Renting a car can be a pain. It’s a pain on your sanity with all the strange rules and policies of the rental companies. And it’s also a pain on your wallet, with rentals costing way more than you want to pay.
I’ve rented my share of cars over the years, and in the process, I’ve figured out how to pay as little as possible. Below, I share my best tips for getting cheap car rentals every time.
Check Aggregator Sites First
Renting a car in the first place is overwhelming. Where should you start? I always recommend starting with the car rental aggregator sites, which search all the major car rental companies at once.
There are dozens of these sites out there, but there’s a lot of overlap between them. So I tend to stick with the following sites:
These sites will give you a good ballpark figure for what you should pay. But don’t just stop here and book your rental. Be sure to read the next two tips first.
Always Check the Car Rental Sites
Aggregator sites like Kayak are great for quickly showing you cheap car rental options. But before you book through one of these sites, always compare their quotes to the rates on the actual car rental site. In some cases, the car rental company will offer you a better deal for booking directly.
For instance, if Expedia shows you a great price on a rental from Enterprise, go to the Enterprise website and search for the same rental. You won’t always find a better deal using this method, but it’s worth a look to be sure.
Don’t Rule Out “Budget” Rental Companies
Everyone knows car rental companies like Hertz, Enterprise, and Avis. In many cases, these are the companies to go with. But there are also lots of smaller companies that are worth a look.
Sure, they may not have the same fancy websites and extensive locations as the big companies. But they sometimes have better prices.
To see rentals from these smaller companies, search on CarRentals.com. They won’t always be cheaper, but they’re worth a look.
Compare Weekly and Daily Rates
You would assume that the weekly rate would always be cheaper than the daily rate, but this isn’t always the case. If you’re taking a trip of 3 or 4 days, it’s sometimes cheaper to book a car for a week and then return it early.
So before you book, check if the weekly rate is cheaper than the daily one. Just be sure to read the rental’s fine print to check that you won’t get hit with extra charges for returning the car early. And never tell the company that you’re planning to return the car early, or they might try to charge you extra.
Skip the Insurance
So you did some diligent research and found the best car rental rate. Congratulations! This is where most people pat themselves on the back…and then proceed to waste lots of money once they’ve rented the car. Don’t make this mistake!
One of the biggest wastes of money for car rentals is insurance. The rental companies will use all kinds of scare tactics to convince you to get the insurance, but you likely don’t need it.
If you have car insurance for your personal vehicle, then that insurance will usually cover you when you’re in a rental car. Just call your insurance agent to be sure.
And even if you don’t have car insurance, you can usually get it when you book your car rental with the right credit card. That’s right: most travel credit cards offer insurance on rental cars at no extra cost to you.
If you’re looking for a credit card that offers rental car insurance, here are some we recommend:
Say No to Upgrades
In addition to insurance, rental car companies will try to sell you a bunch of “upgrades” and extra items that you don’t need. Here are a few upgrades you should always say no to:
- GPS — Your phone already has excellent navigations apps built right in.
- Satellite radio — Just use your phone to play music.
- Toll passes — These are rarely worth it. Just bring a bit of cash in case you have to pay a toll that doesn’t accept credit cards.
Book Economy Cars
There’s a special type of upgrade that deserves its own section. At every stage of the rental process, the company will attempt to upsell you to a fancier car model. I never take these offers. I always choose the “Economy” car when I’m booking, even if I’d prefer a nicer car.
In most cases, I’ll show up to the rental place to pick up the car and find out that I’ve been automatically “upgraded” because they didn’t have an economy vehicle available. Worst case, I just drive the economy car (which is still going to be a nice, new car).
Never Pick Up the Car at the Airport
It’s tempting to use the airport as your rental car pickup location, particularly if you’re arriving on a plane.
Resist the temptation! Most car rental companies will charge you an extra $30 for the “privilege” of picking the car up at the airport. Instead of throwing this money away, choose a non-airport pickup location.
