Loss of Use Insurance at Car Rentals

I called my insurance company yesterday to see if they covered the Loss of Use when renting a car. My policy does not, but they told me to call my Credit Card company and check with them. I called Visa and they do cover the Loss of Use if you use your card for the rental and decline the collision insurance in the rental agreement.

Loss of use is subjective too at the discretion of the rental company. It also covers the time the vehicle is in the shop being repaired.

Also consider the loss of your time and effort. If you get bent metal in a Rental Car you will be filling out a lot of forms without the Rental company's CDW. Not that I am happy with paying $22.99 a day for Alamo's collision damage waiver but my time is also worth quite a bit.

Let's say you are driving down I-15 and a rock comes up and breaks the windshield. You are now going to have a $400+ charge on your Visa as that is not considered "normal wear and tear".

Consumer Reports and other like type magazines will tell you to not to buy the CDW but the hassle just isn't worth it to me.
On the other hand I have heard the collision damage waiver you can get through your American Express Card is pretty good coverage.