TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Car included in house rental

Coming in November. Would u have any advice/concerns about insurance if a car was included in house rental. I use capital one for the coverage. But think it's liabilty only? Calling them today. Thx

Capitol One is not going to cover your liability on the island; it may cover your collision, but definitely not your liability.

In addition to the insurance question, I would question whether the car was a rental from a regular rental company, or just 'a car'. If it's just 'a car' and it breaks down on the road on you, who do you call?? find out if it's a rental through a rental car agency and then investigate the rental car agency. If not, tell them you're not interested but would like a reduction on the house rental and see what they say.

Lots of villas will include a car rental for your convenience. However, as has been mentioned, the insurances aren't covered so rent your own then you have more control over which company you choose. Good Luck!

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Contessa

credit card covers damage.
My regular car insurance provides liability coverage , no matter what vehicle I drive. Suggest you check with your auto insurance company.

Pete, are you sure it covers you when you're outside the country? It's very unusual for a policy to cover a rental car outside the US (I realize you're in Canada). I agree with asking your insurance company to be sure, but don't accept their answer without researching for yourself. I was told my policy covered me in St. Maarten, but when I read the clause in the policy that my agent cited, it clearly stated I was covered only in US territories.

I agree absolutely, Georgia. Canadian auto policies may very well afford this coverage but at the same time, they might be referring to driving their already covered vehicles anywhere you might drive them as opposed to a rental, and I wonder, too, about cc coverage if the car itself is not rented directly.

For years, upon the absolute assurance of my agent, I thought my US coverages were valid on SXM and you can't imagine how upset I was when I actually had the policy underwriters show me the legalese regarding this. Turns out as you said, we were NOT covered on rental cars on SXM. We were in the USVI...Thank heavens we never needed the coverage. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Here's a dumb question, if I have a house guest and they borrow my car, my insurance covers everything - from how I understand it. So if the owner has the proper insurance, and they are "loaning" you the car, would it work the same? Covered by the owners insurance??

Great question, Kim!! Anyone ON ISLAND know the answer? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

House Guest is different from a rental. If you are renting your house and the car -- you can probably guess what the insurance company is going to say! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

Some Canadian insurance companies will cover you for liability outside of Canada. We have a letter which states we are covered in St. Maarten. I think there are only two countries not covered, Ireland and Israel. The I countries must be a big liability! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

I thought it might be different in Canada. Thanks for that first-hand information. The OP's profile doesn't state where he is, so I just wanted to make sure he checked.

Island Gem - is your insurance through a cc or car insurance. We live in Burlington ON, I have in the past checked with Amex and Visa and they both said yes to collision, no to liabilty [but maybe they did not check?]. Never thought to check the car insurance policy.
??
J&B

I was referring to our car insurance policy. Credit cards will only cover collision.

I did check many years ago. I should probably check again to ensure policies have not changed without my notice.

Based on IslandGem's post, apparently some Canadian policies do provide coverage outside the country. We still don't know where the person who originally posted the question resides. Sure wish he or she would come back to the thread and clarify that.