How Much Is Avis Rental Car Insurance?

Last Updated on April 8, 2022

When renting a car with Avis and other rental car companies, you need to verify insurance coverage.

In most cases, your own personal auto insurance covers your rental car, which means you don’t need to buy Avis rental car insurance. However, Avis offers a full spectrum of insurance products for added peace of mind and protection – or for drivers without auto insurance.

How much is Avis rental car insurance? Do you need to buy extra car insurance through Avis? Keep reading to discover everything you need to know about the cost of Avis rental car insurance.

Table of Contents:

• How Avis Rental Car Insurance Works
• Avis Rental Car Insurance Products
• Avis Rental Car Insurance vs. Your Own Car Insurance

How Avis Rental Car Insurance Works

Depending on which Avis insurance products you select, you can expect to pay $5 to $50 extra per day for Avis’s in-house rental car insurance coverage.

Avis offers similar rental car insurance to its competitors: drivers can bring their own insurance or buy insurance through Avis.

If you already have a personal auto insurance policy (say, through Progressive, GEICO, Allstate, Farmers, Nationwide, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, USAA, or any other insurer), then that policy should cover your Avis rental car. Most personal auto insurance policies extend coverage to rental cars. You get the same coverage on your rental car as you have on your ordinary vehicle. If you have minimum liability insurance on your personal vehicle, then your rental car will have the same coverage. If you have full coverage car insurance, then your rental car will have full coverage.

Drivers without insurance, or drivers with low personal insurance limits, may want to buy additional insurance through Avis.

Avis offers several rental car insurance products, including loss damage waivers (LDWs), additional liability insurance (ALI), and extended roadside assistance. Depending on your budget, aversion to risk, and personal auto insurance coverage, you may or may not want to buy these coverages.

Avis Rental Car Insurance Products

Avis offers several rental car insurance products to cover various parts of renting a vehicle. Whether you have personal auto insurance or not, it may be in your best interest to buy Avis’s rental car insurance products.

Avis offers the following insurance products when renting a vehicle:

Loss Damage Waiver (LDW)

Avis, like all rental car companies, offers a loss damage waiver (LDW) to drivers. In exchange for an extra $20 to $50 per day (or more, depending on your location and the value of your vehicle), Avis waives the right to hold you accountable for most damage to the vehicle and theft of the vehicle.

If you don’t buy Avis’s loss damage waiver, then you need to make a personal auto insurance claim for any damage to the vehicle or theft of the vehicle. That means you pay your normal car insurance deductible, and your premiums could rise after an at-fault accident.

With Avis’s loss damage waiver, you enjoy the following perks:

• Covers all damage to your Avis rental vehicle, regardless of fault
• Covers theft of the Avis rental vehicle
• No need to file a claim with your personal auto insurance company or pay higher premiums after an at-fault accident
• Pay no deductible to Avis after an accident or loss

The Avis agent will ask if you want to buy the LDW at the counter when you rent the vehicle. If you’re willing to pay extra for peace of mind, then the LDW may be worth it. Otherwise, most drivers with good car insurance can skip the Avis LDW.

Extended Roadside Assistance

Avis offers a roadside assistance program called Extended Roadside Assistance. Extended Roadside Assistance covers certain roadside emergencies and unexpected events – just like AAA and other roadside assistance companies cover similar things.

Items covered by Avis’s Extended Roadside Assistance program include:

• Lockout services, allowing you to gain entry to the vehicle when keys are locked inside or get replacement keys after a loss
• Flat tire assistance and replacement, including changing the flat or damaged tire with a spare or towing your car to the nearest service facility
• Jump starts
• Fuel delivery, including delivery of 3 gallons of gas (in the United States and Canada) or up to $10 in fuel delivery (in Australia and New Zealand)

If you want maximum peace of mind for your trip, and if you don’t already have roadside assistance through your personal auto insurer (like GEICO) or a third party (like AAA), then it may be worth it to add Avis’s Extended Roadside Assistance to your policy.

Personal Accident Insurance (PAI)

Avis, like most insurers, offers personal accident insurance (PAI). Avis’s PAI provides medical, hospital, death, and dismemberment benefits for bodily injury resulting from an accident.

