- These are 10 cheap rental car hacks
to save you money in 2023.
Hack number one, know where to find the lowest prices.
I'll begin with a rental from the Los Angeles airport
and using a website called AutoSlash.com
and punching in the dates of March 10th to March 17th,
noon drop off, noon pickup.
The lowest price I can find is $197 for the week.
If I were to punch in the same dates,
pickup and drop off time to Expedia, as an example,
using that as my search engine,
the lowest price I can find is $379.
Not only is AutoSlash cheaper but let's say I want to rent
from a company that's better known,
despite that first one being well-rated,
Avis will be the company I'll compare.
$391 is what I can score with a pay now AutoSlash rate
that I can cancel for free up to 48 hours in advance
for an economy car.
Punching the same information into avis.com
gets me an economy car for $70 more
and a cancellation policy that's much worse
than what I'll find on AutoSlash.
And I should mention none of this content is sponsored.
Hack number two, don't let a car rental company trick you
into paying more for the rental.
We've all seen those very confusing car and SUV names
when we go to rent a vehicle.
We've got compact SUV, intermediate SUV, standard SUV,
standard elite SUV, and a full-size SUV.
If you can derive any information from just those titles
tied to how many people can that car fit
and how many suitcases can you fit in the trunk,
you might have a PhD in car rentals and I support you.
But for the average consumer
it's always nice to have the information broken down
a little bit more delicately.
I did find a great resource online where
the different car classes are explained
with specific vehicle examples
because sometimes you'll go onto Avis or Hertz directly
and you'll see a little suitcase
and a little person icon tied to the car rental titles
but you don't actually know what type of car you're getting
and how much suitcase space you can find
in addition to the gas mileage broken down for you.
Hack number three, make sure the pickup
and drop-off times are identical when possible
or it could cost you big.
Let's use the Avis website and June 17th
at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport 9:00 AM as an example
with the drop-off time of June 18th 9:00 AM.
The pay later rate is $114.
The pay now rate is $109 on a full-size car.
Now watch what happens when I take the same dates
but a one hour difference
between the pickup and the drop off time.
June 17th, 9:00 AM at Dallas Fort Worth.
June 18th, 10:00 AM drop off at Dallas Fort Worth.
It's $176 now for a full-size car
versus $170 for the pay now rate.
And again, we're comparing $114
to $176 for a one hour difference.
In this case, I don't mind going to the airport
a little bit early to save myself
what could be a significant amount of money.
And it's worth noting that it does pay to be patient
and kind to the employees of the car rental companies.
Just through some basic positive engagement
over the course of the last year
I've been upgraded almost every time.
And later on in this video I'll tackle
the highly controversial car insurance add-on.
Hack number four,
the second you're even considering a vacation or trip,
book your car rental.
Unlike airfare which has sales days
and those sweet spots on a calendar where it's best to book
a certain amount of time before you travel,
car rental rates are based on demand and inventory.
The earlier you book, the lower the price will be
and in the event you book a car rental very far in advance
and you're worried the price has changed
or you didn't actually get the lowest rate,
there is a free tool to track your rate over time.
You just simply input the company from which you've rented
and your confirmation number and in the unlikely event
the price drops to something lower after you've booked,
you'll be notified.
Hack number five,
before I get to car rental coupons and discount codes,
there is one membership that can often score you
the absolute lowest price and some additional benefits
and that is the Costco membership.
I don't know why I was so dramatic there
but if you use the rental car's tab
from the travel section of the Costco website,
let's use the Orlando airport and Labor Day as an example,
assuming that I want to rent a convertible,
which wouldn't actually make sense for my family,
the lowest price I can find for these specific dates
and drop off times using the four major rental car companies
which Costco actually compares on this nice little chart,
a standard convertible from Alamo
is the least expensive price at $297.
This is the total rental price.
All taxes and fees are added.
You can cancel at any time,
plus you can add an additional driver for free.
If we took the same information,
the same dates, the same drop off times,
and continued our search for a convertible
from the Alamo website directly,
the price I get for the same dates and times and location
is $404 for a convertible.
That's $404 from Alamo directly
compared to $297 for the exact same thing
just by booking through Costco.
Hack number six, you could save more cash than you ever
thought possible on a car rental by avoiding the airport.
Sometimes just taking an Uber, a Lyft, or a cab a few miles
from the airport could save you hundreds of dollars
over the course of a week.
In the example of this Avis rental in Atlanta,
if I were to pick up a minivan from the Atlanta airport
on May 10th and return it a week later,
I'm looking at a minivan rental rate for the week of $1233
with a pay later rate.
If I modify the exact same reservation
to a slightly different area in Atlanta,
and in this case let's use this address,
which is the Loews Atlanta Hotel,
my rate drops by several hundred dollars to $803.
The Loews Atlanta Hotel is a 14-minute drive
from the airport.
That could be a $20 or $40 Uber
and I'd be paying $803 versus $1234
by simply venturing a few miles away.
This will work in the case of most major airports,
towns, and cities,
and sometimes that neighborhood car rental place
is just a couple of miles from the airport.
Hack number seven,
renting a car from one of these two companies
can score you a lower rate
and get the car delivered directly to your door
where you can skip those hassles at the airport.
The two companies are Kyte and Turo,
which I'll get to in a moment.
