limit is inadequate. My point to he/she is that it is possible, in some jurisdictions, that the "right" to pursue for personal injury might be limited based on the laws of the country he is in. It is possible that the max limit someone can be sued in SXM (French or Dutch side) might be limited to $50,000 and hence the limit of $50,000 would be sufficient.

If I am mistaken about what his/her concern is I apologize.

I wasn't implying that it was a cost factor for the insurance only that the coverage will be the same regardless what company he is renting from. Second note was that since coverage will be the same look at the bottom line of the complete rental cost.
I think it is both an insurance and what company to deal with concern.

If you have a accident and sued and have a large judgement against you with inadequate coverage I think you would not say that. It seems French law requires unlimited liability ins on rental cars as far as I understand Hertz does provide unlimited but I still had questions on the wording in there reply
The Dutch side rental agency’s say check your credit card for coverage or they say they can offer you 50000 dollars of coverage in the States that is very little protection in a suit

Just as a note, some states in the US limit the amount that you can be sued in a motor vehicle accident...….I know Florida has a max limit....if I recall from years ago I believe it was $50,000 and hence all insurer's in Florida have a max limit of $50,000...….it is those type things that you want to know in order to properly address your concern about what limit is enough....unfortunately it appears no one on this site has knowledge about that.

Yes u understand exactly that’s why I was wondering if Lesley of Kenny’s could educate us

Sir the limited amount that we have on the Dutch side is $ 50,000.00 . There was never any big sue cases on Island.

Ditto what Scubaman has said. I have looked into this issue for decades. As far as I know, you have a choice of taking the "product" offered from the rental car company (liability insurance) or declining it. While I have rented from many different companies in SXM over the years, I think your best bet would be Hertz, since as it was stated, Hertz includes the liability insurance in their rates, which of course tend to be higher. If you go with a non-affiliated local company, I can tell you that in the past I have rented from Unity and their liability add on coverage was reasonable.

thanks for all the reply's yes

IS there some type of no fault in dutch law that limits your liability but then you will also be driving on the french side will dutch law protect you there

it all comes down to if your comfortable with only 50000 liability

Does hertz really have unlimited liability or is it 50000 as other dutch rental agencies ( in there email to me they said unlimited as per jurisdiction that extra few words made it unclear to me)'

or rent from a french company where they have to give you unlimited liability as per french law

Well if your that worried about having all the liability like in the states you might be better off using taxis for peace of mind.

We always rent from Dollar/Thrifty and pay for the optional liability insurance for several million. There may be a limited liability on the Dutch side but there is unlimited liability on the French side. We travel a lot on both sides of the island and if we have an accident, I don't know when and where it will happen. So when people say there is a $50,000 liability cap, that may be fine on the Dutch side but not the French side.

What does that extra million or so coverage cost you extra per day or week?

Scubaman Maybe Hertz is doing right by you and when your on dutch side you have 50000 and unlimited when your on the French side. Maybe that's what they mean per jurisdiction.

It would be nice to know

Email and ask them again for more clarification.

I did will see if they answer

I went for the hertz rental rented a corolla for the week service was good no issues returning car ( car given had many body issues but ran well and ac cold) and price was very good for the week they told me they had unlimited liability on both sides

I will try to be fair with my input. I know that many people are very loyal to their SXM car rental company, as am I. More than 20 years ago I did have a problem with Hertz that the local management chose to ignore. It was at this time that I learned that SXM local franchisee did not have support of parent company as you have already stated. I eventually received reimbursement from Hertz, USA only as an accommodation and concern for their brand name reputation.
That was a long time ago and I am sure lots of changes have been made, but it does pay to do appropriate research prior to making any decision.

I often wonder if the extra you pay for liability even gets applied to any insurance contract.

Only as reputable the rental company wants to be. You'd better hope it does get paid or your sol if you need it on a claim.

We can only pay the extra and hope it does.
It's on our receipts......

Just was curious how they do it....since there is always so many questions about it.

With hertz it's built into the price and also states on contract it's liabiliy. I feel pretty cofident all is good with them.

I can comment on a different level with Hertz. We had a different rental company, we were rear ended by a jeep that was rented through Hertz, and that impact pushed us into another lane that caused a third accident. The Hertz rental that caused the accident was the only car rental rep to show up (we were on the french side at the time). They filled out all the paper work for all concerned. The Hertz guy that caused the accident tried to call foul on the accident, and he was promptly told to keep quiet. The Hertz rep made sure none of us were hurt and while our vehicle was the only one undriveable, we found a local that helped get our tires back on (would not accept any $$), and we made it back to switch out cars. We always pay for the additional liability, and did not have any issues. I learned you should always ask for accident paperwork to put in your vehicle, the police do not come out for non-injury cases. And again, the friendly person that helped us is not forgotten, either.

I would call that pretty good customer service.

There are usually questions about liability coverage because there are variables with regard to coverage $ amounts as well as differing rates that I have seen ( low of $5/day to high of $11/day) by different car rental companies. Some people decline both collision and liability insurance but that can be very risky.