Question: Will my car insurance company extend my coverage to a Zipcar or another car-sharing vehicle the same as it does to a rental car? I’m trying to determine the differences between car-sharing services and rental cars.
Answer: Car insurance policies usually don’t extend coverages to a car-sharing vehicle as they will for a rental car, but that may be fine for your needs since car-sharing programs typically include insurance in the cost of using a car.
Car insurance company guidelines and policy terms vary greatly from one insurer to the next, so we cannot say if your policy extends to a car borrowed from a rental car agency or a car-sharing company. To find out what your particular policy allows, review it and then call your agent with any questions. Here, though, is general information we can share on this topic.
Most car insurance policies allow your coverage to extend to rental vehicles. Your liability coverage, bodily injury liability and property damage liability typically are in effect up to the maximum limits you have purchased as part of your policy. This allows you protection if, when driving the rental car, you damage someone’s property or injure someone outside of the vehicle.
Your collision and comprehensive coverage will also normally follow you to a rental car. As long as the car you’re renting is similar to the car you own, these physical damages coverages should be adequate if the rental is damaged in a covered event.
Car-sharing services, like Zipcar, are different because you don’t need your own auto insurance policy to extend to the vehicle to be covered. Auto insurance, in the form of $300,000 per accident combined single limit third-party liability coverage, is automatically included in the cost of using a Zipcar vehicle for drivers 21 or older.
Drivers younger than 21 get less coverage; it’s reduced to minimum state-required limits. The car itself has physical damage coverage on it under a comprehensive vehicle collision policy.
If you rent a car from a peer-to-peer car-sharing service like Turo, it carries a $1 million liability insurance policy that protects the owner from third-party claims for injuries and property damage. For the car borrower, Turo includes supplemental protection with $300,000 worth of liability coverage and secondary comprehensive and collision coverage.
It’s great news that Turo and Getaround offer car insurance coverage because personal car insurance policies have started to specifically exclude from coverage vehicles being used for car-sharing.
Rental cars and car-sharing programs are looked at differently by auto insurers. Before borrowing or renting a vehicle from anyone, contact your car insurance company to clarify what’s covered.
— Penny Gusner contributed to this story.
Ask the Insurance Expert
Laura Longero
Executive Editor
Laura is an award-winning editor with experience in content and communications covering auto insurance and personal finance. She has written for several media outlets, including the USA Today Network. She most recently worked in the public sector for the Nevada Department of Transportation.
Ask the Insurance Expert
John McCormick
Editorial Director
John is the editorial director for CarInsurance.com, Insurance.com and Insure.com. Before joining QuinStreet, John was a deputy editor at The Wall Street Journal and had been an editor and reporter at a number of other media outlets where he covered insurance, personal finance, and technology.
Ask the Insurance Expert
Leslie Kasperowicz
Managing Editor
Leslie Kasperowicz is an insurance educator and content creation professional with nearly two decades of experience first directly in the insurance industry at Farmers Insurance and then as a writer, researcher, and educator for insurance shoppers writing for sites like ExpertInsuranceReviews.com and InsuranceHotline.com and managing content, now at CarInsurance.com.
Ask the Insurance Expert
Nupur Gambhir
Managing Editor
Nupur Gambhir is a content editor and licensed life, health, and disability insurance expert. She has extensive experience bringing brands to life and has built award-nominated campaigns for travel and tech. Her insurance expertise has been featured in Bloomberg News, Forbes Advisor, CNET, Fortune, Slate, Real Simple, Lifehacker, The Financial Gym, and the end-of-life planning service.