Even if you have to pay $15 for an Uber or cab to get to this rental location from the airport, it’s still worth the savings.
Only Have One Driver (When Practical)
Doing all the driving on a long trip can take a toll. So it’s understandable if you want to add an extra driver to your rental to break up the miles. However, be aware of the cost of doing so. Adding a driver to your rental can cost you an extra $12 a day (at least).
If you must have an extra driver, see if you can get the rental company to waive this fee. Many companies will automatically waive it if the additional driver is your spouse or domestic partner. You can also get the fee waived when you book your rental through Costco Travel.
Return the Car with a Full Tank
After a long trip, when all you want to do is get home, it’s easy to return the car without refueling it. However, I strongly discourage you from doing this, as the rental companies usually charge an absurd rate for refueling your car.
Sure, it can make sense if you’re in a big hurry, but otherwise, I always refuel the car myself. You’ll save quite a bit of money when you take the few extra minutes to do so.
Get the Best Deal on Gas
Besides the cost of renting the car itself, gas is the most expensive part of any car rental. So it’s worth taking time to find the best deals on gas.
My favorite tool for finding the cheapest gas is an app called GasBuddy. All I have to do is open the app to see the best current deals on gas near me.
You’ll be surprised how much you can sometimes save when you drive just a few extra miles. If you don’t want to download the app, you can also use the GasBuddy website to find the same information.
See If You Qualify for a Discount
There’s a ridiculous number of car rental discounts out there. Here are just a few of the car rental discounts you can get:
- AARP member discount
- AAA member discount
- Hotel loyalty program discount
- Frequent flyer program discount
- Costco member discount (when you book through Costco Travel)
- Corporate discounts
- Government employee discount
- Military discount
- Veteran discount
And this list is by no means exhaustive. If you belong to any kind of organization, see if you get a car rental discount for being a member. You’ll often be surprised to learn how much you can save.
Book with Points If it Makes Sense
The only thing better than saving money on your car rental is getting it for (basically) free. This is possible when you book a rental car with your airline miles or credit card points.
This doesn’t always make financial sense. In many cases, you’ll get better value using your points for air travel or hotel stays. But if you’re taking a long trip, then it could be worth it to book your car rental with points due to the extensive savings.
Use a Peer to Peer Car Rental Service
When people think of car rental, they usually think of a company that owns a fleet of vehicles. Until recently, this was the only way to rent a car. Now, however, a variety of peer to peer car rental companies have emerged as an exciting alternative to traditional car rental.
So what is peer to peer car rental? Instead of renting from a company, you rent the car from an individual. Marketplaces like Turo and Getaround allow car owners to list their vehicles for rent, similar to what Airbnb does for houses.
You can book your rental directly within the app and then pick it up from the owner. Many owners will even deliver the vehicle to you for an extra fee. When you’re done with the car, all you have to do is return it to the owner.
This whole process is not only more convenient than a regular car rental; it’s also cheaper in many cases. If you’re interested in renting a car with this method, we recommend these two sites:
Ditch the Rental Car Entirely
Rental cars are handy, but how many trips require them? Probably fewer than you imagine.
For instance, if you’re in a city with an extensive public transit system, a car is unnecessary. And you can usually buy a 3-day or 7-day transit pass for less than the cost of renting a car for one day.
And let’s not forget walking and biking. Walking is obviously free, and most cities have bike-share services that cost very little. As long as you’re comfortable biking in cities, you can use a mix of walking and biking to get most places.
If public transit, walking, and biking aren’t an option, you can use a rideshare service such as Uber or Lyft to get just about anywhere. Unless you’re taking very long trips, this will usually be cheaper than the cost of renting a car and paying for gas.
Never Overpay for Rental Cars Again
You now have all the knowledge you need to book a cheap car rental for your next trip, leaving you with more money to spend on fun things.
