The terms on Chase Sapphire Reserve car rental insurance benefit have changed for New York state residents: they are no longer eligible for “primary” car rental insurance coverage on US car rentals. They’ll still have standard car rental insurance coverage, similar to how most credit cards offer; just the special primary coverage that the Sapphire Reserve card always offered is changing for NY residents.
New York Residents, inside the United States coverage is primary unless you have personal automobile insurance in which case it is excess.
I suppose there’s some sort of NY law which requires ordinary car insurance to be primary. Who knows. Interestingly, other cards like the Capital One Venture X have apparently not yet made this change, and would still be a viable option for New York residents who want primary car rental coverage.
It’s also been noted that the new terms no longer have Ireland and other commonly excluded countries as being eligible for any rental car insurance benefit on the Sapphire Reserve card. I believe this change would affect all cardholders (not specific to New York). Let us know if you verify more on this change.
Summary:
- New York residents who rent a car anywhere in the USA are no longer eligible for primary coverage. The credit card will act as a backup for your regular auto insurance policy.
- New Yorkers who rent a car outside the USA should still have primary coverage.
- This change has no affect for New Yorkers who don’t have auto insurance; credit card auto insurance benefit will work as it has in the past.
- For Sapphire Reserve cardholders who reside outside New York state will continue to get primary coverage on all car rentals.
- Readers in the comments have verified that this change for New Yorkers is true not only on the Sapphire Reserve card, but also on the Sapphire Preferred, United Club, and Ritz cards.
It seems that all Sapphire Reserve cardholders are losing the auto insurance benefit in Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Israel, and Jamaica. This is a change from prior when the card used to include these oft-excluded countries.Readers are receiving letters of coverage from Chase which still include these countries, so it seems this other change is not being enforced.- Update 10/13/24: Dansdeals adds that – even for New York residents – Chase business cards provide primary coverage in the US and internationally, but that coverage in the US is primary only if the rental is for business purposes.
Hat tip to reader Dan and also this Reddit thread
View Comments (62)
In my opinion, it seems to be due to the Assurant switch and them taking advantage of NY state law which requires regular auto insurers to include rental car coverage (which has been a law on the books since early 2000s from what I found, not anything new). As far as I was able to find, there’s no specific state law requiring credit card rental coverage to be secondary. So card issuers could still choose to cover New Yorkers with car insurance as primary, as it seems Capital One Venture X still does based on their benefit T&Cs.
Coverage is worldwide, previously you could call eClaimsline and they would send you a custom letter with Ireland written on it. I'm sure that will work the same with Assurant.
Did anyone see the changes for list of eligible cars though? Previously it excluded Tesla for example (which were plentiful with Hertz) or Alfa Romeo (that are common in Italy).
The current Guides to Benefits for the Sapphire Preferred and United Explorer cards became effective on 8/15/21 and 3/21/21, respectively. They do not contain any New Yorker-specific terms. The new Guides to Benefits for the Sapphire Reserve and United Club cards became effective on 10/1/24, They limit primary rental insurance and lost baggage coverage for New Yorkers.
It's probably only a matter of time before new Guides to Benefits for other
Chase cards come out.
The new guide to benefits for CSP is already out here and contains the NY exclusion: https://static.chasecdn.com/content/services/structured-document/document.en.pdf/card/benefits-center/product-benefits-guide-pdf/BGC11387_v2.pdf
Seems BILT is no longer primary in NY as well.
I think it has to do with Chase switching to Assurant. The Bilt mastercard rental coverage has the same exclusions with Assurant.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/chase-moving-insurance-providers-increased-coverage/
https://www.wellsfargo.com/credit-cards/bilt/guide-to-benefits/?product_code=CC&subproduct_code=EC&cx_nm=CXNAME_CSMPD_TR&sub_channel=WEB&vendor_code=WF&linkloc=fntr&lang=en#collision
It definitely does. Unfortunately it seems capital one venture X is now the only card with primary rental coverage for NY-ers with auto insurance
Is the Ritz losing primary coverage as well?
Yes. Same language in letter of coverage as CSR.
I don't know what the CSR Guide to Benefits said about New Yorkers' lost luggage coverage before 10/1/24, but now they are "limited to $2,000 per bag and $10,000 for all Covered Travelers per Trip." The rest of us have a "maximum benefit is $3,000 per Covered Traveler per Trip."
Maybe Chase just doesn't like New Yorkers.
Oh no!! Where will I stash my gold bars now??
The Chase Manhattan Bank?! They would never. But they say we're harder on those we love...
I don't see anything in the CSR Guide to Benefits, dated 10/1/24, about Ireland or "commonly excluded countries." In fact, the document says "Coverage is available worldwide." If there are exclusions to the coverage, those need to be spelled out in the guide (aka "terms and conditions"). No exclusions = coverage.
I've just requested a letter of coverage and it explicitly says "This includes the countries of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Israel, and Jamaica".
Did you request the letter from Assurant on the new site https://chasecardbenefits.com/rental-letter-of-coverage?
Actually you’re right I just requested another letter and they’ve added the Ireland language now which is great. When I requested it last week around 10/4, the letter did not have this language so it must have been recently added after the Assurant site went live.
Added a note
I just requested a letter from the new provider Assurant and it did NOT include this language including Ireland. It did have the NY resident exclusion language though.
Request the letter from ChaseCardBenefits com (the new Assurant site for Chase credit card holders). It will include the Ireland language.
Doesn't Chase Preferred card also have primary coverage? Is that changed as well?
Yes CSP is also affected from what I saw