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Imagine renting a car for a business trip or family vacation, only to be struck by another driver through no fault of your own. The rental car is totaled. You’re left with injuries, medical bills, and a stressful insurance situation.
Rental car accidents raise a unique set of questions. Does your personal auto policy follow you into a rental? Does the rental company’s insurance kick in? What about the coverage you may have declined, or accepted, at the counter? And who is responsible for your medical expenses and the damage to a car you don’t even own?
The answers to these questions depend on a variety of factors: your own policy’s terms, the rental agreement, the at-fault driver’s coverage, and the state where the accident happened. For anyone hurt in a rental car accident in Missouri or Illinois, understanding how these layers of coverage interact is the first step toward getting the compensation you deserve.
Rental Car Laws in Missouri and Illinois
Rental car accidents involve more moving parts than a typical crash because multiple insurance policies (and sometimes multiple state laws) can apply at once. Understanding the baseline legal framework in Missouri and Illinois is a good starting point before untangling who actually pays.
Both states require rental companies to carry at least the state minimum liability coverage on every vehicle in their fleet. In Missouri, that’s $25,000 in bodily injury coverage per person, $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 in property damage coverage. In Illinois it’s $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $20,000 in property damage. These are only minimums, however, and they can fall far short of covering serious injuries from a rental car accident.
Both states also protect renters from being pressured into unnecessary coverage. Under Missouri law (RSMo § 407.735), rental companies cannot require you to purchase a collision damage waiver or supplemental rental insurance, and they must post clear notice that these products are optional. Illinois’ Renter’s Financial Responsibility and Protection Act (625 ILCS 27) similarly requires rental companies to disclose that a collision damage waiver is optional and to spell out exactly what it does and doesn’t cover.
One factor that surprises a lot of injury victims is a federal law called the Graves Amendment (49 U.S.C. § 30106) generally shields rental car companies from vicarious liability, meaning they usually can’t be held responsible simply because they own the vehicle involved in your accident. Interestingly, the amendment is named for former Missouri Congressman Sam Graves. The rental company can still be held liable, though, if its own negligence contributed to the crash. For example, through poor vehicle maintenance or renting to someone it knew shouldn’t be driving.
Because liability in a rental car accident often comes down to the at-fault driver’s insurance rather than the rental company’s, knowing where these laws leave gaps is essential to building a full claim.
Who Pays for Damages?
When you’re in an accident involving a rental car, there are several potential sources of coverage. Here’s how each option works:
Use Your Personal Auto Insurance
Rental car companies cannot require you to purchase their insurance if you already carry your own auto policy. Most personal auto policies extend the same liability, collision, and comprehensive coverage you have on your own vehicle to a rental car, as long as the rental is being used for the same type of driving (personal, not commercial).
That said, coverage isn’t a given in every situation. Some policies exclude certain vehicle classes, like luxury cars, cargo vans, or vehicles above a certain value, so it’s worth checking your policy before you rent.
If you use your personal insurance to cover the accident, your normal deductible applies, and a claim could affect your future premiums. On the injury side, your policy’s medical payments coverage or personal injury protection (PIP), along with uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, can compensate you for your own injuries.
Use the Rental Company’s Insurance
If you don’t have your own auto insurance, rental companies generally require you to purchase liability coverage through them before you can drive off the lot. Even renters who do have their own insurance can choose to buy additional coverage from the rental company for extra peace of mind.
Rental companies also offer Collision Damage Waivers (CDW) or Loss Damage Waivers (LDW). These aren’t technically insurance policies, they’re contractual waivers in which the rental company agrees not to hold you financially responsible for damage to the vehicle itself, in exchange for a daily fee. They typically don’t cover injuries to you or other drivers, so they’re meant to supplement, not replace, liability coverage.
Use Your Credit Card with Rental Car Coverage
Many credit cards include rental car coverage as a cardholder benefit, but make sure to read the fine print. Coverage is usually secondary, meaning it only kicks in after your personal auto insurance has paid out, and it typically reimburses your deductible or gaps in coverage rather than paying first. A smaller number of premium cards offer primary coverage, which pays before your personal insurance is ever involved and can protect your insurance rates from being affected.
To activate most credit card rental coverage, you generally need to pay for the full rental with the eligible card and decline the rental company’s CDW/LDW at the counter (accepting the rental company’s waiver can void the card’s coverage). Card coverage also tends to focus on damage to the rental vehicle itself, with exclusions for certain vehicle types, rental lengths, and even specific countries, so it’s important to review your cardholder agreement rather than assume you’re covered.
What Happens If Someone Else Is at Fault?
If someone crashes into your rental car, their insurance company will generally be responsible for the damage to the rental vehicle and your medical bills. Depending on the contract you have with the rental car company, you might have to pay them for the damages to the vehicle and then seek reimbursement from the at-fault driver’s insurance.
If the driver that strikes you is uninsured or leaves the scene of the collision, your own auto insurance will cover damage to the vehicle and your medical bills. In Missouri, every auto insurance policy is required to have uninsured motorist coverage for property and bodily injury, so you will be covered if the other party does not have insurance or leaves the scene.
When Rental Car Coverage Falls Short, Cantor Injury Law Steps In
Rental car accidents put you at the intersection of several insurance policies, state laws, and corporate protections. Insurance companies count on that complexity to delay, deny, or shortchange your claim. Whether it’s your own insurer, the rental company, a credit card issuer, or the at-fault driver’s policy that’s supposed to pay, figuring out who’s actually responsible for your medical bills and property damage shouldn’t fall entirely on your shoulders while you’re trying to recover.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a rental car accident in Missouri or Illinois, don’t wait to find out you were owed more than what an insurance adjuster first offered. Our attorneys at Cantor Injury Law know how these overlapping coverages work, how to identify every available source of compensation, and how to hold negligent drivers and companies accountable.
Contact Cantor Injury Law today for a free, no-obligation consultation. We’ll review the details of your accident, explain your options in plain terms, and fight to get you the full compensation you deserve.
