I unfortunately had a really bad experience with Enterprise in Aguascalientes (near the airport) with regards to credit card provided insurance (I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve). The employees did not want to honor the insurance letter I had, stating that I had to have submitted it to them beforehand, with the specific address and had it approved by corporate. I was travel weary, so I ended up giving in at the end and got their added on Mexican insurance and the charge you mentioned. Felt like they were taking me for a fool.
Definitely recommend folks have a letter and confirm with the company you are renting with (if you have the time to do so) as well as having a backup plan! Wish I had just said no, taken a taxi to my place and rested instead of arguing with them. Also, confirm location! The email sent to me by Enterprise had a whole different address than the one of the actual location.

But yes, good article from Rachel, I’m most likely going to buy a car and just leave it with family next time around. :)

In regards to renting cars, I have done the same as Rachel many times in Mexico. I frequent the Cancun area many times a year. Both Budget and Hertz at the Cancun Airport (and I did in in MX City with Hertz too) will let you waive the additional insurance they try to sell you ($25-$30 per day) if you book and pay with your credit card that covers CDW/LDW if its part of your coverage. You will have to leave a significant deposit of like $7,000 or more on the card but gets returned when you bring the car back and I havent had an issue. I have a Capital One Visa Signature card and have never had a problem and have done this in Europe as well (the only countries they exclude are Jamaica, Ireland and Northern Ireland for CDW/LDW). The car rental companies provide the minimum Liability insurance on all of their vehicles already in MX. But, if you are looking to purchase more coverage, sometimes they tie the extra coverages you can purchase into needing to buy their cdw/ldw.

If you are looking for more coverage I did manage to find one American company (and seemingly only one company after much searching) that does cross border business in insurance and can get a blanket Mexican car insurance policy through HDI Seguros ( a big insurance company in MX) for your rental car. The company is called Sanborns Mexican Auto Insurance ( Sanborns.com) and was legit. Used them a couple times on longer stays. Minimum policy is for one month and was about $220…much better than the rental company policy for $25 per day when going for a few weeks. You will get actual documentation from HDI Seguros in both English and spanish and a full detailed policy. I actually brought it to one of the HDI Seguros offices I saw and had them check it out. They said it was legit. I usually get a new VW Jetta or Vento for 28 days at a time (maximum rental you can get..just need to book a subsequent rental if more time needed…come back in and re-up, usually just keep the same car) for between $180-$220 and add the insurance cost if I get a policy..so roughly $400 for a whole month isn’t bad at all.

How did you find that car rental for $17/month? We only found $400+ results on our searches. We want to go in Cancun for 1 month in August 2020.

thanks for your efforts to help others :)

How would you i find the 1 dollar rates? Should I go one Expedia?

You know it’s hard to say because I don’t know the process of bringing a car. I do know that people talk about this a lot in an expat FB group I am in for Mexico and when people ask, everyone recommends they don’t bring their car. Apparently there are customs issues and also having to change out license plates? But, again I haven’t been through it. If you have residency, then buying here is very easy so all in all I’d have to say it’s the best option! Most people who bring cars down don’t have residency also so do it as the only way to have a car down here

Hey Terry, try changing up the dates. When we would put just a day difference sometimes it would pop up to $15/day then we would shift the dates a bit and it would go back to $1. It was weird! Different cities are different and I don’t think a smaller place like San Miguel de Allende will have the 1/day to be honest. Cancun yeah, merida it’s 50/50, but you won’t find this all over Mexico – also depends on the time of the year. it’s tourist season now so prices might come up higher.