Does My Credit Card Cover Rental Car Insurance?
The short answer
Usually yes, for damage to the rental car. Almost never for injuring somebody else. And whether it covers the country you're going to is a question you cannot always answer by reading, because not every issuer publishes that list.
I'm not going to hand you a chart of every card on the market. Those go stale the week they're written, and half of them are copied from each other. What I can give you are four rules that hold, and what happened when I checked the two cards in my own wallet before a trip to Italy.
It covers the car, not the person. Damage to or theft of the rental is the benefit. Liability for hurting someone is not, on any card I've seen.
It's usually secondary. It pays after your own auto policy. Some cards are primary. Yours is one or the other, and you need to know which.
It only switches on if you do three specific things. Pay the whole rental on that card, decline the counter's waiver, and be the named renter.
Country exclusions are real, and the list isn't always published. This is the one that catches people.
The three conditions that switch it on
Miss any one of these and the benefit can disappear:
Book and pay for the entire rental with that card
Decline the rental company's collision damage waiver at the counter
Be the named renter on the agreement
American Express, in its Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance Benefit Guide revised April 2024, states the trigger as using the eligible card "to reserve and pay for the Entire Rental and decline the collision damage waiver at the Rental Company counter." Chase's wording is the same in substance. Its Marriott Bonvoy benefits page states the conditions as "Decline the rental company's collision insurance and charge the entire rental cost to your Card."
The consequence people miss: buying the counter's full waiver switches your card benefit off. You do not get both. One New York wrinkle worth knowing, because it is our state: Amex writes a separate set of terms for New York residents, and those terms name paying for "a partial collision damage waiver" as an alternative to declining the full one. Two cautions. That is one of three activation conditions, not a shortcut past the other two. And the terms for every other state say nothing about partial waivers either way, so do not read New York's wording as the national rule. If a counter offers you a partial waiver, ask exactly what it is and ask your issuer before you lean on it.
Country exclusions are real, and the lists are not all public
Some credit cards exclude entire countries from their rental coverage, and not every issuer publishes which ones. That gap nearly cost me two thousand dollars.
American Express publishes its exclusions. The Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance Benefit Guide says the plan does not cover "any vehicle rented in Australia, Italy, or New Zealand or any country subject to comprehensive sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control." Italy, named, in writing.
Chase's benefits page names no excluded countries. Its Marriott Bonvoy benefits page, as published in October 2026, sets out the conditions and lists no countries. It points cardmembers to the Guide to Benefits Chase sends after account opening, or to the number on the back of the card. The page cannot answer the country question either way.
So for one issuer, the public guide answers it. For the other, the public page does not, and you need your own guide or a call. That's why "check your card's exclusion list" is incomplete advice — it skips the step where you find out the list is not on the page you are reading.
Here is what the two cards in my own wallet actually said, read from the issuers' own documents:
American Express, Delta SkyMiles | Chase, Marriott Bonvoy | |
|---|---|---|
Names excluded countries publicly | Yes, in the benefit guide | Not on the public benefits page |
Italy | Named as excluded, in writing | Not named on the public page |
How you find out about a country | Read the guide | Check your Guide to Benefits or call the issuer |
Primary or secondary in the US | Secondary, stated in the benefit guide | Secondary, stated on the benefits page |
What switches the benefit on | Reserve and pay for the entire rental on the card, decline the counter's waiver | The same |
Where that leaves you | An answer you can read before you book | An answer from your own guide or a phone call |
Same wallet. Same country. Opposite answers, arrived at two different ways.
I learned this the practical way. Before a trip to Sicily I called American Express about my Delta SkyMiles card and was told Italy was excluded. I called Chase about my Marriott Bonvoy card and Chase confirmed they'd cover it. Then I damaged the car and got reimbursed. The full story, with the number, is here.
Primary or secondary, and why the usual answer is incomplete
The standard line is that card coverage is secondary — it pays after your own auto policy. The Insurance Information Institute, in guidance current as of September 2026, says exactly that: "Credit card insurance benefits are usually secondary – That is, they will kick in after your personal insurance policy or the insurance coverage offered by the rental car company are utilized."
Note the word usually. It varies by card. Chase says of the Marriott Bonvoy cards: "In the U.S., coverage is secondary to your personal insurance." Yours may say something different, so read your own guide.
Why it matters overseas: "secondary" needs something to sit behind. If your own policy doesn't apply in the country you're in, there's nothing underneath. Every policy names the territory it covers. In my experience a US policy's ends at the US, its territories and Canada, but yours sets its own, so read that section or call me. In that case the card is what's left for the car, which is fine, right up until you find out that country is on a list.
What card coverage does not include
Liability. Amex lists among things not covered: "personal liability, uninsured/underinsured motorists, personal injury protection, worker's compensation injuries, disability benefits of any kind, any coverage mandated by government or any other form of insurance coverage except as specifically described herein," and separately "injury of anyone or Damage to anything other than the Rental Vehicle."