Looking for more ways to save money on travel? Check out these guides:
Ensuring that you have rental car insurance is a must if you’re opting for rental cars. I like the idea of using the card that offers the insurance, because most people forget to do this. You can save a lot of money and be insured in case of any minor or major damage.
I rented a car from Turo on my trip to Maui. Would never find a better deal from the rental companies. Basically people rent out their own cars, like Airbnb but with cars. https://turo.com/c/ilyab32
Actually your guideline is really awesome. you share the great information about car rental. Thanks for sharing great info.
As a Costco member I have had great success renting cars through their Travel Page. Often I get the “thats a great rate” comment. You have to be a member to use the Costco Travel page though.
Thank you! I use this post every time I rent a car and we get great deals! I also check turo, and every once in a while it is a better deal, but it seems to depend on the city. I imagine it didn’t exist yet when this guide was written. Thanks again for sharing this great advice!
@Tracie – I haven’t done Turo yet, but it’s certainly an interesting concept. I’ll check that as well next time.
If you have a Chase Ultimate Rewards account, it sounds like you can find some really good rates on car rentals. If you don’t, then maybe your card provider has a similar program available. I haven’t looked into it because I just thought of it, but maybe you could use frequent flier miles to get rental car discounts.
Hey Trav et all – any advice for renting a truck for moving purposes? I am looking to rent a moving truck from the Philadelphia area and drive it one way to Atlanta. Any tips or suggestions?
Thanks!
If you already have an AA mileage account Hertz will send you discount codes for booking car rentals. You can save up to 35% with these codes. So always check with all your mileage clubs to see what kind of car rental savings they offer, either through partnerships or if you book directly through their website. For example Southwest airlines has very cheap cars on their website and will send you greater discounts once you book a flight to “add a car.”
Hi, I live in China, travel to Netherlands often. I can fully recommend to rent a car at BB&L carrental. The ONLY no hassle car rental company I’ve come across… My experiences in New York, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Toronto, Beijing… always every time I end up paying more than I thought I should and still running a several thousands dollars risk – as others have demonstrated so clearly.
BB&L Carrental – and this is NOT an advertisement! I’m only a very happy customer – offers: free mileage, no penalty charges for early or late delivery, full coverage including Collision Damage Waiver, free GPS for Europe, and they charge your card AFTERWARDS. Best of it… they deliver the car to the airport, and pick it up at YOUR convenience (call 1 hour ahead of arrival).
Prices range from 21 Euro/day up and they have a full range of cars. They cooperate with Europcar, but their rates AND their conditions are way better.
I’ve been using them for the last 5 years. Once I forgot my wallet and they shipped it for me back to China. Once my daughter helped me “wash” the car, with sand instead of soap… And she was doing that for full 5 minutes before I noticed. Damage: 2100 Euro. They first sent me an invoice for 300 euro but within an hour sent an apology note and a discount coupon for 1 day free rent – which they THEMSELVES deducted the next time I rented with them…
@jos bults- Wow, that sounds like a pretty awesome car company. Are they located in various places throughout the world, or only in Netherlands? I’ll definitely have to check it out.
Also, if you reserve months ahead of your trip, keep checking rates as you get closer to the time of your trip. The rates may drop and you can book at the new lower rate and cancel the old, more expensive reservation.
@Robin Gronsky- Great point. Almost all car rentals will let you cancel your reservation and rebook at a cheaper rate, so it never hurts to check every few days or so.
This is certainly a great chain of smart ideas for beating down car rental costs. I rent for a month to 3 months at a crack. I’ve found that searching an area for smaller firms that rent older vehicles has been my best bet. I admit the products often are far from attractive, but I have saved as much as 50% over the best prices I could find using many of the procedures and sources listed here. As an example Airport truck & car rental in San Diego will pick you up and drop you off with no extra air port taxes or fees. Don’t accept their first quote, negotiate for a better price on the phone.
