Do you need to buy rental-car insurance?

It’s been a long flight and the kids are cranky as you exit the airport toward the car rental office. You can’t wait to get a car to get to that beach-side villa, the one you found a great deal on over the Internet. The car rental itself was dirt cheap, too, especially since you glossed over the added insurance on the website.

However, as you’re signing for the car, the clerk behind the counter asks: “Would you like the added insurance? Otherwise, you’ll be liable for the car.” You freeze, your tired mind wondering what that even means. “I’m insured on this,” you think. But are you? Do you get the added liability coverage or stick with your own insurance? There isn’t one simple answer.

“When you get to that desk, that’s the last place you want to make that decision,” says Steve Kee of the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Kee says that getting as much information about your own insurance before you go to the rental office is key to both protecting yourself and saving money, because the onus lies with the renter to ensure coverage for any claims. Whatever coverage you have is not necessarily the same as that of someone else.