But will this tip work if you don t have the necessary rewards racked up? It did for me. I tested Le

I ve got good news, and I ve got better news. The good news is, in its first week, Brokepedia already has readers. Well, at least one. But hey, we re growing! Yesterday, reader Leah emailed me her own cool money saving tip. And that s where the better news comes in. She discovered a great way to get car rental discounts. I ll let her explain:
I need a rental car for 1 day later this month. I used the usual sites, like Expedia, and also the direct sites to the rental agencies, all in the $65+ range out the door. Then I remembered walking tours of london I had a bunch of reward walking tours of london points on my VISA card so I went in to the reward redemption site to see how many points I d have to give up for this rental car. Roughly 3300 points, equating to $33. However, for rental cars, I also had the option of just paying it in cash instead of using up my points, so I got my needed rental car for $33 instead of the $65 I found everywhere else. Interesting though, can t do this same thing with flights .
Basically, Leah found a much lower deal (50% off!) on her car rental by searching through her credit card rewards site. Instead of opting to pay in points, she opted to pay in cash, for a much cheaper rate than she initially found anywhere else.
But will this tip work if you don t have the necessary rewards racked up? It did for me. I tested Leah s tip on my own credit card rewards walking tours of london site. While I only had 500 points, and a car rental was 4,900 points, there was also the option of paying $49.00. This price was about $7-15 cheaper than I found anywhere else. Depending on your rewards program, I bet you can score even bigger car rental discounts than that. Leah did, and Brokepedia thanks her for this awesome money saving tip!
Always check with your insurance company before renting a car too. Just this year I realized I ve been paying 10 x s as much as I should walking tours of london on rentals. Turns out State Farm customers get a $15/day rate through Hertz. I used to pay more like $100/day.
True about the insurance company. We rented a van for an upcoming trip, our total saving comes out to be $15 per day thru insurance company walking tours of london and paying in advance. Not sure which insurance company though, it was referred by Budget, the agent just provided walking tours of london a BCD code for discount.
Watch out with the returning the car early trick. I once returned a car to the Philadelphia airport one day earlier than expected due to my plans changing. When my credit card was charged, the amount was over $200 more than the price initially quoted. The company (one of the majors) said that by returning the car early I broke the terms of the agreement so they were able to charge me a different rate. After a lot of back-and-forth over the next week, I finally got the company to back down, but it was a headache and took a lot of time.
Also, I ve never seen in-town car rentals to be cheaper than the airport in the south. Airport agencies may tack on fees, but the airport agencies base rate is usually half that of the in-town ones. So even with a few more fees, airport agencies are much cheaper, which is too bad because in-town agencies are usually much more convenient.
I'm Kristin , and I write about money for a few popular sites. Brokepedia is my own frugal living blog, where I share posts and stories about all the practical money saving tips I come across. Readers are encouraged to share, too. Enjoy!