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Travel can seem incredibly expensive for the average person — especially if you’re paying for several modes of transportation to get to and navigate your destination. Even after your flight lands, there’s a chance you’ll need a car to get around. To help you save some money on your rental car, we’ve compiled ten super easy ways to rent a car for less. Don’t commit to a pricey rate before giving these tips a chance.
10 Easy Ways to Save on Your Next Car Rental
- Think outside the box, or at least outside the walls of a traditional car rental business. Turo is an unconventional, online car-sharing platform that bypasses the brick-and-mortar car rental facility altogether. Through their website, you can book any car you want from a community of trusted car hosts across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Your car host will deliver your vehicle to the location of your choice, like the airport, train station, or a popular tourist site. Turo doesn’t have the overhead costs that typically drive up the price you pay to rent a car from a traditional shop, and they still provide the same insurance and safety provisions as those traditional car rental companies. How much will I save with Turo? Plan on paying about 25% to 35% less than you would pay a typical car rental agency. Check out Turo’s vehicles and rates here.
- Plan ahead when possible. You’ll usually find the best rental car rates for your travel dates if you book the vehicle three to six months in advance. If you try to book a few days ahead or upon arrival, you run a couple of risks. First, your rental agency may be out of stock of the vehicle type that appropriately accommodates your party size and luggage towed. Second, rental rates tend to increase the closer a car is booked to the date needed.
- Use an aggregator like Kayak to find the best price on a rental car. Even if you’re not flying, you can use Kayak to book a vehicle. Kayak makes it easy in just a few steps. They ask you to enter your travel dates and apply car type filters such as small, medium, large, SUV, luxury, etc. Then Kayak generates deals for you to view. You can either complete the booking on Kayak or venture off to book on the car company’s site. The price will be the same. Before hitting book, it’s always a good idea to call that rental agency to ask if the price you’re seeing is their bottom-line best price to meet your needs. Sometimes, albeit rarely, the agent may have additional discounts they can extend to you.
- Put it on the credit card. While some would prefer to pay with cash or a debit card, if you’ve got a credit card with travel benefits, there’s a good chance those benefits include car rental perks. One perk is that the card provides primary car rental insurance coverage, and this can save you money, especially if you don’t already have a personal auto insurance policy. Another benefit of using a credit card when booking and paying for your car rental is you can receive points and discounts if you book with their partner rental agencies. For example, The Platinum CardⓇ from American Express partners with Avis, Hertz, and National, who offer card carriers discount benefits.
- Avoid drop fees. Drop fees are extra charges car rental companies add to your rental price if you drop your vehicle off at a location different from where you picked it up. This is common and sometimes necessary if you’re traveling from one city to another with no plans for returning to the initial city. If you do plan to remain in the same city, it’s best to return the vehicle to the original rental location to avoid that extra fee.
- Give it some gas. Speaking of extra fees. Always refuel your rental car to the same fuel level it had when you picked it up. If you opt not to refuel the vehicle just before returning it to your rental agency, you will be charged the agency’s rate for fuel, which is often more than the local pump price.
- Location, location, location. When planning your car rental, scout out the cheapest rental facility proximate to your location. Some cities like Los Angeles, Orlando, Tampa, and Miami will be the least expensive to rent. So if you’re headed to a city just outside of Orlando, rent your vehicle within Orlando’s city limits because the daily rate will likely save you more than the few extra miles driven to obtain the vehicle.
- Go for the upgrade. This may seem like an odd tip, given upgrade implies more money, but in the context of car rentals, you’d be surprised how little of a difference you’ll see on your final bill. Say, for example, you and your family of four need a vehicle for the week. An economy vehicle with four seats would theoretically do the job, but it’s gonna be a tight fit. In some cases, you can rent a full-size vehicle for just a couple of bucks more than an economy car. The $3 to $4 a day more will save you some headaches while affording you comfort and ample space for luggage.
- Get the alerts. So maybe you’re not traveling in the next few weeks, but you know you’ll need to rent a car for a trip you’re planning in a few months. Set yourself up for savings and success by setting up price alerts for car rentals. In the past, alerts were only available for flight deals, but Kayak strikes again as being one of the best sites to get the best car rental deals. Kayak explains, “When you create a Price Alert, we use our data to determine what will happen to prices in the next few days. Then, we’ll keep you up-to-date via email and/or push notifications (your choice) and let you know when’s the right time to book your rental car.” Like you, Kayak seems to love a good deal, too.
- AAA advantages. The American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit service organization that offers its members significant discounts when it comes to car rentals. For a monthly fee somewhere between $60 – $120, you can join AAA and receive benefits like roadside assistance, flat tire/fuel delivery, tows, etc. Your membership also gets you special car rental rates and benefits like time and money savings via their “skip the counter” for pick-up and drop-off feature and exclusive discounts on your rental.
There’s no doubt the price of travel adds up quickly. Save yourself some money by considering these tips when renting your next car. For a list of America’s leading traditional car rental agencies, go here.
Links
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/card/platinum/
https://www.kayak.com/news/car-price-alerts/
https://www.kayak.com/news/car-price-alerts/
https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/car-rentals/best-car-rental-companies/