5 mistakes you make when booking a rental car
This is a guide how to book a rental car cheap in USA. I travel often, and ended up paying a lot of money on a rental car in the past. Through my failures, I eventually discovered awesome tips which always works for me. I’m almost certain you can save big bucks by following this guide!
How to select rental car company
Firstly, you have to choose a rental car company. Airport Rental Cars is the great website to compare the rental car price.
To use Airport Rental Cars, simply enter the pickup location and pickup/ drop-off date and search. Although the name of this website is ‘Airport Rental Cars’, you can also search the local locations as a pickup/ drop off location.
In this example, the winner seems to be Budget for Mid-Size and Standard car. When you compare the price, check total amount instead of daily rate. As you can see, ez rent a car and Advantage have the same daily rate for Mid-size car, but the total price is $138 for ez rent a car and $149 for Advantage. But wait for a second. You need one more step! Keep this search result window open and move to next step below.
Use coupon code
Once you got a list of prices with Airport Rental Cars, it’s time to check the coupon code. You can always save big by applying a coupon code.
AutoSash never failed on me finding great coupon codes. Specify the pick-up/ drop-off date and location. Un-check the rental car company, which are not listed on Airport Renal Cars search on the step above. Once you confirmed all the information is accurate, click ‘Search Coupon’ button.
I got 68 coupons. Now let’s take a deep look. Click ‘Browse All’ and check all deals.
In this example, Advantage has 15% off and free additional driver deal. Avis is offering 30% off for JetBlue customers, and Budget has 25% off for any rental. Now let’s go back to the search result Airport Renal Cars. Let’s assume you’d like to rental Mid-size car.
Total rental price is $102 for Budget, $251 for Avis, and $149 for Advantage. After applying coupon code, the price will be $76.5 for Budget, $175.7 for Avis, and $126.65 for Advantage. In this case, the winner is still Budget. But sometimes coupon code makes wonder and you will get the different winner. Also, remember that the rental car company sometime accept multiple coupons. So make sure to apply all coupon code you have.
Do not purchase the collision damage waiver (CDW)
Actually, collision damage waiver (CDW) is the biggest factor to increase your car rental fee. You feel like you booked a car with an awesome deal and you arrived at the rental car counter. Then you will be stunned how much extra fee you will be charged for car insurance and feel like you’re almost ripped off. This happened to me a couple of times, and I wanted to cry when I was told that they will charge me extra $20 – 30/day for an insurance. If you book a car one week, it will be extra $140-$210, which is more than car rental fee itself. It’s definitely a lot of money, especially when you’re not expected extra expense on car rental. Remember CDW is almost always a hidden fee and ridiculously overpriced. I tried many different rental car companies, but the collision damage waiver was never mentioned while you booked online. To be more specific, you can actually decline insurance while you’re booking online, assuming the basic coverage is included in the deal. But you will be informed at the counter that that was not the case, and purchase of the insurance is mandatory. If it’s mandatory, why the heck I was able to decline the insurance when I booked online!?
I’m not suggesting, however, not to have an insurance here. It’s up to you how much extra coverage you’d like to add, but absolutely you need at least a basic coverage. My tip to save money on CDW is to use your existing insurance . If have a car insurance, it also covers rental car damage in the most case. Just check your coverage in advance.
If you’re not a car owner, you still have good options. In those days, many credit cards provide rental car’s collision insurance. Here are some cards provides auto rental collision insurance. The coverage is different from card to card. So make sure to get the best card for you.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve Cards
- United MileagePlus Explorer and MileagePlus Club Cards
- Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite Card
- J.P. Morgan Reserve Card
Always ask for what type of cars are available
Another important thing is to check the actual car. Make sure the tires have decent treads and no warning lamps are on. Check headlights, brake lights, and blinkers are working. One time, I was assigned a rental car, which has mechanical issue. And I ended up driving back to the airport to exchange the car. To avoid wasting your valuable time, try to make sure the car is in a good condition before driving off.
Also always ask if hybrid car is available. Nowadays, you have more chances to get a hybrid car. Don’t be shy to ask. Usually most of the rental car companies are willing to accommodate with your request. If you can get a hybrid car, you can definitely save very good amount of money on gas.
Do not prepay for your gas
Prepay the fuel, and you can return the car with gas at any revel. And our gas price is competitive.
Sounds like a good option? Actually NO! You should NEVER prepay for your gas. Why? Because in order to take an advantage of prepay option, you must return the car with almost empty tank. Technically you’re paying a full tank of gas, even when you return the car with half tank. If you time it right, probably prepay will work for you. For me, it’s hard to estimate how much gas is left when I return the car. So I’d rather just full-up by myself.
Prepay the fuel option works when
- You have to return the car either very early in the morning or very late at night. And you know all the nearby gas stations are closed around that time.
- You prefer to pay to avoid the hustle to fill up the gas before returning the car
Hope this guide is helpful and you’re able to save big!