Kyte might have been a company that you noticed before
when I was comparing the lowest rental prices
from the Los Angeles airport
for this fictitious trip I created.
Turo is kind of like the Airbnb of car rentals
where you're renting generally from an individual
rather than a large car conglomerate.
And if you are looking to drive some fancier cars
like a Tesla, a Porsche, a BMW,
where you can specifically select the vehicle of your choice
and have it delivered to your hotel
or wherever it is you happen to be,
that is another resource that you might want to consider.
Hack number eight is tied to the power
of photographic evidence.
I know that sounds weird.
Take a time-stamped photo with your smartphone
of your car when you pick it up from the rental center,
even if there is a damage report.
Most of those damage reports we sign off on
don't always reveal precisely where a scratch
or dent may happen to be from the renter before you.
Pay close attention to the rims of the vehicle
as these are often very expensive and often badly scratched
up or damaged and not marked on the damage report so
you could be fronting the bill for someone else's mistake.
And when you refill the tank on your rental car
before you return it,
take a photo of your gas refill receipt
which will include the location of the gas station
and take a picture of the dashboard showing the fuel tank
and time and mileage upon your return.
In the case of a recent rental I returned to Avis,
even though my fuel reading was completely full upon return,
I was incorrectly charged by the person checking in
my vehicle $98 to refill the tank.
Now, this incident was quickly corrected.
I was given a coupon and an apology,
but mistakes do happen and it's good to have
that photographic evidence to support your claim.
Hack number nine, extending your car rental
a day or two longer beyond the point where you'd actually
need it can save you a lot of money.
I'll explain why in a moment,
but for the sake of this comparison
for a downtown Chicago standard convertible rental,
if I were to select a pickup date of April 17th
and an April 23rd drop off date, I'm looking at $847.
If I extend this exact same rental by one day,
changing it from an April 23rd drop off to April 24th,
my entire rental drops by almost half price to $427.
Again, $847 if I drop the car off on the 23rd,
but if I extend it to the 24th, my total price is $427.
If I were to use Priceline as an example in Seattle,
for a minivan from May 8th to May 13th,
I'm looking at $45 a day,
and if I were to drop the car off two days later,
I'm paying $30 a day for a grand total of $334
by paying for the car two extra days
versus the shorter rental, which is $337.
How is that possible?
Well, sometimes reserving a car longer
than you think will give you a lower base rate
and a lower overall price.
Some rental car agencies will even offer you
a prorated refund if you return your car early
and if you are booking a flight
and then planning to rent a car once you land,
that confirmation email with your airfare from the airline
often has some great coupons
and discount codes built into it.
In the case of this American Airlines confirmation email,
I could save up to 35% on Avis or 30% on Budget
by simply completing my car rental booking
with American Airlines.
United Airlines and many other service providers
have additional discounts.
For my next hack, before I get to the bonus section,
know the truth about the car rental insurance
you think you have.
Many people will decline purchasing any type
of car renter's insurance from their car rental company
because we think we have it tied to our credit card.
The vast majority of credit cards have a fine print
tied to your collision damage waiver, which says,
"Within your country of residence,
coverage is secondary when renting for personal reasons."
That means if you live in the United States
and you're renting a car in the US,
the car rental insurance your credit card provides
is secondary to your own personal insurance.
So if you're in a rental car and you hit another car,
you have to go through your own insurance company
which could affect your premiums and your personal policy
before anything the credit card company will do
to even assist you which makes the so-called perk
tied to your credit card kind of useless.
There are some other credit cards out there
with some expensive annual fees
like the American Express credit cards
that do provide a primary insurance
so you don't have to go through your own personal insurance
in the event of an accident.
And the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card as an example
also provides primary insurance to you in the event
that you do decline the car rental's insurance company.
And now for the bonus section
which will include how to score a free car rental
for several days, which I'll get to in a moment.
Many of us rely upon price aggregating websites
like Hotwire, or Kayak, Priceline, and Expedia to compare
all of the major car rental companies side by side.
But what do you do when you want to compare
all the aggregators side by side?
AutoRentals.com is a resource that I love.
You can punch in any travel dates,
and assuming you don't mind some fine print
and some sometimes confusing charts and popups,
you can find all of the best daily rates
comparing Expedia to Turo to Priceline to Hotwire
to CarRentals.com and within a few minutes
you'll be able to differentiate the prices
for various car sizes on specific dates for the total rates
versus the daily rates, assuming you do have that time
on your hands to do the search.
Now, how about a potentially free car or RV rental
provided you are able to travel or book a road trip
around specific dates from transfercarus.com
and I will link to that in the video description box.
This is how it works.
There are no booking fees
and as long as you have a driver's license,
rental car companies rely upon services like this
to send individuals in cars back and forth
so they don't have to spend all of that money
to transfer vehicles on a truck.
What does that mean?
Well, that means if I were to consider a road trip
between Seattle and San Francisco
on any of the dates that I've just pulled up,
I could enjoy the benefits of an RV for free for 14 days.
If I wanted to extend my time
beyond the 12 or 14 days that are provided,
I could enjoy four optional extra days for $150
merely by signing up for this rare
and slightly unique opportunity.
If you enjoyed this video, please feel free to share it
with anyone who might be renting a car.
Thank you so much for watching.
I love you, bye bye.