Avis’s PAI includes:

• Accidental death and dismemberment up to $175,000 (for the renter) and $25,000 (for passengers)
• Accident medical expenses up to $10,000
• Hospital accident benefit of $500 per day up to 30 days

These limits and coverages vary between states. Avis does not provide PAI in all states, and some states have higher or lower coverage options.

If you don’t have personal injury protection or medical payments coverage on your personal auto insurance policy, or if you don’t have travel insurance or health insurance, then Avis’s PAI may be worth it. Otherwise, you may not need it.

Personal Accident Insurance Plus (PAI Plus)

Avis also offers a higher level of personal accident insurance called PAI Plus. With PAI Plus, you get higher limits and added protection after an accident, including:

• $250,000 of accidental death and dismemberment coverage
• $15,000 of medical coverage for injuries due to an accident
• $500 a day up to 30 days for hospitalization due to an accident

Again, specific limits vary between states.

Additional Liability Insurance

Avis offers Additional Liability Insurance (ALI) to add more liability coverage to your policy. If you buy Avis’s ALI, then you could extend your liability limits to $1,000,000 to $2,000,000, depending on the state where you are renting the vehicle.

If you already have high liability insurance limits on your personal auto insurance policy, then Avis’s additional liability insurance may be unnecessary.

However, if you have minimum liability insurance limits on your personal auto insurance policy, then it may be worth adding Avis’s additional liability insurance (or increasing your personal auto insurance limits). Low liability insurance coverage could leave you dangerously underinsured in an accident, which means you may need to pay out of pocket for any damage you cause to other people or property when driving your Avis rental car.

Personal Effects Insurance (PEP)

Avis offers personal effects insurance (PEP) to cover items in your rental vehicle. If someone steals luggage, a purse, or any personal items from your rental vehicle, then you can make a claim through Avis’s PEP coverage.

If you already have homeowners or renters insurance, then Avis’s PEP coverage may be unnecessary. Homeowners and renters insurance covers your personal possessions in a rental vehicle.

Without homeowners insurance, renters insurance, or personal effects coverage, you cannot make a claim for any possessions you lose from the vehicle.

Avis provides maximum PEP coverage of $1,000 per covered item, with maximum coverage for all items in the rental vehicle of $3,000.

Emergency Sickness Plan (ESP)

Avis’s Emergency Sickness Plan (ESP) is exclusively available to renters who are not residents of the United States.

ESP provides coverage for travelers in case of illness during the rental period. It covers the authorized driver (or drivers) and any passengers.

Avis Rental Car Insurance vs. Your Own Car Insurance

Most personal auto insurance policies cover you when renting a vehicle. This could make Avis’s rental car insurance products unnecessary.

Here are the main differences between using Avis’s rental car insurance and your own coverage:

Avis’s Loss Damage Waiver (LDW): If you buy Avis’s loss damage waiver (LDW), then you do not need to pay for any damage to the rental car or theft of the rental vehicle. In exchange for $20 to $50 per day (or more, depending on your rental location and the value of your vehicle), Avis is waiving the right to charge you for any damage to the vehicle – assuming you were not driving the car in a prohibited way when the damages occurred.

Your Own Auto Insurance: If you bring your own auto insurance to Avis, then your same coverages and limits apply. After an accident, you contact your own insurance company to initiate a claim. Your insurance covers the damage up to the limits of your policy. You pay a deductible. If you were at fault for the accident, then your insurer could raise your premiums.

If you buy your Avis rental car with a credit card, then your credit card could cover your rental car. However, most credit cards provide secondary coverage. Your personal auto insurance policy is the primary coverage, and your credit card is secondary coverage. That means you still need to pay your deductible and deal with your own insurance company after a loss.

Final Word on Avis Rental Car Insurance

Avis offers rental car insurance products in all jurisdictions. Depending on your insurance needs and coverage, it may or may not be in your best interest to buy Avis’s rental car insurance.

Avis’s rental car insurance costs vary by location. However, you can expect to pay $5 to $50 extra per day for Avis rental car insurance, depending on your coverage options and limits.