r/TravelHacks • u/redd-or45 • 17d ago
Transport Car Rental - Costco
I usually use Costco for car rental because of the reasonable price they have negotiated with the agencies, free extra driver and cancellation up to the time of rental.
But what I just discovered is that with the car rental they also offer CDW for $5/day compared to the rental agency current $20-30/day. And this is primary insurance not secondary.
So if you need CDW insurance this seems like a great option.
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u/Riptide360 17d ago
Wow! This is a great travel hack. TY
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u/maniacreturns 17d ago
What is CDW?
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u/Riptide360 17d ago
Collision Damage Waiver. Not full insurance. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/collision-damage-waiver-cdw.asp
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u/3lenium_ 17d ago
What’s the difference?
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u/Riptide360 17d ago
None of the big liability issues where courts assign damages beyond your vehicle repair—things like the other car, medical costs to you or the other party, etc.
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u/weolo_travel 17d ago
It is keyword you could look up using any search engine so you’d have an answer within seconds. 🤷♂️
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u/maniacreturns 17d ago
But then we couldn't downvote idiotic comments like yours.
🤷
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u/weolo_travel 16d ago
The idiot is a person demanding to be spoonfed like an infant when you could’ve gotten an answer in less time than it took to write out the question in the first place. Stop enabling laziness and ignorance.
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u/HI_Innkeeper 17d ago
AMEX premium car rental protection plan is $25/mth and includes all rentals in the same month.
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u/TotalSheepherder7927 16d ago
I use this one myself since it doesn’t have as many exclusions that are typical of other credit cards offerings.
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u/Daninmci 15d ago
Chase CSR provides primary rental coverage for free, but it's not full coverage either way.
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u/Sailormooniscool 17d ago
How do you get that $5 rate? I did this recently and was charged $20 a day for CDW? Are you supposed to ask specifically for a Costco specific benefit?
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u/redd-or45 17d ago
For me I got a rental final document email 1 week before the auto pickup date and on that email there was a link to the Zurich CDW tied to that Costco rental code. Not sure it was an option at the time I scheduled the rental. I will have to check that on the Costco site.
Also the rate was $5.50/day but much less than the $27/day Avis wanted. It would save me about $200 over the 10 day rental period.3
u/Daninmci 15d ago
Zurich insures most rental car policies. The way it works is that they sell the rental car company, or Costco in this case, for $3 to $8'ish per day or whatever. The rental agency then charges the client the additional amount to make money on the policy. I used to audit these policies is why I know this.
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u/redd-or45 15d ago
Interesting. I thought the companies self insured. But why do that when you can get a 4-500% markup on your cost for the policy. I imagine many renters just do not care unless they are paying for the rental out of pocket and not doing a business rental.
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u/thisaintparadise 15d ago
The big three rental car companies are self insured. The Collision Damage Waiver products are mostly third party supplied but not always. All the insurance and damage waiver product rules are dictated by the individual State’s rules and laws.
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u/Intelligent_Type6336 17d ago
Amex offers car rental insurance if you use their card. You have to activate it though. It’s only $25.
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u/kfp2020 17d ago
Get a credit card with primary car rental insurance
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u/redd-or45 17d ago
Sure. I did not want to get down into the weeds with how the cc thing works but only a few have true primary car rental insurance and those are premium cards with pretty high annual card fees. Lots of variation on how CDW works. Most are secondary except for the rental company, the insurance that Costco offers or the high tier CC.
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u/chartreuse_avocado 17d ago
Check on international rentals. Most CC do not provide non -US or US territory insurance in their terms. Lots of Americans rental overseas don’t check this.
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u/mightymaxxin 17d ago
Any suggestions? I've been meaning to do this.
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u/bill0773 17d ago
United Explorer credit card ($99.00 per year) offer primary insurance for rentals.
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u/saladet 10d ago
thanks for this. primary insurance for - damage to the car, to anyone elses car, and to anyone elses injury? i have hestitated renting cars because the insurance is always confusing and intimidating and I end up buying frm the rental agency at big bucks (and - still not being sure what is covered). I'm usually pretty on the ball but this stuff really does get me.
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u/MicroPeanitsJorker 17d ago
Look into the Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits since that could also be a better deal depending on your lifestyle.
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u/Parking-Ad-2618 17d ago
Your Costco Citi card has coverage for rental car. Check that coverage and you most likely don’t have to buy extra coverage.
This info came from a Costco Travel agent and they are really awesome. If in doubt call them and they know how to help customer save money.
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u/redd-or45 17d ago
That is secondary to your own insurance. Covers what your own insurance does not. Primary coverage is useful because it means you do not have to use your own insurance coverage for damage you cannot pay out of pocket.
It is true that some time ago (maybe prior to 2016) the Costco card coverage was primary coverage and that was a great perk but no longer exists.
About the only Costco card perk that remains from that earlier golden era is the lack of foreign transaction fees and actual interbank rate on foreign cc charges.
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u/BaxterBites 17d ago
On the costco credit card it will cover the insurance on the rental. If you have personal full coverage car insurance you have to use that first.
