Liability Insurance and Your New York Rent A Car

When renting a car in New York City, you'll need to decide whether to purchase the liability insurance products offered by the New York rent a car company. In New York state, all cars, minivans, and 15-passenger vans are required by statutory law to carry liability insurance in the amounts of $25,000, $50,000, and $10,000. What that means is that the most any one injured person may collect is $25,000. The car, minivan, and 15-passenger van has to have insurance liability coverage for injuries caused to any person, whether that person is in the rental car as a passenger, is in the other vehicle involved in the accident, or is a pedestrian struck by the rental car. In the event there is more than one injured person, the most they can collect combined is $50,000. This money would be divided among the various injured parties based on settlement negotiations or a court verdict. If there is damage to property, $10,000 is available to cover that damage.

Payment for any injury claims or property claims involving a New York rent a car is based on determination of liability. Oftentimes, one party is not completely at fault, and thus, liability is apportioned among the various parties involved in the collision.

What Credit Cards Won't Cover

A person considering renting a car in New York needs to be aware that no credit card provides liability coverage for the renter of a car, minivan, or 15-passenger van in New York. Many New York rent a car customers are under the false impression that they have such coverage through their credit card. While Allcar Rent-A-Car advises its New York customers to call their credit card companies just to be certain, the latest information available to us is that no credit card company provides coverage for rental cars in New York. The same holds true for 15-passenger vans, cargo vans, and minivans.

Many New York rent a car customers have car insurance of their own. Any such car insurance held by customers would be secondary insurance to the coverage supplied by the rental car company in Manhattan. That mean that your personal car insurance coverage only kicks in once the insurance is fully paid by the New York rent a car company's policy.

Supplemental Liability Insurance

Rather than concern you with these issues, Allcar Rent-A-Car makes available to its customers an excess insurance product that costs only $10.95 per day on average. (The cost may be higher depending on the type of New York vehicle rented: for example, 15-passenger van coverage is higher, while minivans are the same price per day as cars.) This coverage is called Supplemental Liability Insurance and is known as SLI. Most SLI policies offer coverage of up to one million dollars. The greatest aspect of the SLI coverage is that it is primary. This means that the policy offered by the New York rent a car company provides payout before the renter's personal insurance policy.

More details on this coverage, as well as answers to any other questions, can be supplied when you rent a car, a minivan, or a 15-passenger van at one of Allcar Rent-A-Car's many New York-area locations. We have two locations right here in Manhattan. The first is in the Theater, Times Square, Midtown-area, located at 415 West 45 Street between 9th and 10th Avenues. The other Manhattan Allcar Rent-A-Car location is on the Westside of Manhattan, near Manhattan's famous Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, at 540 West 38 Street between 10th and 11th Avenues.