Priceline - Car Rental for USA Name Your Own Price®

Lwhodidthat on 07/01/2014 - 11:51

Moved to Forum: Original Link

For those travelling to USA.

This site offers normal car rental but it also has a "Name Your Own Price®" section.
Prices do change according to season, I last used it in December 2010 and copped a bargain for $11 a day for a really good car.

One "problem" is that you need to register with a USA address. If you have a freight forwarding address you can use that. Or, you can use the address where you will be staying.

Best way to use the site is to first search for rental cars for specific dates.
A page will open with the results.
At the top, will be a section titled "Name Your Own Price® and Save Up To 40%". Click on "+ See Winning Bids!" to get a guide on pricing.

BUT, don't go by the full rental prices shown in the main section, click on the "Save up to 40% on your rental car" banner at the bottom of the page, the prices show cheaper.

Going by those prices, I usually put a bid in for less than half the price then bid up until accepted.

Just bear in mind that the bid price isn't the final price (so bid wisely) as it does say "Total Charges, including taxes and fees, are displayed on the following page".

If used correctly, you get a really good deal.

Travel

Related Stores

Priceline.com
Priceline.com

Comments

  • snook on 07/01/2014 - 12:17

    Ok for people who don't know about Priceline.

  • John Dough on 07/01/2014 - 12:56
    +1

    We use Priceline every trip to the states, I saw this 'Name Your Own' and I thought about checking it out - will definitely look at this option next time, thank you :)

    • whodidthat on 08/01/2014 - 08:02
      +1

      Pleased it helped someone!

    • John Dough on 08/01/2014 - 09:27

      Turns out the missus clarified we use Priceline for accommodation lol Its been a year so since the last trip and many beers ago!

  • Hoju on 08/01/2014 - 08:18
    +1

    This is great - last year we found a coupon and got it for $11 a day with Alamo, but can't find the same deal.
    Makes me think that about $11/day is their base acceptable rate or something.

    One thing though - what's their cancellation policy? If I book directly with Alamo, I can cancel for nothing if I find their prices have dropped and then just make a new booking at the cheaper rate.

    Thanks :)

  • John Dough on 08/01/2014 - 08:42

    I had more discussion about this last night with friends, and we have researched it a bit and it seems that with Priceline they tell you that you are covered for insurance, but in reality or if you actually have an accident you are not completely covered, and the fact you are using a temporary address on their site, it will almost certainly null and void your insurances whilst overseas. Remember people that America is the land of Laywers, and having and having an accident over there without proper cover could result in you paying peoples medical bills forever after, however legitimate the claim!!

    I have been advised Carhire3000 or Travel Jigsaw are two companies that cover you 100%, and are cheap as chips anyway! (They are a reseller for Alamo and other companies) We have used them in the past and researched them a lot. People who have had an accident regardless of fault, have been covered no problems.

    • whodidthat on 08/01/2014 - 08:49

      That's interesting!

      I usually rely on my own car insurance element of travel insurance but I do now wonder…….

  • John Dough on 08/01/2014 - 09:00

    These are the things to consider when hiring a car:

    Collision Damage Waiver – Theft Protection – 3rd Party Liability – Supplementary Liability Insurance – Uninsured Motorist Protection.

    If you don't have all of these while driving in USA, you could get yourself in trouble.
    Some of the providers list a few of these, travel insurance and credit card insurance will most likely only include a couple of these at best.

    Here is some light reading;
    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1021942

    If you do a control+f Find the term 'carhire3000' or 'traveljigsaw' you can see quite positive reviews and people saying that they have had no trouble. They also have a price beat policy, so you could potentially get a Priceline price anyway, but not sure if its 'apples for apples' as far as insurance goes.

    I have hired using Carhire 3000 at least 15 times in Hawaii, California and Nevada, its a case of booking, paying, printing out the paperwork, rock up at the desk with paperwork, passport, licence and credit card, and no extra expenses are added - ever. The paperwork is a 'Voucher' and it pays for the booking end to end.

    You can choose plenty of options ie GPS and fuel inclusions can sometimes be a little tricky to understand. I personally go with the full tank included option and then take it back running on fumes, but I live life on the edge so this may not suit others, and not a recommended option when you have a plane to catch!! I actually recall in a couple of the larger SUV's that I calculated that I pretty much got a free hire car from not having to pay for the huge tank of fuel.

    There's my 2 cents!

    • Hoju on 08/01/2014 - 09:15

      Thanks for that. We've hired about ten times in Hawaii and never had insurance. Best price is $11 per day like the OP with no insurance. We've never had insurance and just one of the risks you take.
      What I'm wondering is what sort of price you were getting in Hawaii using carhire3000 with their insurance policy included?

      • John Dough on 08/01/2014 - 09:39

        Yep I have taken a look, we may not be comparing all that well as we hired large vehicles to carry 7 of us, and we chose various options like fuel included and some not included (depending on how far we were venturing)

        Daily rate for a 7 seater like a Jeep or a Chev Taho was around $100 AUD per day with a tank of fuel included.

        If it was 7 Days or more, it was about $65 per day, with the tank included.

        No fuel included was cheaper, more like $30-$60 depending on the vehicle size.

        The dollar was also strong when we went last year.

        I'm sure the $11 option is tempting, but if you have a stack - RUN. (jokes)

    • whodidthat on 27/01/2014 - 12:58

      Just got back from Adelaide/Melbourne trip and searched for 'carhire3000' & 'traveljigsaw', both come up as rentalcars.com

      I had checked that site for my AU rentals earlier this month but found my deal with Ace car rentals better.

      A car for Orlando looks to cost around AU$31 a day.

      • John Dough on 27/01/2014 - 18:49

        In Australia you can go with the cheapies as you have good insurance cover and the excess is the only concern.
        In the US I wouldn't touch anything too cheapie, as you would quickly find out the hard way if anything happens you may find yourself in a lawsuit, or at the very least the owner of your slightly dented automobile!

  • RockyRaccoon on 28/01/2014 - 03:39

    Why go to Whirlpool to find out what is already here on this site

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/category:travel

    There is a section on US car hire and Insurance.

    As Greydaniel says this is a minefield, and the only way many understand some of the issues is when one of the mines go off.

    For years I misunderstood the issues but was lucky. Never again would I rely on some of the travel insurance covers. Although while I now take out cover as outlined in the wiki, fortunately I havent had to test it out.

    Back to priceline, the only issue is you lock yourself into a rate, and have to pay in advance, where as with direct bookings you only pay when you get there, and you can cancel at anytime with no fee if you find a better price from another supplier, or even the same. The prices go up or down depending on some wonderful tidal patterns found in some south American lake (meaning we dont know how or why). Greenspoon above mentions this as well.

    Last car rental I booked in the US was for $78 a week out of LAX, I booked it with the same company (Alamo) 10 times over a 2 month period, starting at $150 a week, until 4 weeks before the trip when it started going back up. Another year the cheapest rate was 2 weeks out and then another it was 8 weeks.

    So no need to gamble with priceline and the fake US addresses which could cause issues if you get one of the shonky providers just do some leg work yourself. BTW book the lower priced deal, before cancelling the other (just be careful you cancel the right one).

    Once when traveling standby on a staff ticket, I had 3 consecutive days of car rental booked at the same company just in case I was bumped from the flight. I then cancelled the other bookings from my ipad in the car rental lot when I picked up the first booking, and given there was no credit card details, I probably could have skipped doing that.

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