Tony
@getrude- An excellent idea. I’ve found that this holds true with most things when you are renting long term. Usually, you can get great prices, whether it be on cars, accommodations, or anything else. And if you are renting longer term, you can always negotiate. I talked someone down from almost 70% once on an apartment in Croatia because we were staying long term, and both of us were happy!
Do you have a specific website or tricks you use for finding those smaller firms when you go to an area?
step 1: go to google translate and translate car rental into the local language.
step 2: use that search term to search google.
@Jos bults- Great advice!
Alan C says. Ask for discounts such as AAA or AARP, etc. Also ask if there is any way to get the car cheaper. The answers I received were useful. 1. Car rentals have unlimited miles. SOMETIMES you can get a car with limited miles such as 1000 miles or less with Huge savings. 2.Sometimes they don’t tell you about promotions but if you ask if there are any promotions, they will tell you and the savings can be Huge.
Doesn’t hurt to ask
@Alan C- Yep, you’re right. NEVER hurts to ask, and I think the 1000 miles or less can be extremely useful for a lot of people who need a rental car for only a few days or for just around town. Thanks!
Thanks for all this great information. Rental cars are a game that I haven’t been real successful with in the past. Looking forward to putting this new found knowledge to work.
@Barbara Crisler- Yeah, it was definitely a bit of a mystery to me at first as well, which is why I’m happy to lay out this step by step guide to “unveil” what I’ve learned and alleviate some stress.
My comment is based on two accidents in rentals cars, neither being my fault. Both cost me considerable money though, so I recommend NEVER use points or miles to pay the rental fee. Then you cannot use the primary insurance that the credit card could provide. In both accidents, I ended up paying for admin fees and loss of rental income while the repair was done, even though I wasn’t responsible for the repair cost itself. Read the fine print in the rental contract and you will see it spelled out.
@sandra- Great, thanks for that heads up. Really appreciate it, although I’m sorry you had to learn the hard way.
All you have to do to get the card insurance is apply $1 onto the card to rent the car. Then pay the rest with points. That way, the card will pay for the auto insurance if full. Check with your credit card to make sure that I am correct on this.
I’m sorry, mot the car insurance. The car rental place to apply $1 on your charge card and the rest in points to rent the card.
I travel to ski a couple of times each winter. I find it extremely difficult to determine if your car has 4 WD or not. It is a necessity to get over Donner Summit in California or you have to buy chains. Just because it is a Ford Explorer or Toyota RAV4 does not mean it has 4WD in Calif. To ensure you are getting a 4WD you have to reserve a gas guzzling land yacht that costs more than your lodging and ski passes do for the week.
Anyone dealt successfully with this one?
@Bill Maloney- I would think the easiest way to know if it has 4WD is to call up the rental car company and try to book it through them. If it’s not showing online if it is 4WD, or it can’t guarantee it, then maybe calling them up is the best option. I’ve never needed one with 4WD, so unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of experience with that.
I use 4×4 for work all the time, the only car rental company that guarantees 4×4 is Hertz, you can get a discount code for them from your AA miles account for 35% off. Whenever I show up at the Hertz counter the agent always remarks what I good rate I have.
Great post, and very helpful information! I would like to add one more possible tip. After checking all your options and getting a feel for your best price, I then check out hotwire.com. If you don’t mind which rental car provider you will be riding with, sometimes you can get a price lower than other places. We were able to get about a $10 a day rental in Miami, and with the saving, upgrade it to the convertible Camaro SS for the drive down to Key West. The price ended up being about the same if I had booked an economy car.
@Christian Nommesen- Great advice. If you don’t mind which one you get (and I don’t), then you can go to Hotwire or Priceline and put in a rate lower than what you found. Sometimes, you’ll get great savings. Thanks for sharing!
Can’t beat a Camaro down to Key West…unless maybe it was a Corvette!
Also try carrentalsavers.com and BJ’s or Costco if a member. Capitalone.com if you have the card. Don’t forget that if you pay with points, partially or in whole, the collision damage waiver won’t be in effect.
