With car rental should I pay now or pay later?
I'm just checking some car rental options for May and June in California. Avis for example offers the pay now and the pay later option. When you chose pay now, you have to pay the full amount while booking it and when you chose to pay later, you have to pay when picking up the car.
Normally, the pay now price is significantly lower, because you take the risk on your side. However, I now see that the pay now prices are significantly higher than the pay later prices. Is there any drawback I don't know?
Best Answer
As with any pre-pay rate, the answer is "it depends".
Car rentals are one of the last areas of travel where you can cancel a booking at the last moment or even "no-show" without paying any penalty. Try that with a flight, a hotel, a tour, etc and in almost all cases you're going to be out at least a percentage, if not the entire cost.
Rental car pre-pay normally means that if you want to cancel or even change your booking, then you're going to have to pay at least a fee. So in effect, you're giving up some flexibility and taking some (financial) risk in order to get an (apparent) saving.
So what it really comes down to is how much is the savings? Normally pre-pay savings are only 10-15%, which is frequently no more than you can get using other promotion codes with the rental company, or affiliate discounts like AAA (car club) membership discounts that are offered by many rental companies.
For such as small (if any) discount, the answer if simple - no, Pre-pay rates are NOT a good idea and should be avoided at all costs.
However, there are exceptions. For example, consider this quote from Hertz :
In this case pre-paying drops the price from 68 British Pounds to 39 Pound - a saving of around 43%! Unless you think it's likely that you'd be likely to cancel/no-show for the reservation, then obviously the pre-pay rate would be a great deal!
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What is the difference between pay now and pay later with Avis?
Avis for example offers the pay now and the pay later option. When you chose pay now, you have to pay the full amount while booking it and when you chose to pay later, you have to pay when picking up the car. Normally, the pay now price is significantly lower, because you take the risk on your side.Is it cheaper to wait until last minute to rent a car?
But when it comes to rental cars, this might surprise you: The best time to rent a car is last minute, when they tend to be cheaper. That's according to a NerdWallet analysis conducted in March 2022 of 360 rental car prices from eight major car rental companies in the United States.What does it mean to prepay a rental car?
When you pay in advance for a qualified reservation: Your Pre-Pay discount will automatically be applied to your rate. This discount is 5% off. Since your reservation is prepaid, you'll spend less time at the rental counter and get on the road faster!How far ahead of time should I rent a car?
Booking three to six months before you travel is usually ideal. Prices tend to be most competitive during this period. There isn't much benefit to booking further ahead. If anything, prices tend to be higher a year ahead.DO NOT Prepay for a Rental Car
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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