Understanding rental car insurance benefits

Rental car insurance is available for some Capital One credit cards. Some of your card benefits are provided by Capital One, while others are provided through partnerships with Visa® or Mastercard®. Using these benefits may require contacting those partners directly rather than Capital One. 

Before attempting to use your rental car insurance benefit, contact a benefit administrator listed in your Benefits Guide, as terms and conditions apply.

Rental car insurance is available to Capital One cardholders with the following cards if they’re branded as World Elite Mastercard, Visa Infinite or Visa Signature: 

• Venture X

• Venture

• VentureOne

• Quicksilver

• QuicksilverOne

• Savor

With rental car insurance through a Capital One card, you and authorized users of an eligible card also listed on the rental agreement could be covered for these events:

• Collisions: When an accident results in physical damage to your rental car

• Theft: If your rental vehicle is stolen

• Towing: To help with administrative fees and charges for towing your rental vehicle to a mechanic after an accident

• Loss-of-use charges: When the rental company seeks compensation for lost revenue if your vehicle is damaged and can’t be rented while being repaired
   

Some types of claims aren’t covered through rental car insurance. They include: 

• Bodily injury to you or other people

• Mechanical breakdown of the rental vehicle 

• Damage to other vehicles

• Property damage to other people’s belongings 

• Luggage or other items stolen from the rental vehicle
   

If you’re a Capital One customer with a Mastercard, you can view your benefits using the Mastercard Benefits Portal. Otherwise, review your Benefits Guide or call a benefit administrator to understand what’s covered through your card benefits. In your Benefits Guides, rental car insurance is called Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver for Visa and MasterRental Coverage for Mastercard.

Primary coverage for Venture X customers: When a claim is made on your rental car, rental car insurance is applied before your personal auto insurance.
 

Secondary coverage for Venture, VentureOne, Quicksilver, QuicksilverOne and Savor cards: When a claim is made on your rental car, your personal auto insurance is applied before your rental car insurance.

After you’ve verified that your card has the rental car insurance benefit, follow these steps to take advantage of the benefit. 

1. Decline the rental company’s collision damage waiver (CDW/LDW) option. This is an important step—accepting this option may prevent you from being able to use your benefit. In some cases, the rental agency may ask for a letter to prove that coverage exists after you decline the CDW. If this happens, contact a benefit administrator to request a verification letter.

2. Pay for the full rental cost with your Capital One credit card. This activates the coverage for your rental period.

3. Contact the rental company and a benefit administrator to file a claim in case of an accident or theft.

Whether your card is Mastercard or Visa, the process for starting a claim is essentially the same:

1. Report a covered event to your card’s benefit administrator as soon as possible.

   • For Mastercard: You can open a claim for Mastercard online or call 800-627-8372.

   • For Visa: You can open a claim for Visa online or call 800-825-4062.

2. Provide documentation including copies of your vehicle rental agreement, repair estimate and itemized repair bill.

A benefit administrator will be in touch about the next steps.
 

Many rental car insurance policies require you to provide a notice of loss within 30 days of an event, depending on your specific credit card. Review your Benefits Guides to be sure.