Car Rental requires several steps. A credit card is required, as well as a reservation and confirmation. By doing the legwork yourself, using a computer and having a little patience, it is quite possible to save money over the online car rental reservations rate. Surprisingly, it is also a low risk venture.

“A rental car will cost you exactly this much!” That’s what the agencies want you to think. Actually, they change their rates constantly. With a little bit of training and a little bit of vigilance, you can spot the good deals. The technique described here is easy, and absolutely legal and abides by all the rules. Pay careful attention and learn how to save yourself a bundle when renting a car!

1. Planning a trip? Make a reservation ahead of time, and find the hottest deal you can without any penalties for cancellation. Most agencies don’t have these, unless it’s peak season or for a specialty car. If this is a last minute booking, skip this step.

2. Put on your most comfortable shoes for walking and bring your laptop!

3. When you arrive at the rental car agency, take out your computer and go to Hotwire, Priceline, or another discount website. Most of these sites won’t let you make car rental reservations within two hours before your pickup time, so be ready for a delay at the last minute. Bring a book! At the website, pick a reservation for the amount of time you want. Choose the class of car just below the one you want.

4. Unlike Priceline, Hotwire will give you a total amount for the best deal they can offer. Use this number as your starting point in your quest. At this point, the hotwire price may be higher than your car rental reservation price. If it is, take the reservation.

5. Take your car rental reservation price, your discount site estimate, and shop around. Walk from agency to agency and negotiate. Smile, be polite, and be cunning, whatever it takes to get a price lower than what you have. You see, the more people who walk up to a car rental agency in the airport, the better location that agency gets. They have a reason to give you a good price as a walk up. They want your traffic. They want you to come back.

6. Don’t stop until you’ve seen them all. Don’t hesitate to reveal the discounts that you have been offered. If Hertz offered you a $10 discount, tell National Car Rental. They may want to beat that price. Remember, they want your business. Make them compete for your rental car choice.

7. If it turns out that your original reservation was the best deal, you’ve lost nothing more than a few minutes, and you’ve gotten some exercise. If you find a better deal, call and cancel your original offer and prepare to accept the better one. Note the word “prepare” here.

8. As a final attempt to sweeten your deal, tell the agent that you’ll only accept the deal if they upgrade you to the next class of rental car for the same price. This is actually the easiest thing for the car rental agent to do. It’s usually the agent’s decision. Obviously, however, this won’t work if they are sold out.

This is an easy way to get the best deal for a rental car. Don’t give up and take whatever you find first. Plan this technique into your schedule and you will save! Don’t let the car rental agencies push you around!

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