My wife is headed to UK tomorrow and rented a car while she's iver there. When she booked it she deckined the extra coverage (as I've done every time I've ever rented a car) but I don't believe my US car insurance covers us over there. We've rented cars overseas before but I can't remember what we've done in the past. Extra coverage is another 450. Which isn't bad I guess for three weeks but I'd rather not pay it.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Or do I have to suck it up?

Check if a credit card covers it and if so make sure you understand what you have to do to use it. Sometimes it requires declining specific coverage from the rental company. I usually just pay it because rental car companies in Europe are more likely to charge you for minor damage. Peace of mind is worth it to me.

Hired a car in S. Africa. I did purchase their insurance which I normally do not. Someone hit the car in a parking garage which were difficult to negotiate. Upon returning the car the attendant made a big deal about it until I showed him the policy which paid for everything.

I'd be curious to hear more specific info about this. I've rented a car twice overseas - in the Azores last year and in Sicily just a couple of weeks ago.

I don't recall being offered anything extra at pick-up in The Azores, but I was given the hard push at the counter in Sicily. They were even saying if the car was stolen, I would be liable. And I was renting with my company's corporate code, which is supposed to give me more coverage.

The "full" coverage plan they were offering would have doubled the price of the car's daily rate. After almost caving, I remembered these add-ons are just a cash grab and declined.

I should do some additional research before I ever rent internationally again, though. I do always pay for this kind of stuff with my Capital One Venture card, which also gives more coverage, but I honestly did not refresh my knowledge of the details before this trip.

Another lesson I learned was that these international rental car companies can charge your credit card in local currency, and then charge you ANOTHER 3.5-4% to convert that charge back to US $. The problem with this is your cc does this anyway, and Capital One (as well as many other cards) does it for FREE.

My final cc charge was a good bit higher than the invoice I was provided after return. There was no documentation of the currency fee on the receipt. When I called Avis customer service, a less than helpful woman said that's what it was (a currency conversion fee), but when I asked why it wasn't even documented on my receipt, she insisted is was a "local" fee and it was "in your original contract". I told her that wasn't a helpful answer, and she hung up on me.

However, when I researched this on the internet, I found that it is a corporate Avis policy, and some counters will charge you as much as 7% because they can also tack on a "service fee" in addition to the percentage. My charge wound up being $50+ on a $800 bill, which is about 6%. I looked in my contract, but it's not spelled out to this degree of detail (most rental contracts are vague, and no one at the counter mentioned it either).

You also actually have the ability to "turn this off" in the settings of the Avis app. It's buried in the section where your cc info is stored, and of course the default setting allows them to charge the extra $. You have to toggle the button "on" to "authorize" international counters to charge your card in US $.

Just returned from Ireland, and rented a car for two weeks. Because of the major differences in driving when compared to the US, and the extremely narrow roads, I took tbe max coverage. Unless you have prior experience driving in the UK, I advise doing the same.

Which car rental company you use will make a difference. I rented from Hertz in Spain and it was a pleasant experience. I rented from Sixt in Italy and it was the car rental equivalent of EasyJet - extra fees for everything you can imagine, and going over the car and trying to charge for anything that might look like a scratch. Oh, you wanted to pick up from the train station, that will be an extra fee to pick up from a "premium location" . . the tank may say that it's full, but we were able to squeeze in one more litre at $12, etc.

Agree with this. However, the major US companies have affiliates overseas. I rented from Avis in both The Azores and Italy. The counter in Italy was Avis, but in the Azores it was something else. Don't remember the name, but it was one that I didn't recognize and doesn't exist in the US. I suspect Avis would have been absolutely useless if I'd had a problem.

As far as that fuel charge (squeezing in more even when the indicator says full), US companies are doing that, too. The fine print in some rental contracts now says they can determine the fuel level down to 0.2 gallon increments and will charge/penalize you if they determine you are "short" by even that much. They are using a combo of "calculations" and "monitoring devices" to determine if the amount in the tank is rather than relying on the dashboard indicator (which is all the renter has access to). This happened to me with Avis in Florida.

The primary issue is that a new driver in the UK/Ireland exposes him/herself to an entirely different traffic environment. Which can be quite challenging, even moreso when driving in small villages.

I used Enterprise, and it was seamless. I didn't mind paying for full coverage (which I NEVER do in the US or any other nation that uses the same/similar traffic rules) because it gave me peace of mind should an unfortunate accident occur. Which is more likely under the circumstances of having to drive on the left side of the road and the layout of the driver side of the vehicle (right side as opposed to the left side in most countries).

A little more car advice - take a cell phone mount / holder over there with you or buy one there. I found myself driving stick, through a roundabout, in the rain, holding the phone up, while avoiding mopeds, trying to figure out which exit to take out of the roundabout. No accidents during three weeks of driving across multiple countries, but I would have appreciated a mount for the phone.

Several countries have radar guns mounted along the road and will just send you a speeding ticket in the mail. Google Maps does a good job letting you know where they are.

Last time I was there, we took the bumper to bumper coverage and didn't think twice. I said, I just have to basically return the keys and I'm good right....he said yep. Also, within the last couple of years, most if not all US credit card companies have dropped rental car liability coverage overseas.

She ended up getting the extra coverage. She's driven over there plenty as she's from there.

Thanks for the input.

Depends on the country, but I always use my Citicard for rentals to get the $50k in coverage. Internationally, it would be primary (whereas domestically, it's there after your own car insurance)

I just returned from Ireland and followed the advice of extra coverage because I had never driven there before. (Also got toll tag and didn't have to fuel up when returning!). Ended up having a tire puncture and had to get a new tire because of the cruddy road. Alamo returned what I paid for the new tire immediately when I turned it in and didn't give me any hassle. It was the easiest car rental experience I've had anywhere. I'm sure I paid more than I should have but I really enjoyed not worrying about the car. And I used the toll tag as much as I could.