Comments on: Five money saving tips for renting cars.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:54:00 +0000

I’ll add something to tip #2, it’s not enough just to make sure you have unlimited miles.

I booked a car with “unlimited miles” through Hotwire recently, and we ended up at Enterprise. So far so good.

This was supposed to be an out-of-state trip (I live in TX). I double checked at the counter:

Me: “I’d just like to confirm this rental has unlimited miles”

Them: “Well, where are you going”?

Me: “”

Them: “Sorry, this car has to stay in TX.” We can’t rent this to you.

Needless to say this threw a major wrench in to our plans.

Fortunately this was a traditional rental not a pre-pay as is often the case with Hotwire, so I just walked away.

This is an Enterprise TX policy, and of course this is disclosed NOWHERE on the Hotwire information page.

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 04:34:27 +0000

I’ve started using Priceline.com to book my rentals. I name the price, and I’ve never been disappointed. Earlier in the month, I went to St. Louis, where I was able to rent a car for $10 a day ($40 total). Because there were no economy cars left, I left the lot in a Sebring sedan with satellite radio.

The great thing about priceline is that it’s hard to mess up a car rental. They don’t leave a certain time, don’t have layovers, and don’t have to travel through O’Hare. Typically, I’m able to rent for $10-$15 a day.

By: The 123rd Carnival of Personal Finance (The Boo! editinon) | The Dough Roller

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:27:53 +0000

[...] Five Money Saving Tips for renting cars (@ My Financial Journey): “My family and I are going to be making a cross country trip next week to attend a wedding and due to the fact that we have a 2 year old and a 3 month old we decided it was probably better to rent a van than cram everyone into my wifeâ€™s Accord. I spent days calling around, doing searches on the internet, etc. and in the process think I learned a thing or too that I will share with my readers.” [...]

By: MFJ

MFJ — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 20:54:02 +0000

Thanks for the tip – looks like we have tip #6

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:51:41 +0000

Here’s my tip (or warning):

This last summer, we rented a van in San Diego. I wanted just a plain ol’ minivan–no bells or whistles. When I got there to pick it up, the guy at the counter told me that because I had such-and-such a credit card, I could upgrade for only $9 per day to a much nicer van. I was renting for 10 days and told him that I could think of better ways to spend $90, so no thanks. He then tinkered away at his computer for another few minutes, and made me the same offer at $5 per day. I again turned him down. We then went out to get in the car, and lo and behold, he rented me the nicer van for my original price. I told this story to my dad, who often rents cars, and he says this happens to him with some frequency. What we figure is that they don’t stock the strip models or run out of them quickly, so then they have to give you something nicer and try to sell it to you for a higher price. Just hold your ground and stay with your original price and you may end up with something nicer for no extra cost.