A recent incident involving an Ontario resident and a US-based car rental company has highlighted ongoing issues with cross-border insurance coverage.
In an interview with CTV News Toronto, Cynthia Pullano said she had to fork out over $900, partly due to the company’s rules on Canadian insurance.
Pullano rented a car from Priceless Car Rental when she was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida last January. Her initial booking was quoted at $372 for a week’s rental. However, she was later informed that she had to also pay for insurance and that her Canadian car insurance policy would not be accepted.
In total, Pullano had to pay an extra $562 to cover insurance costs, as well as a fee for highway tolls.
And when she asked about the added cost, Pullano said the person she spoke to at the rental claimed “they were no longer accepting Canadian insurance.”
Priceless Car Rental, when approached for comment, said the decision to no longer accept Canadian insurance was exclusive to its Fort Lauderdale branch and was due to issues with previous claim denials.
The company’s spokesperson also clarified that information on its rules regarding Canadian insurance is available on its website, as well as the booking site that Pullano had used.
CTV did confirm that the Priceless Car Rental’s Fort Lauderdale website does explicitly state their policy of not accepting Canadian insurance.
Offering insight on the situation, Anne Marie Thomas of the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), said Canadian policies typically extend coverage to rentals in the US.
But Thomas also noted that businesses retain the right to refuse foreign insurance.
“I guess a business has the option not to choose to accept your coverage, but then my advice would be to try another car rental company,” she told CTV News.
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