In message , at 17:46:32 on Sun, 22 Jan
2012, Adam H. Kerman remarked:
Considering that people often pay $10/day for the rental company's
overpriced insurance, it doesn't seem very hefty to me.

If one has a gold card or better from the credit card company, that
includes insurance for the collision damage waiver portion of rental
company insurance.

For USA cardholders and rentals in USA, perhaps. There's a whole bunch
of people for whom neither applies.

Interesting. Not even American Express?

If credit card companies in your country aren't competing on services,
how do they distinguish themselves so you'll obtain theirs?

In recent times, from one card to another it's either the interest rate,
or being linked to a Frequent Flyer programme (my Amex gets me one
whatever British Airways miles are called this week per pound I spend).

Going from plain to Gold to Platinum rarely brings any extra benefits,
other than it being loosely linked to the credit limit, but even that's
not guaranteed. One of my plain cards has a limit just as high as any of
my "Platinum" ones. It's more like getting metallic paint finish on a
car than anything financial.

However, most customers are unadventurous enough to only get a card
linked to their checking account.

When cards were a novelty (back in the 70's) the way they got people to
adopt them was by giving highly discounted merchant accounts to gas
stations, so that people got used to making regular purchases with them.

How much would non-vehicle owner liability insurance cost in your country?

It's an unknown concept. Insurers vary their premiums vastly depending
on the vehicle you are proposing to drive, and they'd have to assume
everyone bought that type of insurance because they were about to drive
a high performance car that would be virtually uninsurable under a
normal policy.
--
Roland Perry