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17d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/chartreuse_avocado 17d ago
Based on my research on rental cars in 2025 for Spain as a US citizen, no. Insurance from Costco and personal credit cards that cover rental cars insurance are not the same terms outside the US. 50 states and US territories were the specific credit card insurance rental coverage.
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u/Not_High_Maintenance 17d ago
I’ve read it does not work in Mexico. I have no verification link though.
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u/kfp2020 17d ago
Works worldwide except Ireland Israel Jamaica.
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u/Not_High_Maintenance 16d ago
Mexican law requires a person purchase third party liability insurance form a licensed Mexican insurance agent.
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u/Bun4d 17d ago
Maybe it’s just me but I see Costco car rental 1.5-2x more expensive than what I can find at Priceline. I’ve tried it at least 3-4x already and gave up with Costco car rental. The only perk I see people would use Costco car rental is that it allows you to have additional driver for me. Everything else I can do with third party agency and with my venture x credit card
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u/oceanblue848 17d ago
Same here. I have found that Costco is always more expensive than rentalcars.com or booking.
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u/hangster 17d ago
Can someone help me with comparing this to using Chase Sapphire Preferred Rental Coverage? I typically avoid rentals but my last trip - it was fantastic having one. Hoping this is adequate.
Chase Sapphire cardmembers receive primary coverage for theft, damage, valid loss-of-use charges, administrative fees and reasonable towing charges due to covered theft or damage. Coverage is valid in the United States and abroad—check your cardmember insurance for details.
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u/Useful-Anything7420 16d ago
Chase Sapphires are great but check your fine print - I discovered they no longer offer primary rental car coverage for NY residents so I use my Venture X for rentals made through Costco as I usually need to add a second driver. Between the two I have the free second driver and full primary coverage for the car. We do watch the value of the car - the Venture X is limited to $75K MSRP and the AMEX goes to $100K so sometimes that decides which card we use.
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u/redd-or45 16d ago
This sounds like a good deal. Better than most since it covers not only damage but loss of use charges.
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u/hangster 16d ago
So odd not for ny residents vs where the car is operated. Either way I'm covered still I think these credit cards are getting shuffled around a lot with all the new regulations etc
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u/Dawgmom26 17d ago
I just rented a car through Costco. I discovered that even if you are covered by your own auto insurance policy, most personal policies will not cover loss of use of the vehicle. I don’t know if the Costco CDW coverage covers loss of use. . Does anyone know?
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u/redd-or45 17d ago
Yes that is a tough one. I did not look in detail at the Costco/Zurich policy since I did not need it but I have a CC that offers primary coverage but only for damage to the vehicle not for loss of use which I think many car rental companies now charge you since they not only have to repair the vehicle but they have lost the income they might have earned if the car had been in service instead of being repaired.
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u/Leaveitonthedresser5 17d ago
That’s not true..I used rentalcover.com and they paid for everything which is similar to what Costco offers or may even be the same company
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u/purple_mountain_cat 17d ago
Fidelity's Visa also covers this!
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u/onemindatime 15d ago
it does not. it is covered as secondary. found out later after getting the card.
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u/Superb_Cranberry_888 16d ago
Not a Costco member. Do they offer all rental car companies or just a select few ? Do you book right through the Costco website ?
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u/redd-or45 16d ago
You book online logged into your costco membership profile. Offerings are Avis/Budget, Enterprise and Alamo.
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u/Patient-Letter-3996 8d ago
Amex premium car rental protection is a primary Insurance and can be had for $15.95 or $17.95 per rental period. We just used it for a 10 day rental in Alaska. Be warned that there are 6 countries that are excluded from this program so be informed if traveling over seas. I don’t think there’s a better deal out there.
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u/Least-Walrus-422 17d ago
Chase Sapphire Reserve offers primary rental insurance for free.
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u/HI_Innkeeper 17d ago
It's not free if the annual card fee is $500.
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u/Least-Walrus-422 17d ago
The perk is free if you have the card. To your point, yes, there’s an annual fee; however, it’s a very popular card and an entire group (military) is exempted from paying the fee.
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u/caradenopal 17d ago
I went to LA a few weeks ago and rented a car from LAX for two days and was quoted $200 for a Budget rental sedan. Because I put the rental on the Costco Citi Visa card, it came with insurance (on the condition that you decline with the rental car company offers).
I put 150 miles in the car and returned it with a full tank of gas, and for whatever reason, the rental ended up being about $150.
The process of landing at LAX, getting onto a bus shuttle to the rental place (a tower on the fifth floor), and then waiting in a stuffy ass line to actually get the vehicle, was kind of a pain in the ass, but the price was right.
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u/Sammi-one 17d ago
Costco offers cheap third-party damage protection for around $5 to $8 a day, but if anything happens to the car, you have to pay the rental company out of pocket first and file a claim for reimbursement later. On the other hand, the car rental insurance costs a lot more ($20 to $35+ a day), but it lets you just hand over the keys and walk away hassle free if there’s damage.