We love vacations. In fact, they are one of the reasons why we found ourselves in over $100k of consumer debt many years ago.
And just to be perfectly honest…we were dumb, really dumb during this time of our lives. But our dumb-ness is going to be of huge benefit to you.
Well, because we can share with you what NOT to do when renting a car. It’s like we’ve earned a doctorate in the school of hard knocks and we can impart our hands-on knowledge and experience first-hand with the words flowing off of our fingers onto our screen and into your eyes and mind so that you can save a huge amount of money and avoid mistakes….all because we were dumb.
But it’s not just the dumb experiences we can share with you. The good news is that we have been living a frugal and debt-free life for 10 years and have learned the things TO DO when renting a car so that you can save your budget and your skins in this sticky travel arena and the tips we learned along the frugal side of life too.
Borrowing a car is a bit of a scary experience. We are here to help!
- Prepare to spend up to 30% more than you think. First things first, whatever great rate you get, plan on spending at least 25-35% more on your rental than your booked daily rate. This is important to mention because if you budget and plan based on your daily rental rate, you will be sorely disappointed and underprepared financially when you see the final bill. The extra 25-35% comes in the form of all of the extra fees and taxes which vary by location and state. I know, it stinks, but it’s a part of life that you cannot avoid when it comes to renting a car. They are mandatory, non-negotiable fees. However, the lower your base rate, the lower these fees naturally become as most are based on a percentage of your base rate.
- Renting from the airport site. Yes, renting your car from a rental agency that is on location at the airport is actually going to raise those fees higher than the already 25-35% in taxes and fees and you will also pay a heftier price – often times twice as much. Instead, take approximately 30 more minutes of your travel to take a shuttle to the rental agency that is off site and save big time bucks. You might think it’s a bit more of a pain, but we always do this and it has always been smooth process that has really not taken longer than 30-45 minutes extra from our travel, but so worth the cost. Just plan your return accordingly so you don’t miss your flight or other post-rental car transportation. Thankfully, we’ve never missed a flight due to off-site renting, but we have gotten close.
- Prepaying for gas or not filling up before returning the vehicle. This is a big and costly mistake. It is also made in two pivotal moments of travel. Arguably, the prepay offered to you as you’re picking up the seems like an astonishingly low price, especially when they present to you the average price of gas at surrounding gas stations. But it is a common tourist trap and many are drastically overpaying for gas because although it does mean a lower cost per gallon, you are paying to fill up the whole vehicle whether you use that much gas or not! The second pivotal point is upon returning. You need to plan enough time to stop and fill up the vehicle before returning it at a gas station that is not right next to the airport (but since you’re following tip #1 and not returning the car at the airport that definitely helps). Don’t run behind on your return time or late to the airport as this will tempt you to pay the extremely high return gas prices. Use apps like Gas Buddy or Waze (which is our favorite because it also gives you traffic updates to save you time too) to find out the prices of gas near your drop-off location.
- Paying for insurance. You will want to double-check with your car insurance provider, but almost all insurance plans insure you as a driver of other vehicles, including car rentals. Know this before you rent, but don’t be pressured last minute to buy insurance that you do not need. The insurance is expensive and in our “unknowing days” we tacked on that insurance at $15 or more per day when our car insurance already had us covered in car rental cases.
- Adding a second driver. Choose one driver for the whole trip. Each driver you add is going to cost and cost you dearly. In fact, in almost every time that we have rented a car, the second driver cost just as must or more than the cost of the car per day, so we don’t do it. You are basically going to be paying twice as much to have two available drivers and in most cases, there is no need for this additional driver.
- Renting car infant seats. This is another big GOTCHA! First off, airlines cannot count car seats as luggage. They are free to check onto a plane. So take them. Why? Because we see car seat rentals ranging from $10 – $20 a day, which is often just as much or more than the cost of the car per day, meaning you will be paying double or more for your rental just to add an infant or toddler car seat. I know it’s a pain packing it around until you get to your rental car, but it is more than worth it in the end and your child is much more comfortable in their own seat.
- Not doing a thorough inspection. This is an important one. YOU are the first one responsible for finding and scratches, dings, paint chips, cracked or dinged windshields BEFORE leaving the car rental lot and be SUPER PICKY. Look on all sides, all windows and even inside thoroughly to find any damage anywhere and report even the smallest of damages. It is your ONLY protection against costly repairs that would otherwise not cost very much on your own vehicle. We have our preferred car rental agencies that are so great about what damages the renter is responsible for and some agencies that we will avoid even if they are the cheapest because of this one factor.
- Not booking directly. Yes, you may find some great prices and the travel comparison sites are great places to look and to start shopping, but in the end, if you check on the website directly or call them directly (and have them match ANY online prices that you found on their site or elsewhere) is going to ultimately secure the best prices. We have found this to be true over and over again. We’ve used Priceline once (with the name your price feature), and it was a decent experience, but overall, we find the best prices directly, even over that name your price feature, but we know exactly what company and what type of car we will be getting.
- Not using coupons. There is and will almost always be coupons for your car rental. Even just another $10 off is going to be worth taking a few seconds to scout out a coupon. The best place to search is online for the online codes that you can enter on the car rental websites or give to them over the phone. In addition, if you have Entertainment Book, your insurance company, Verizon Wireless (rewards center), AAA, American Express customer discounts and other types of groups, clubs, cards you may have that will give you coupons and coupon codes. In addition, using something like Savings.com to find coupons will be a great and fast way to receive a discount quick!
There are other things that you should be aware of as a “bonus savings tip.” They will offer you GPS for a fee, Roadside Assistance for a fee and other items. It’s up to you whether these things are worth it. We just use our phones for GPS and we have AAA which includes roadside assistance, even for rental cars. So we don’t opt for these extras.
In addition, if you have any mechanical issues, call and report asap so it is on record. We’ve had this happen twice. Once on a trip in the S.E. our air conditioning went out half way through the trip. We were not in a location to be able to exchange the car, but we did get half of our bill reduced. The second time, the brakes were grinding and making funny noises. We were not comfortable driving or riding in this vehicle and called and immediately exchanged and for part of our vacation time being wasted, we received and upgrade on that one when we exchanged.
There you have it, in the end, you will save HUNDREDS by avoiding these costly mistakes.
What other tips have you learned from renting a car that would save you money in the future?