@Clare N- Thanks for those suggestions, have you found them to be better priced than other ones? Also, great point with the CDW. People should be aware of that.
Yes, I frequently use carrentalsavers.com as they give rental prices with several programs and discounts which are easily added in. Also you do not need to pay for the rental up front. I’ve also gotten good prices using the Capital One portal. I sometimes use BJ’s especially if I’m renting from Alamo and want to add an unrelated driver for free.
@Clare N- I’ve never tried carrentalsavers.com, so thanks for the tip. I’ve heard the Cap1 portal is good, I think it’s usually equivalent to the Chase one. Which makes it a good option for people without Chase cards.
I noted that the following 3 websites give some of the lowest car rental rates: AutoEurope, Payless and Holiday Autos.
Other online guides indicate Priceline and Hotwire as a good source of deals, by using their service in which the car rental company is made known only after purchase.
@John Brew- Good to know, I’ve used Holiday Autos before and had good deals with them, for sure. I believe all of them show up on Kayak and the other aggregator sites. Yeah, Priceline is also ok to use, I just personally don’t because I like to have more control.
I am not sure if “EXPERT TIP: If you’re renting for 3 days or more, check to see if a weekly rental is actually cheaper in total price than a 3 or 4 day rental. If it is, choose to rent the car for a week and just drop it off early.” is accurate. My understanding is if a rental is returned earlier than what was originally booked, the rate will be recalculated to the amount of time that was actually used with the car. This would mean that a weekly rental of 5-7 days could default to the daily rate if the car was returned after only 2 or 3 days. I am interested in hearing input from other readers if this situation has applied to them as well
@Chuck- I’m also interested to hearing other people’s experiences, because for me, I’ve always been able to get the weekly rental, return it early, and not pay anything more. In fact, there have been times when I’ve rented it at the weekly rate (let’s say $140, or $20 a day) and then when I returned it, I’ve actually been able to talk them in to giving me some money back (in this instance, if I returned it after 5 days, I would get $40 back- $20×2).
So far, I’ve had great experience using AutoSlash.com. I book using Travelocity or the rental website, then enter the info into AutoSlash for it to track. They automatically email you when they find a lower rate so you can rebook. On an upcoming rental next week, Autoslash just saved me about $180 on a 5 day rental! Of course, you can’t book a pre-paid, non-refundable rate if you want to take advantage of this, just FYI.
@swnofilmerGardner- Autoslash is an awesome tool to use as well. I don’t have tons of experience with it, which is why I didn’t include it, as well as because you can’t book pre-paid, non-refundable stuff. But definitely worthwhile for a lot of situations.
Nice post. It’s frustrating that I can book really good deals on flights and find all kinds of stuff but the rental car world seems like the wild west or a 3rd world bizarre. One trick I’ve used it to try and leverage status matching via credit cards and other programs to get better status with the big 3 rental companies so I get faster service and some upgrades. Beyond that I try to avoid renting at the airport location as the taxes and fee’s are much higher. Many times you can get a cab to a nearby off airport office and rent the car much cheaper overall. I also have gotten much cheaper rentals at low cost vendors like Advantage and Fox at the cost of having to wait in line at a counter for the rental process.
@believemywords- Yeah, rental cars are definitely a whole different ballgame. I like your suggestions though, and I agree 100% with going to non-airport locations. The prices can be as much as 50% off.
What are Advantage and Fox, and how do you find them? I’d love to know more info on them.
I often pick up the rental car at a nearby non-airport location and return it to the airport rental center. Saves 50%, especially in high demand times/locations! Even counting the taxi or Uber cost to the rental pickup. Recent example: my way=$196 vs airport to airport =$436!! This only works when there are nearby non-airport rental counters though. But it is a good hack! Takes very little extra time too.
@Joy- How do you get that deal? I always find that when I pick it up at one location and try to drop it off at another (like the example you gave) I get charged more. I’d love some insight on how to do this – sounds like an awesome tip!