How Adding Turo Insurance Protects You When You Rent Your Car Out On Turo

Have you ever thought of increasing your cash flow? By renting your car on Turo when it’s not in use, you can do just that. Like Airbnb, Turo offers a large marketplace for people to earn passive income by making their cars available for rent at an affordable rate. Turo insurance protects hosts so you can turn that car in your driveway into a literal money-making machine.

As the sharing economy continues to experience rapid growth, renting your car can be very lucrative. Turo offers car insurance coverage for hosts, making this peer-to-peer rental market incredibly accessible. If you are thinking about renting your car on Turo, but you’re worried about the insurance implications, we’ll give you a quick tour of the costs and how they affect your bottom line.

Car Insurance in Canada

Whether you lease or own a car in Canada, you need to have car insurance. However, each province and territory has its own minimum insurance coverage mandates. Ideally, your car insurance should cover liabilities, bodily injuries, and accident benefits. Here are some factors that can affect the cost of your car insurance for personal use: 

• Car model: safety ratings, repair cost, and the car value can affect your insurance premium.
• Driving record: Your insurance premium will be lower if you have never experienced a conviction or accident. 
• Drive Frequency: How often you drive and the distance covered is also factored into your insurance cost. 
• The coverage you choose: The more the insurance coverage, the more your insurance will cost

Do I need Turo’s Insurance?

In most cases, your insurance policy covers your vehicle and may not extend use for commercial purposes. If you are considering hosting through Turo then you need to determine the insurance policy that’s right for you. You can either opt-in for Turo’s coverage plans or, you can get a commercial rental insurance policy to become a commercial host.

How Turo insurance works

The second you rent your car out on Turo, you’ve crossed the line from personal use to commercial use. Depending on your insurance provider, this may void your car insurance policy, leaving you unprotected in the event something should happen, like a serious car accident. Before you consider using your car for a business purpose like Uber, Lyft, or Turo, contact your insurance provider to discuss how it will impact your policy. 

You may need to upgrade to commercial coverage, which is typically more expensive than personal use coverage. The good news is that Turo offers insurance coverage for hosts, depending on your particular needs. This may be enough to cover you completely or supplement your existing coverage. 

Turo has partnered with Intact Insurance and Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) to offer hosts physical damage and liability coverage. Hosts in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec are covered under Intact. Hosts in British Columbia are covered under ICBC. The cost of Turo host insurance depends on where you live.

Turo insurance cost for the host

Turo offers 3 tiers of insurance coverage to their host – Basic, Standard, and Premium. Basic coverage costs 15%, Standard coverage costs 25% and Premium costs 35%. The number on each Turo insurance plan represents the price percentage per trip that the host will keep.

Let’s see how much it would cost assuming you rent out a car for $100 a day:

Your take-home profit depends on the coverage plan you choose. The more robust coverage you want, the higher percentage of the trip price you’ll need to fork over. If you want to pocket more profit, you’ll have to settle for less coverage.

Turo host insurance plans

The cost of Turo host insurance depends on the province where the trip begins and where the damages occur. When it comes to Turo coverage plans in respect to a different province, here is what you should know:

• $1000 Deductible applies for Host in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec, while Host from British Columbia is not covered irrespective of the coverage plan chosen by the host.
• In case of physical damage, Turo will provide up to $105,000 as coverage during the reservation or delivery period for the provinces of Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. While British Columbia province gets coverage up to the car value, up to a limit of $75,000 only during the reservation period.

While Turo recommends possible rates when listing your car on its platform, you can manually input your fee and choose your preferred insurance plan. You can also set other additional fees such as delivery fees that suit you. 

These are called add-ons and are a popular way to make more money on Turo. The fee charged by Turo is the total amount you pay for making use of the Turo platform and for listing your car for rent. Turo offers an opportunity for you to make extra money by listing your car for rent when it’s not in use. But one of the first steps in knowing how much you can earn on Turo is understanding how its various insurance plans work. If you don’t pay attention to the numbers, you could end up losing out on profits. 

Based on the coverage plan you choose as a host, Turo charges 15% to 35% rental cost, and you can easily list your car within a few minutes. You might be lucky to get your first customer immediately.