Saving Money on Car Rentals

The St. Petersburg Times had an interesting article in today’s newspaper about how to save money on car rentals.  According to the report, you can save money by renting from a location other than the airport (and thus saving airport fees) and by playing around a bit with your pick up and drop off times (to see if you can qualify for a lower weekend rate).

I would add that if you are renting at an off-airport location, you need to factor in the expense of getting to the car rental office.  Some companies say they will pick you up, but I suspect you might find you have to take a taxi.  Also, make sure you are doing an apples to apples comparison.  Different companies in different locations might have an entirely different set of fees tacked on to your base rental rate.

When my travel dates are definite, I always look around and find the best rate I can online at the big travel sites.  Then I go to Priceline and lowball.  I can generally save a lot of money on car rentals this way.  However, this tip comes with a word of warning.  When you rent through Priceline you pay up front.  If you cancel your trip, you do not get your money back.  Also, if you are planning on flying into Manchester, NH, and your flight gets canceled, you cannot simply divert to Boston.  You will not be able to move your reservation to a new location.

The obvious money saving tips are to check with your credit card company to see if insurance on a rental vehicle is included.  You don’t want to pay for extra coverages through the rental company if you don’t have to.  And unless you know you are going to be running short on time when you bring the car back, you are almost never going to want to prepay the tank of gas.  If you are weighing this one be sure and find out what the rental company will charge you per gallon to fill the car for you.