Whether you have car insurance or are shopping for a quote, you may not think about rental car reimbursement. Is it worth it? If you're trying to save on your auto insurance, you may not want to pay for this coverage but here's something to keep in mind.

 

Rental car reimbursement coverage is usually an optional add-on to your car insurance policy that will help pay for a rental car -- for a limited number of days -- while your vehicle is being repaired due to a loss. For example, the coverage may pay $20 per day for 30 days toward the cost of a rental car. The coverage typically costs a couple of dollars a month.

Depending on the time of year, the type of rental car, the rental car agency, where you live and other factors, you could end up paying anywhere from $25 to $75 per day for a rental car. Now consider how long it could take to repair your car. The body shop tells you three to five days. Four days later they call and tell you they had to backorder a special part. It will be another four to five days. You call five days later and they tell you the part won't be in for another week.

Before you know it, you've been renting a car for almost three weeks. That could add up to several hundred dollars depending on how many days you rented the car during that period. With the rental reimbursement coverage, you would be able to pay substantially less.

I went through a similar experience as above, and ended up using the rental reimbursement coverage. For me it was worth it because I really needed to get around town and didn't have a lot of extra cash.

You have to assess your needs and finances to decide if you should add this coverage or not to your auto policy. When you comparison shop for car insurance quotes, find out what the difference is with and without rental reimbursement coverage. You may just consider it worth it for the peace of mind.