Car rental insurance fee

Anyone have a true & tested way of declining insurance when traveling? Am I foolish for wanting to decline it? My reasoning is my car insurance policy in the US covers rentals. I was able to decline it once, not so lucky this time. Europcar wouldn't let me take the vehicle out without buying extra insurance which cost more than the rental for the vehicle.

Some countries require it. You have to show that you have coverage in that country or buy theirs. Also, some countries are specifically excluded from creator card coverages.

When I was in Iceland last year we got charged for a couple scratches that we are trained to ignore when we rent in the US as they were very small. They went over the car very critically when we returned it. Cost me $1500. 

I am currently in Argentina and rented a car from Europcar in Chile, and they “required” me to get their premium insurance, since we took the vehicle to another country and we are not residents of Chile. There was no alternative for us. We had to buy insurance in order to rent the car. Not sure what the case is in other countries though.

$1500!?!? Gross

"Required" is right. They said I was free to rent from other companies but I already paid the rental for mine. What makes me upset is that they were lowering the price of the insurance every time I declined. First it was >$300 then 200 then finally settled on $160. I paid $120 for the vehicle.

Certain credit cards have cover insurance on rental cars - my partner got dinged with a $1000 bill on Lofoten but the credit card took care of it (though it was many hours of phone calls and half a year later we got re-imbursed...)

I tried saying that too. Actually, the guy behind the desk was the one that mentioned it but he said that if anything happens, we can't call the credit card company to help us. I was hoping for a magic phrase/spell that i can say so that they'll let us take the vehicle without buying additional insurance 

Some countries are more challenging - for instance, I think people used to (still?) rent cars in Austria rather than Italy because they wouldn't accept the card insurance. They could also be scamming you since they know you have no other options like they did to me in Mexico ;) The joys of travel.

I recently did a bunch of research prior to doing a month long car rental in Mexico. Make sure to double check what your primary car insurance actually covers. It turned out after looking closely, my primary car insurance only covers rental cars in the US and Canada. 

One other thing to be aware of, even in the US & Canada:  your regular insurance may cover the damage minus your deductible as it would for your own car.  However, the rental car agency will also charge a large amount for "Loss of Use"  (even for cosmetic damage) so drive carefully.