Anyone have advice on car rental in Costa Rica?

[Disc Golf Guy]

We're heading to Costa Rica in a couple of months and will be flying in to LIR. Flights and accommodations are set, but I still need to rent a car. From the research I have done so far, it sounds like it is advisable to rent from a Costa Rican company or to use the Costa Rican website, if using one of the larger international car rental companies. I found a great rate on Alamo.com, but the CR Alamo site has a much higher base rate than what is on Alamo.com, and it sounds like there is a good chance that the local branch will not honor the price booked through Alamo.com.

I am aware of the mandatory 3rd party insurance required in CR, but am debating on whether to purchase CDW/theft protection from the car rental company or to go with the primary coverage on my Mileage Plus card or to pay for American Express premium coverage.

Any advice or past experience on car rentals in Costa Rica is appreciated.

 

[kodiak jack]

Never been to Costa Rica, but for many cards with secondary CDW coverage, it actually becomes primary if you rent outside the US; an example is the Citibank Premier as referenced here

http://thepointsguy.com/2015/07/credit-cards-that-offer-primary-car-rental-coverage/

I think you'd save a lot of money going that route rather than paying the rental company CDW rates. but it would be less hassle to have the cdw from the rental company if anything were to happen.

 

[Suzie]

We're going next week and renting from Dollar (at Liberia Airport). I called Citi and had them fax me a "Confirmation of Worldwide Car Rental Insurance Coverage" that I will take with me. If you purchase the rental car company's insurance, I believe it negates the insurance offered by Citi. We have had to use Citi car rental insurance before and they were great.

It states on the confirmation of what is covered "The cost of repairs or the cash value of the care, whichever is less, if a covered accident or theft occurs when you pay for a rental car in full with your Citi card and decline the rental company's collision loss/damage insurance."

Hope this helps!

This is on the Citi AA Executive - not sure about the other cards.

Edit - that should be "cash value of the CAR"

 

[CostaRicanCarRentalAssoc]

The Alamo Costa Rica website includes the third party insurance, airport taxes, environmental tax, license plate fee and CDW in the online quotation, whereas the international website for Alamo has the coverage as options to check in the reservation process, even though the text below says that the PLI is mandatory and cannot be declined with any credit card. The rental vehicle will be provided by the Costa Rican franchise of the company, and so, it is wise to deal with them directly to avoid confusion.

CDW can be declined if your credit card provider supplies this as a perk, but be prepared to provide written proof of this coverage. You should also be aware that you will need to leave a much higher deposit on your credit card for the duration of the rental period, if in-house CDW is declined. This is due to the difference with responsibility to follow up on a claim -- with in-house CDW, the car rental agency is responsible for filing the claim and following the process through; with credit card CDW, the responsibility is entirely on the renter to file any claim.

Obviously, you'll save money by using the credit card CDW, but some renters prefer the peace of mind of knowing that any claim will be handled by the car rental agency, or prefer to pay the in-house CDW to avoid a greater deposit.

If you decide to use the credit card CDW, do check the small print for the particular provider. Some will not cover Premium SUVs, for example, and there are differences in the duration of car rental period that is covered.