Textbooks and renting them… Really?

College can be expensive from tuition fees, housing, and the textbooks it all adds up. Some things you just can’t get around, like tuition and housing fees. There are ways to save money, by applying for scholarships, grants and splitting housing fees by having room mates. Those are the basic logical ways to save that many think of right away. But . . .

There are other ways to help save some during your college years, like getting used books, or something I didn’t know could be done. Did you know you could rent your textbooks? It’s great for everyone that knew, but for those of you like me that didn’t know then you’re probably as shocked as I was. After hearing about this I decided to do a little research to learn more.

textbook rentals {what I found}

It’s a great concept and an alternative to buying the books, which will later be a stockpile of unwanted books. There are companies online that not only rent the books, but also buy the ones you’ve already purchased. The process is easy, search for the book you need, by name, ISBN, or author. It will pull a list of the books they have by your search inquiry, pick the book, choose the rental length time, choose your shipping method and enter your shipping/billing information. Pretty simple huh? They offer rentals for a semester, quarter, or for the summer at very affordable prices. If you need the book right away you can choose over night shipping, if not then you can have it shipped free by standard methods.

The particular company I did my research on offers a prepaid return shipping envelope for your use when you’re done with the book. They allow highlighting in the book, if you decide that you no longer want to take a class you can return the book within 30 days for a full refund. Rentals are affordable ranging from 25$ – 40$ (they are different for each book and time frame) I did a simple search for “Art” then clicked on a couple of books to get a sample rate for rental. You can rent your textbooks directly from your smart phone, laptop or computer. No need to call and talk to someone, just search, click and rent. Easy!

I definitely think this is a great concept, and a simple way to help save money during your college days. So the next time you have to get a book for class, check and see if you can save money by renting the textbook instead of buying it.

Did you know you could rent textbooks for class?