Renting a car so that you have wheels at your disposal when you are far from home is a wonderful convenience. You get freedom and flexibility. Your itinerary isn’t based on public transportation schedules. You can go where you want, when you want. Yes, a rental car can certainly be a wonderful convenience. It can also be a very expensive convenience.
First, if you are renting online, you need to make sure that you consider your particular situation.
* If you’re traveling with children and have a lot of “stuff,” as it were, a subcompact is out.
* If you can’t drive a stick shift, you need to specify an automatic transmission.
* If you’re traveling from state to state, you need to know the rental company’s policies and find out if the company has offices in every state you’ll visit.
If you’ll need the rental car for less than one week, you should probably stick to the major car rental companies, like Avis, Alamo, Budget, Dollar,
Enterprise, Hertz, National, or Thrifty. But if you’ll need the car for more than one week, you can probably save money by renting from local companies, and especially car dealerships.
But you need to find out what happens if you break down or are involved in an accident. Often local car rental companies don’t have support services like the major auto rental companies.
Shop around before you rent and ask about discounts the rental company might offer for any major national organizations, frequent flier programs, and credit card programs that you belong to. Some organizations have negotiated better rates on car rentals. If you belong to AAA, those rates can be very good. If your employer frequently rents cars, there could be a negotiated car rental rate as well.
Above all, read the fine print in the contract you sign!
Car Rental Tips
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