Tips for Renting a Car with a Low Credit Score
When you think of renting a car, two images come to mind: the adventurous road trip with your family or friends on vacation or the nightmare of driving through rush hour traffic during your daily commute. However it may be that you don’t have much choice when it comes to having access to a vehicle while at college, on a business trip or for some other reason. As an individual with low credit, renting a car can be more challenging, but still possible.
Read below for six tips for renting a car with bad credit.
1. Find out what your credit score is before going. Knowing how you are perceived by creditors will help get you prepared and give you the of how far certain agencies might go to find out your payment history before renting a car.
2. Call ahead and talk to the rental agency’s corporate office. Find out what the policy is for those with low credit scores before you go, this will help you avoid wasting time or getting turned away at the counter. You might even be able to make special arrangements, such as paying damage deposits in advance, if they know how bad your credit score is and can plan ahead.
3. Avoid using debit cards for pre-payment of damage deposit; use a major credit card instead. This way if there is any disagreement on whether or not there was damage done during the rental process it can be handled by an impartial 3rd party (like Visa or MasterCard) instead of the rental agency itself.
4. Don’t pay for any extra insurance unless you absolutely have to, don’t even pay for extra liability protection unless it’s requiree by the agency or state law. You should already have full coverage car insurance on your own vehicle so there isn’t any reason to risk additional charges if something were to go wrong while you are renting a car. As long as you have this coverage in place before hand, it is unlikely that there will ever be an incident during your rental period that needs additional protection.
5. Offer to prepay the entire rental agreement at once instead of monthly installments over three months or more. This not only makes it harder for them to hold onto half of your money until the end of the agreement but it also forces you to be more responsible about how fast you return the vehicle . If this still doesn’t work, ask them to allow weekly installments and make sure to return the car every Saturday. Having a rental agreement end over the weekend is better than having it run well into mid-week and getting hit with an overdue charge.
6. Make sure that nobody else will be driving the car during your rental period; even if they are related to you or live with you in the same house. If their credit score is bad then it’s possible that your name could get mix up with theirs. When checking for payment history (i.e., there could be multiple people on that report. Saying that they didn’t pay when only one person was ever supposed to). If you are the only person with access to a car, this issue becomes moot.
If you can’t follow these tips then your best bet might be. To either take the train or bus instead of renting a car. Sometimes there are just too many factors working against you for it to make financial sense. If they perceive that risk is high. For those times when this isn’t an option, make sure that you don’t do anything above and beyond. The call of duty in order to rent a car because chances are good. That somebody else could have what few extra things you did without getting turn away at the counter. The goal here is not being perfect but about showing significant effort toward being better than average. So them will feel comfortable giving you access to the rental.
Remember, you’re not asking for a favor here; this is your money that they want – if you don’t pay then it is their loss. Just make sure that when the transaction ends, both parties are satisfy with the results and move on from there.
Conclusion:
If you are worrying that your credit score might not be high enough for you to rent a car. Then make sure to call in advance and ask the corporate office about their minimum requirements. Before visiting the rental agency in person. Also, try negotiating with them beforehand if possible. Because this can give both parties an idea of how workable the situation is. Before wasting time, gas money, or making multiple trips back and forth across town. Only to end up right back where they started. If you can make it easier on everyone involved (especially yourself) and show at least some effort toward meeting payment deadlines. Then there is no reason why anyone should turn away business simply. Because your financial situation isn’t as good as somebody else’s.