Delaney Simchuk, Car Insurance Writer
@delaney_simchuk
Permalink Report Abuse
Yes, an accident in a rental car will affect your insurance if you are using your own personal auto insurance to cover the rental car. If you buy a collision damage waiver and rental car liability insurance from the rental company, you may avoid a rate increase on your personal insurance.
How an Accident in a Rental Car Affects Your Insurance
- If you purchased rental car insurance specifically, you will most likely avoid a rate increase from your personal auto insurance. A rental company’s collision damage waiver covers physical damage to the rental vehicle, while rental car liability insurance covers damage to other vehicles, property and people as a result of an accident you cause when driving your rental car.
- If you are using your personal auto insurance to cover an accident in a rental car, how much the accident affects your insurance depends on a few factors, including your insurance company, the state, the extent of the damage, and who was at fault. Your rates may increase by up to 50% on average if you were at fault and by 12% on average if another driver caused the accident.
- If you’re injured in a not-at-fault accident, your car insurance premiums should not be affected even if you use your personal injury protection (PIP) insurance or MedPay coverage to pay your medical expenses instead of your personal health insurance.
To learn more, check out WalletHub’s guide on how much car insurance goes up after an accident.
People also ask
What happens if you crash a rental car without insurance?
If you crash a rental car without insurance and you are at fault, you will have to pay out-of-pocket for damage to the rental car. If you are not at fault, the other driver’s liability insurance is responsible for paying to repair or replace the rental car.
Note that you… read full answer
show less WalletHub Answers is a free service that helps consumers access financial information. Information on WalletHub Answers is provided “as is” and should not be considered financial, legal or investment advice. WalletHub is not a financial advisor, law firm, “lawyer referral service,” or a substitute for a financial advisor, attorney, or law firm. You may want to hire a professional before making any decision. WalletHub does not endorse any particular contributors and cannot guarantee the quality or reliability of any information posted. The helpfulness of a financial advisor's answer is not indicative of future advisor performance.
WalletHub members have a wealth of knowledge to share, and we encourage everyone to do so while respecting our content guidelines. This question was posted by WalletHub. Please keep in mind that editorial and user-generated content on this page is not reviewed or otherwise endorsed by any financial institution. In addition, it is not a financial institution’s responsibility to ensure all posts and questions are answered.
Ad Disclosure: Certain offers that appear on this site originate from paying advertisers, and this will be noted on an offer’s details page using the designation "Sponsored", where applicable. Advertising may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). At WalletHub we try to present a wide array of offers, but our offers do not represent all financial services companies or products.
Did we answer your question?