As an insurance broker and underwriter for over 20+, I believe it is absolutely worth buying the VEHICLE PHYSICAL DAMAGE (VPD) coverage if you already have your own personal auto liability policy.
WHY?
1.) Because if you are in an auto accident you do not have to pay the deductible required by your car insurance carrier
2.) If you are in an accident it won’t go against your auto carrier as a ‘ding’ and your coverage won’t go up. Usually when you rent a car you are in a new city, don’t know the area, the roads, etc. and accidents do happen. Better to pay the $8.99 (or whatever the cost) a day rather than the $500 out of pocket (or more) for your deductible.
3.) If you are renting the car for business, hell, YES, you should take the auto coverage on both the liability and the auto damage. Why let any of that come back to you?
4.) I have personally used the VPD twice – once it was a silly thing for a tire and once was for a cracked windshield that neither my husband, me, or the customer service rep saw before we left the lot, but saw upon our return (we saw it just after we left the garage). Had we not bought the coverage it would have been our word against the car company. This way we paid nothing but the $8.99 for VPD for the day and walked away.
Think twice before you say no to the coverage – even if you have on your own auto policy. Buying their Vehicle’s Physical Damage is not a waste of money, in my opinion.
Author: Randi Glazer, works at Insurance
Source: Quora