Full insurance while renting a car

[moogradod]

• In our next holdays I will rent a car for 16 days.
• I booked via rentalcars.com and will get the car from Thai Rent A car in HuaHin
• Damage to the car, theft and damage to other cars is insured.
• In the car there will be 3 passengers (My Thai wife and me - both insured for any casualties through our health insurance in Switzerland), but there is also the daugther of my wife joining us (14 year old).

2 Questions:

1. How can I make an accident insurance for the daughter that covers any expenditures in case of an accident

2. How can I make an insurance for any third party (example: I injure somebody with the car, his dog, elephant, chicken or blow up a gasoline station. My existing liability insurance does only cover incidents in EFTA countries and cannot be extended to cover incidents in Thailand.

Not that I really think anything like that will happen. I have more then 40 years driving experience and will as well exercise extreme caution. But then again this is Thailand. I have seen Carabaus crossing highways in the past or worse. And injured chicken and dogs might be expensive rare breeds . And I am a farang.

Edited March 7, 2015 by moogradod

[crazykopite]

Just get confirmation from the car rental company that the vehicle you hire has full comprehensive insurance as a lot of cars only have the bare minimum requirement required by Thai law and a lot do not even have that on top of that there is a lot of drinking driving both with Thais and Foriegners as k for a copy of the insurance before renting your vehicle as you mention you have a Thai wife so she will understand it Good Luck and have a safe trip !

[seedy]

I have found that if you rent from the large multi-national chains, they have full first class insurance. But as has been said above, be sure and check first.

Re: your wife's daughter, she should be covered under the auto policy. But again - check with the rental company.

And make sure that the insurance is valid with the type of driving license you have - will it be in effect with a Swiss license, do they require an IDP, or a Thai DL only.

[Keesters]

A lot of Thai rent a car places only include government minimal insurance to begin with. Keeps the price down to show competitiveness. Full insurance is then available as an add on. Check and find out what type of insurance is included. You may be able to upgrade the insurance on collecting the car. I looked at the website you mention but they are only a broker not the actual renter and their help, which has things related to insurance, wouldn't work on my tablet's browser.

[lj cm]

I have rented car's a number of times here in Thailand.

When you pick up the car, you will be offered a number of add on insurances.

It can be a little bit tricky to find out what you need, and in some cases you are double insured.

Sometimes you were promised that a certain insurance was included in the renting price, but when you get the car, they say it's not.

It's a little bit of a jungle and they are (of cause) interested in selling you all the add on's.

So; just go through it, one by one, and don't let them hurry you.

[Benmart]

I have rented from Thai Rent A Car in Pattaya, which is a large company.

I opted for the "full coverage" insurance and later hit a dog near Kabinburi, which broke the radiator on the rented Honda I was driving. The front license plate was knocked off and I never did find it or the poor dog.

I'm glad I opted for the insurance. I only had to pay USD 100 for the front plate which wasn't covered per the written contract. The company sent an insurance adjuster straight away to my friends house in Kabinburi and a replacement car arrived the same day.

As for additional insurance for personal injury, etc., you may look into travel insurance which covers injury, illness, etc. As they say, you can never be over insured. Particularly if it for a short duration and in Thailand.

Read the contract on-line and what coverage is provided and then work from there.

Have a good trip and watch out for dogs, people, vehicles going the wrong way, road hazards, etc. on the highway and elsewhere. Take a good first aid kit, GPS, water, food, paper maps and a proper license.

[mango66]

A lot of Thai rent a car places only include government minimal insurance to begin with. Keeps the price down to show competitiveness. Full insurance is then available as an add on. Check and find out what type of insurance is included. You may be able to upgrade the insurance on collecting the car. I looked at the website you mention but they are only a broker not the actual renter and their help, which has things related to insurance, wouldn't work on my tablet's browser.

you have usual 3 categories of insurance in thai rentals:

a) no insurance

CDW you have self to pay 10.000,- 0r 20.000,- depends

c) SCDW - this is full insured ( nearly ) some companies even here exclude roof, windscreen, tryals, under car construction !!

in AVIS I pay for SCDW 6.000,- per month

Insurance for accident : called PI - 3.000,- per month

In Avis you can pay for additional things also on the spot !!

[khunPer]

I have a friend who rent cars from the major named car renters (sorry, cannot remember the name). He had an accident a few years ago – not his fault, which police agreed in – the car renter and insurance took care of everything and within a few hours he could continue, in a new car from the renter.

So seems like major named car renters that offers first class or full insurance are (fairly) save to use; however good to check everything first. Normally the insurance covers up to certain number of passengers in the car, probably depending of how many passengers the car is approved for.

If your wife’s daughter is Thai national, you can easily buy an extra PA-insurance for her locally, but that normally does not cover much medical/hospital; however a Thai national will be covered under the public scheme. Some (or many) banks sell PA-insurance, typically valid for 1 year.

[Mousehound]

pay by major credit card and check the insurance you automatically are given. Ours is covered automatically by Zurich Ins and I never pay for additional (or travel insurance). The cover for us is actually better than the cover we would pay for normally (especially general travel ins.) Saves us heaps and it is good ins. I have had to call them on the phone and they fixed things no problem. However, you will still get full insurance built in through a good rental Co but you may bnot choose to cover extras and excess if like us your credit card covers it anyway.

[Bkungbank]

Get from big company not in front of your hotel desk car for rent that might not cover anything .