Yesterday, I wrote about the (somewhat) annual offering from rental car companies as they look to have you help them get cars out of Florida. It is a pretty good deal – $9.95 a day for cars as long as you dump it someplace outside of Florida. Obviously, if you are going to be making a trip there to grab a car, you probably aren’t going to keep it for only 3 days. It does work out great for those drivers who are looking to drive home from Florida and may have flown down, though!
Unfortunately, the maximum rental time is capped at 21 days. If it could only be 30 days, you would be getting a late model car for only a little more than a lease would be for that month – and having unlimited miles! Still, 21 days is not bad to get a car for, especially when it is possible to get it for around $250 for that time.
The Cost Of A One Hour Difference
So, I was booking a rental car for someone and almost fell out of my chair when I saw the total – $4,706 for a full size car for 21 days! That was unbelievable! So, I looked at everything a little closer and saw that it was not 21 days, I had actually set it for 21 days and 1 hour! Once I changed that day back one hour, I saw it down to a more manageable – $315 for the same car.
While it would have been nice to get that many points on my credit card, somehow I think the person actually paying for it would have had a few words for me. 🙂 It is just amazing the difference that just one hour can make on a rental car. That being said, should you rent with this deal, you make sure you do whatever it takes to get that car back on time! Otherwise, you just bought yourself 1/5 of a car, and you cannot even take it home with you!
so rent it under the time limit, and re rent it again?
You could, but to get that rate again, you would have to pick up another car from Florida. If you re-rented a car at the drop spot, the cost would be higher but it would work.