Damage to the car is the cheap half of a bad day. Injuring someone is the expensive half, and American Express's guide lists it as not covered. That job belongs to your own liability limits, and the legal floor is low.
Also commonly excluded:
Long rentals. Amex caps at 30 consecutive days and pays up to $50,000 per rental agreement, per its April 2024 benefit guide. Extending the agreement or switching cars does not restart the clock — the guide is explicit that the cap applies "regardless if such agreement gets extended or is new or on a different vehicle."
Vehicle types. Amex's guide excludes "off-road vehicles, motorcycles, mopeds, recreational vehicles, golf or motorized carts, campers, trailers", limousines, cargo and custom vans, "vans with a seating capacity over 8 passengers", cube and box trucks, anything rated 10,000 lbs or more, and "antique cars, which means cars that are 20 years old or have not been manufactured for 10 or more years". It also excludes rentals from a moving van rental company and from peer-to-peer services. Expect a list like it on any card.
Peer-to-peer and hourly rentals. If you're booking through a car-sharing app rather than a rental counter, assume your card gives you nothing unless the issuer confirms otherwise in writing.
Your own belongings. Luggage, laptops and phones taken from the car are a different benefit, if you have one at all.
How the claim actually goes
My credit card rental claim was mostly paperwork I collected at the rental counter, not paperwork I chased afterwards. Mine went like this. The rental company documented the damage at return, produced the estimate on site, charged the card, and emailed me the photos and the rental agreement. I forwarded those to the issuer with a claim form and was reimbursed in full in about five days.
Three things from the counter did most of the work for me. My issuer also wanted its own claim form, and yours may ask for more, so read the claims section of your guide before you travel:
The rental agreement
The damage photos
The final charge receipt
Get all three at the counter, before you leave the return lane. Once you're on a plane, chasing a rental branch in another country for photographs is a different kind of afternoon.
Why I'm not giving you a list of every card
Everything above about American Express and Chase was read from those issuers' own documents. I'm not going to fill in Visa, Mastercard, Capital One, Citi and the rest from other people's articles, which is how wrong information spreads in this business. Benefit terms also change without announcement, so a list like that is stale within months and nobody goes back to correct it.
The point of my story isn't which two cards I happened to carry. It's that two cards in the same wallet gave two different answers about the same country — and the only reason I know is that I picked up the phone. Yours will have its own answer, and the only way to get it is to ask.
For New York drivers
American Express's guide lists liability as not covered, and card benefits generally cover the car, not the person. That job falls to the liability limits on your own policy, and yours are printed on your declarations page. New York State DMV, as of October 2026, sets the legal minimum for most vehicles at $10,000 for property damage in a single crash. For bodily injury it is $25,000 per person and $50,000 for death of a person, rising to $50,000 and $100,000 where two or more people are involved.
That matters more than which card you carry. A card benefit can handle a damaged rental. American Express's guide lists injury to others as not covered, and the legal floor in this state is not a number I would want to be relying on.
If you are not sure what limits you actually carry, that is a two-minute conversation and worth having before your next trip.
Frequently asked questions
Which credit cards exclude Italy? American Express's Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance names Australia, Italy and New Zealand as excluded, plus OFAC comprehensively-sanctioned countries. That benefit applies across the Delta SkyMiles cards among many others. Chase's public benefits page lists no countries and points cardmembers to their Guide to Benefits or the number on the card. Don't assume any other issuer matches either pattern — check your own.
Can I take the rental company's insurance and still use my card's benefit? Generally no, because declining the counter's waiver is one of the activation conditions. New York is worth a separate question: Amex's New York terms list paying for a partial waiver as an alternative to declining the full one. It is still only one of three conditions, and it is specific to New York. Ask the counter exactly what they are selling you, and ask your issuer before you rely on it.
Does card coverage work for Turo or a car-sharing app? Peer-to-peer and hourly rentals are commonly excluded. Assume no coverage unless the issuer confirms otherwise in writing.
My card's guide doesn't list any countries. Does that mean I'm covered everywhere? No. It means the list isn't in the document you are reading. Check your full Guide to Benefits, or call the number on the back of the card, name the country, and get the answer before you book.
Bottom line
Credit card rental coverage works. It just doesn't work automatically, and it doesn't work everywhere.
Fifteen minutes on the phone before your trip is the whole job. If the guide names your country, you have your answer in writing. If it names none, the phone call is how you get it.
Not sure what your policy covers versus what your card covers? That's a conversation I have every week. Call or text me at (631) 825-9106 and we'll go through both. If you want a second pair of eyes on what your card tells you, send it over.
Not sure what your policy actually says? Call or text me at (631) 825-9106 and send me your declarations page, and I'll read it with you. It takes two minutes, and it's a much better conversation before you book than after something happens.
This is general information about how credit card rental benefits and personal auto policies commonly work. It is not a description of your card's benefit or your policy, and it is not advice about your coverage. Coverage varies by policy, carrier and state. Benefit terms vary by issuer, card product, state and country, and change without notice. Read your own guide to benefits and your own policy — or call us and we'll read them with you.
