How To Get A Screaming Deal On Your Next Car Rental

Whether you're flying with the family for a week of sun and sand with a whole lot of luggage and need transportation, or headed home for the holidays via I-94 and dread the overflow of humans and gifts and luggage all crammed into your daily driver, you may find yourself in need of a rental car.

But won't that be expensive? Perhaps not. We researched ways to save money on rental cars and interviewed two travel experts to get the inside scoop on keeping costs down. Victoria Fricke, owner of luxury travel agency Vic's Vacations, voted Indianapolis' Best Travel Agency, and Sharky Laguana, CEO of Bandago, which specializes in van rentals for bands and film crews, both lent their expertise. Laguana also chairs the board of the American Rental Car Association.

With our eye on reducing costs, ur recommendations include a range from planning ahead and shopping around to making deliberate decisions about insurance coverage when picking up the rental.

Laguana's recommends you book your car as soon as you know your travel dates. "If you book well in advance you can often find deals that don't exist days before pickup. The reason for this is straightforward. Car rental companies rely on early bookings to gauge demand, and having confirmed bookings in their back pocket allows them more room to experiment with higher prices as the date draws near."

Just be aware that if you do pre-pay, you may not be able to get a full refund if your plans change. For instance, Hertz will charge $100 if you cancel more than 24 hours prior to the reservation start date, and $200 if you're within 24 hours. Alamo is more generous, tagging you with a $50 fee for canceling before the 24-hour window and $100 within 24 hours of the loan start date.

As for weighing renting in town or at the airport, most of the time, according to reporting by NerdWallet, off-airport rental car reservations are cheaper. They looked at 20 different destinations and found that for rental car reservations lasting seven days, the average savings was $126 versus renting at the airport.

Still, it's a good idea to look at each location (city versus airport) and study the actual rates. You might also find a more limited selection of cars in cities than at the airport. And definitely read the fine print if you're thinking about a city pickup and airport drop-off, because that can add costly one-way fees.

Laguana explains that often, "Major online-travel aggregators (Expedia, Priceline, Kayak, etc.) have clauses in their agreements with car rental companies that prevent the rental companies from advertising rates lower than what the aggregators offer." Those deals don't necessarily cause higher prices for consumers. "Using a broker doesn't automatically mean you are paying more. But many companies, particularly the smaller independent companies, don't list their cars on aggregators." Fricke recommends online travel aggregators too, explaining, "I always start on Kayak. It's a great resource to pull all brands in comparison. I find this helps when searching for certain vehicle types like large sprinter vans. From there, I use that pricing once I've found my best-priced option, and I go direct." Meaning, after she finds the lowest price, she books directly through the car rental company. 

While aggregators are a great place to start, you might miss a better deal if you only shop through those channels. Laguana explains, "Sometimes a simple Google search or chat with an AI agent will turn up rates significantly lower than what the aggregators have listed." 

As for which rental car agencies are cheapest, NerdWallet's study of rental car companies found that Budget, Hertz, and Dollar consistently loaned cars for less. It's actually odd that there's any rate competition at all, since all of the major rental car brands are owned by just three companies. 
Still, since you will be cross-shopping, know that Enterprise averaged $480 for seven days of rental, which was way cheaper than the $680 that National charged. Luckily, some of these players, such as Hertz, also have solid ratings and rent cool cars. 

If you're a AAA member, you can save up to 20% off the base rate of all rental cars from Hertz, Dollar, and Thrifty. You can also add an extra driver for free. Costco pre-negotiates cheaper rates for its members and lets you add a second driver at no extra cost, which rental car agencies definitely charge more for.

Frequent-flyer programs also offer discounts on rental cars. For instance, United Airlines frequent flyers save up to 35% on base rates with Avis and Budget. USAA members (available to active duty military, veterans, and their families) can get up to 35% off current rental rates from Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Hertz, National, and Alamo rental agencies.‍ ‍

It's also possible your company or university alumni affiliation may offer discount codes. It's worth asking your employer or checking an alumni website to see if these exist – and you may have to present proof of the affiliation when you fetch the car. Also, make sure these codes aren't restricted to corporate travel rather than travel for pleasure, since violating those policies might endanger not just your affiliation but coverage during the rental.

"When I rent cars while traveling, I usually get most of the insurance products (although I will usually pass on the personal effects coverage)," Laguana says. "My reasoning: I'm driving in a location I'm not super familiar with, in a car I'm not super familiar with. Paying a little extra to avoid having to file a claim with my own insurance company makes sense to me." And for many, that peace of mind may well be worth the cost.

But if you have comprehensive car insurance, you might already have car rental coverage. You'll still be on the hook for your deductible, which you would be in an accident with your own car, too.

Also, check with your credit card company on their policies for car rentals. Often they bake in extra insurance coverage as long as you charge the car to them. For instance, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card adds $75,000 of damage coverage to the rental car. But that only applies to the car you're renting, not potential damage you might cause to another car or people outside the rental. 

The key here is that the credit card saves you from taking out additional insurance from the car rental company. In fact, Chase's policy says you must decline the rental car agency's collision damage waiver or loss damage waiver (CDW and LDW) insurance so that Chase is your backstop. But, again, you'll still need your own car insurance supporting you in the event of an accident that causes other damage. This is often called supplemental liability protection, and you need to be certain your car insurance includes this. FYI, if you're traveling abroad, the rental company might say you have to buy that through them regardless.

Some rental car agencies offer a "mystery rental" option, meaning you don't get to choose the type or size of the car. "The mystery rental is usually a car that is not selling well," Laguana explains. "But it can still be a great deal, because the car rental company won't want to list that vehicle at such a low rate and have it find its way into various websites and search engines. So if you don't have specific needs and don't care what kind of car you get, this might be the best option."

As for other hacks and cautions, Laguana says renters can get into trouble by, "Not examining all the terms and conditions. Not long ago, comparing deals took a lot of work; now, AI makes it much easier. If you have a brand you trust, go with that brand. But if you don't know where to start, using AI can help you compare your options." That can help you avoid some of the most common rental car tourist scams. 

Laguana goes further, explaining that there can be all sorts of hidden fees for non-vacation car rentals, too. "In our little sector, the passenger van rental business, we compete with businesses that have wildly different business models. Some offer cheap rates but then add required cleaning fees, additional driver fees, higher priced insurance products or lower mileage limits to make up the difference."

To avoid a scratch or ding getting chalked up to you during your rental period, Fricke advises clients "To ensure you take a video walking around the vehicle, checking for any damage (don't forget the inside). This ensures if there's any existing damage the rental car company doesn't place blame on you." If your inspection turns up damage that's not listed by the rental agency you need to call that out so they mark that down before you begin your loan. 

Another good idea is to use an app like Gas Buddy so you know the price of gas near the rental agency. Most companies want to charge you their own per-gallon toll (usually higher than the going rate) if you bring the car back empty. Otherwise you need to fill it up before giving the car back. Maybe it's worth avoiding visiting a gas station before you return the car, but check the average gas price versus what they're charging so you're aware of the difference.

Finally, while you may want to rent someone's cool car through a peer-to-peer app like Turo, some policies, for instance getting coverage through your credit card, could be excluded. Chase explicitly excludes such rentals. Turo includes liability insurance in their loans (which covers third parties and their property), but says you should check with your car insurer to see if it covers peer-to-peer car loans — and cautions that most don't. For that reason they offer several tiers of insurance to cover damage to the loaned car. However, only their Premier tier prevents you from owing money for damages.