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Rental car insurance is important for many different reasons. It can help protect the driver, as well as the other vehicle’s driver, the rental company and any passengers as well as the vehicle itself. Rental car insurance is available through most rental companies because they want to ensure that you insure their vehicles. The most common rental car insurance options will have low cost daily insurance costs which could be anywhere from $10-50. Of course most rental companies will want to help you feel safe, they will want to make your insurance costs as low as possible to help keep the vehicle insured in case of an accident.

The most common options will always ask for the optional rental insurance while some companies will even require that you have insurance before they will even rent a vehicle to you. You need to make sure that there are several options available to you before you make a decision on whether or not you will need insurance. Always contact your vehicle insurance to make sure that you will have the coverage for a rental vehicle. This could prevent some unnecessary costs. On the other hand, opting into the optional insurance could save you the hassle of increased premiums when you file a claim with them.

Other options which are available are cars that have the insurance costs built into the rate. This makes it impossible to have the vehicle without insurance and provides the right amount of coverage for any situation. This is the best option to look for if it is available in the locations in which you decide to rent in such as Seattle, Washington. Other locations may offer these vehicle options, but it is important to ask your normal insurance to see if they cover your rental first.

As of Jan. 22, 2010, the answer is “yes.”

That’s because Delta teamed up with American Express’s LoyaltyEdge to make it possible for SkyMiles members to use their miles to rents cars and hotel rooms, as well as make other purchases.

The program is called SkyMiles MarketPlace. To check it out, go to Delta’s Web site and select “Use Miles” from the SkyMiles menu.

For example, at the Seattle/Tacoma airport, SkyMiles members can rent cars from Alamo, Budget and National Car Rental.

Budget has the least expensive weekly rate at SeaTac: A Ford Focus four-door or similar automatic, air-conditioned car for 27,889 SkyMiles, including unlimited mileage.

Edmunds.com says the Focus was tuned to provide responsive handling and communicative steering for European buyers, with 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder engine offering 140 horsepower.

The Focus includes Ford’s Sync system, which allows occupants to operate devices such as a cell phone, PDA and MP3 player via voice commands.

The most inexpensive National and Alamo rental at SeaTac is a Nissan Versa for 31,264 and 38,046 SkyMiles, respectively. Both including unlimited mileage.

U.S. News & World Report ranks the 2010 Nissan Versa 12 out of 29 affordable small cars and gives the Versa good marks for its spacious interior, roomy cargo space and excellent handling. The Versa gets poor marks for having fewer standard features than other cars in its class.

When renting you’ll want to find out if the Versas in the National and Alamo Sea/Tac fleets were upgraded to include power windows and anti-lock brakes.

At the top end, Budget offers a four-wheel-drive Jeep Grand Cherokee or similar car for weekly rate of 51,556 miles, while National and Alamo offer a four-wheel-drive Chevy Trailblazer or similar car for 52,529 and 61,954 SkyMiles, respectively.