Car Rental for an under 25 year old

[pk1959]

My son is looking for a rental car from the Seattle airport for a 10 day rental starting on April 18th. All the car rental companies seem to want to charge an underage fee of $25 per day, as he is only 23 years old. Anyone know of a way to get that rental any cheaper or a company that doesn't charge as much?? I know that if anyone has any ideas, it will be someone on the budget boards!!! Thanks to anyone who can help.

 

[Sarahlovy]

When I was under 25 and needed to rent a car, I found no way around the fee. Only certain companies will rent to you, and they all charge a steep fee for it.

 

[jjameson]

Register for Hertz #1 Club Gold family and they waive the underage fee for family members under 25. I signed up my mother just so I could rent without a fee as her daughter. When I signed up, it was free. Make sure you use the Hertz Gold Family discount program CDP when reserving the rental. You can still use and PC's you can to make the price even lower. Hope this helps.

 

[clh2]

Register for Hertz #1 Club Gold family and they waive the underage fee for family members under 25. I signed up my mother just so I could rent without a fee as her daughter. When I signed up, it was free. Make sure you use the Hertz Gold Family discount program CDP when reserving the rental. You can still use and PC's you can to make the price even lower. Hope this helps.

WOW- I hope I remember this when DD is able to rent a car!

 

[Them!]

If your son is eligible to register at USAA for membership there is under 25 car rental offers w/ them. My daughter was able to rent a car at WDW for the week when she was 23!

 

[RangerPooh]

I had to pay the fees at Hertz, Enterprise, and National. Unfortunately there might not be a way around it. Just google disocunt codes for the rental car companies that will rent to someone under 25 to see if this will help offset the cost.

 

[mariacj]

Have they raised the prices??? I rented a car for my honeymoon and several one day trips....


Quick question... He is arriving here to Seattle to do what? Tour, see friends...

Living in Seattle the Metro takes you everywhere. The light rail is 2.50 takes you from the airport to downtown. in 40 minutes or less. All buses downtown are free. If you need to leave Downtown... non peak ours are 2.25 and peak hours are 2.50. (they give you a transfer that is good for 2 hours.)

Oh have you looked into zip car... they are everywhere in Seattle and many other large cities. Signing up for a month might be cheaper than renting a car and he would not have to pay for gas.

Airport rental agencies charge more in general as they have to pay for airport dues. Renting a car out of downtown or near the place he is staying might be cheaper. Enterprise picks up and drops off.

King county metro has a trip planner that he may want to look into if the rental costs are too high.

Good Luck. The weather today a beautiful gray and cloudy day!

 

[marie1203]

http://www.mousesavers.com/national.html
Has a code for national that doesn't charge you a fee for under 25 I think you still have to be older than 21(you might want to check on that) we used it this past trip and it worked great.

 

[njmom76]

Will there be anyone else that could be the primary driver? My husband was 24 on our honeymoon, but as I was 26, we just listed me as the primary driver and Dollar waved the fee for him.

 

[pk1959]

Register for Hertz #1 Club Gold family and they waive the underage fee for family members under 25. I signed up my mother just so I could rent without a fee as her daughter. When I signed up, it was free. Make sure you use the Hertz Gold Family discount program CDP when reserving the rental. You can still use and PC's you can to make the price even lower. Hope this helps.

Thank you for this information. Actually when I went to the Hertz website to look into this, they have a link to click on where they are waiving the underage fee. Ended up getting an intermediate size car for a 10 day rental for $424.48 which I guess isn't TOO bad. Advantage car rental only charges a $15 a day underage fee, so they were right about the same price as Hertz with all things included. We ended up going with Hertz (although they just bought out Advantage car rental anyway, so I guess it's not much different). Thanks again for your contribution.

 

[scrapquitler]

My son is looking for a rental car from the Seattle airport for a 10 day rental starting on April 18th. All the car rental companies seem to want to charge an underage fee of $25 per day, as he is only 23 years old. Anyone know of a way to get that rental any cheaper or a company that doesn't charge as much?? I know that if anyone has any ideas, it will be someone on the budget boards!!! Thanks to anyone who can help.

Try using a travel agent. She/he might be able to do something to get around it. When we went on a trip and needed a rental car, we were 24, and our travel agent managed to work it out for us that there was no issue.

 

[pk1959]

Have they raised the prices??? I rented a car for my honeymoon and several one day trips....


Quick question... He is arriving here to Seattle to do what? Tour, see friends...

Living in Seattle the Metro takes you everywhere. The light rail is 2.50 takes you from the airport to downtown. in 40 minutes or less. All buses downtown are free. If you need to leave Downtown... non peak ours are 2.25 and peak hours are 2.50. (they give you a transfer that is good for 2 hours.)

Oh have you looked into zip car... they are everywhere in Seattle and many other large cities. Signing up for a month might be cheaper than renting a car and he would not have to pay for gas.

Airport rental agencies charge more in general as they have to pay for airport dues. Renting a car out of downtown or near the place he is staying might be cheaper. Enterprise picks up and drops off.

King county metro has a trip planner that he may want to look into if the rental costs are too high.

Good Luck. The weather today a beautiful gray and cloudy day!

Hi,

He is coming to Seattle to meet a 'friend' that he has been talking to online for months now. Their first plan was for him to just pack up his car and drive there (we live in Michigan, so a l-o-n-g drive) but I did somehow convince him to at least fly out there first, meet her in person, check out the area since he seems so sure he wants to live there, and then if he is still hell bent on going there, at least he is not going there with no knowledge of what to expect. The trade off for him flying there first without packing up and going there blind is that I told him I would pay for his rental car, that's why I am trying to get the best deal I can find!! I just keep telling myself that I was young and dumb at one time too.
Thank you for your help

 

[pk1959]

http://www.mousesavers.com/national.html
Has a code for national that doesn't charge you a fee for under 25 I think you still have to be older than 21(you might want to check on that) we used it this past trip and it worked great.

I did find this code. They were about a $150.00 higher than everyone else though, so they pretty much added the underage fee in there somewhere along the line!! Thank you for helping.

 

[mariacj]

Hi,

He is coming to Seattle to meet a 'friend' that he has been talking to online for months now. Their first plan was for him to just pack up his car and drive there (we live in Michigan, so a l-o-n-g drive) but I did somehow convince him to at least fly out there first, meet her in person, check out the area since he seems so sure he wants to live there, and then if he is still hell bent on going there, at least he is not going there with no knowledge of what to expect. The trade off for him flying there first without packing up and going there blind is that I told him I would pay for his rental car, that's why I am trying to get the best deal I can find!! I just keep telling myself that I was young and dumb at one time too.
Thank you for your help

Yuck that would be a very long long drive.... Seattle is not all that big and less then 30 minutes from the airport depending on where the friend lives. For being a large city, it is not all that bad. Driving and getting around is easy. Everything is within 20 minutes. I love it here.

Good luck on car rentals! I hope he has a fun time.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Hi,

He is coming to Seattle to meet a 'friend' that he has been talking to online for months now. Their first plan was for him to just pack up his car and drive there (we live in Michigan, so a l-o-n-g drive) but I did somehow convince him to at least fly out there first, meet her in person, check out the area since he seems so sure he wants to live there, and then if he is still hell bent on going there, at least he is not going there with no knowledge of what to expect. The trade off for him flying there first without packing up and going there blind is that I told him I would pay for his rental car, that's why I am trying to get the best deal I can find!! I just keep telling myself that I was young and dumb at one time too.
Thank you for your help

Good for them ~ I wish them well *and hope you do to Seattle is a great city ~ my DS loves it there *we visited fall of 2009* My good friend recently moved there.