<p>Looking for some help regarding oneway car rentals. I live in Mass and have a daughter attending college in NC. I want to fly down in May and drive home with all of her belongings.
I am finding that many rental companies do not do oneway rentals or they are very $$. Has anyone done this at a reasonable rate? Which company did you use? Thanks</p>
<p>Try Budget; we did a one way small truck rental from NC to the DC area when DS graduated. Not sure their car policy, though.</p>
<p>I did a one way rental with Thrifty in Fl, but remained in the same state.</p>
<p>I did it with enterprise, but I also remained in the same state.</p>
<p>checked a few agencies including U Haul. Will run you between $550 and $650 it seems. Google one way car rentals.</p>
<p>I did it through Hertz from New Orleans to Atlanta last year. Cost me $250 for a week. One thing that was KEY: Do not rent at/from the airports. Rent from an agency located at a Convention Center or even in a suburb.</p>
<p>It might be cheaper just to rent a car for several days, drive to North Carolina, and drive back to NYC.</p>
<p>From someone who once lived in NC and had family in NJ, I would pay more money than do that. NC (Raleigh area) to NYC would be a 10 hour haul each way, and that is if you timed it right. G forbid you hit No VA at rush hour and you can find that it takes 2 hours to go 30 miles. The same is true for the NJTPKE. The tolls aren’t pretty either, my best guess would be it would tally close to 100 bucks, and that is before the gas is added in.</p>
<p>After dealing with multiple moves (2 kids) and multiple states, we’ve tried every scenario at least once. It sometimes can be cheaper to rent the smallest rental truck/van as the charges can be less than a car rental company. I guess this is because with rental trucks, they’re more accustomed to “one-way” as being the norm? </p>
<p>In any case, we had the best luck (online discounts, best quality trucks etc) with Penske. We also learned by accident that the rental truck companies DON’T have the same extra charges for an under-25 driver (wish we’d known that the year S had to move several states away). One other time we had to make sure we had a truck that could accomodate seat 3–not available on most of the smallest trucks/vans.</p>
<p>It also seems there’s been a huge increase in cost to rent cars in general over the past few years. So you’re getting hit with a double whammy–higher than ever car rental rates coupled with those one-way fees. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. We do not want to drive both ways. We did that bringing her this fall and want to avoid doing it again. I will look into all of the suggestions. Keep them coming!</p>
<p>Some other options to throw out there - could your d store her belongings for the summer? or could you ship her items home and let her fly by herself?</p>
<p>Have you considered renting/sharing a storage unit for room items (unless DD will not be returning to school)? Then you can fly and rent a car locally for the move out; both of you can fly home with her clothes in your checked baggage.</p>
<p>Make sure you check online sites like carrentals.com and hotwire.com. I’ve found good one-way deals on those sites which didn’t show up on the big nationwide rental websites.</p>
<p>Our DS has 2 roommates from far distances, they both do the same thing. They pack up and ship via UPS and he flies home by himself. The folks don’t come out for it. </p>
<p>The question is…is she in a dorm, or an apt? If she is in a dorm, you might want to do that, because the cost would be the same as you flying, renting a car, and a hotel.</p>
<p>I have always used Hertz for one way rental - pick up a car around my town then driving it to JFK for drop off, it’s cheaper than getting a car servie and I could control my time. I just checked for you, assuming pick up from Charlotter, NC to Boston, MA, it’s $300 for 3 days. It’s more expensive, but they are not charging drop off fee. I used a June date. Maybe as time gets closer the rate would drop.</p>
<p>I did this when I brought my daughter’s car to NC. I rented a car from Hertz in NC and drove it back to PA. It was cheap and easy. There was no extra charge and I only had the car for one day.</p>
<p>I am finding that many rental companies do not do oneway rentals or they are very $$. Has anyone done this at a reasonable rate? Which company did you use?</p>
<p>The UHaul idea may be best money-wise… They’re used to one-way rentals. Car companies don’t like them because either it messes with their inventory or they have to pay to have the car returned to the right state.</p>
<p>We faced this scenario a few years ago. No one wanted to do a one-way rental across the country. But, AAA Travel was able to put pressure on either Hertz or Avis to do this for us (it was a Ford minivan…so which company uses Ford???). Since H’s company was paying, we didn’t care about cost…it was expensive.</p>
<p>I also concur with using a company like Public Storage during the summer. Both kids used this with good results in at least one summer. Was reasonably priced and saved us from a “move” a couple of times.</p>
<p>Once they were older they began to live off campus (usually meaning a one-year lease) and the summer schlep was no longer required. Just alot more money for rent!</p>
<p>Have been doing a lot of one-way car rentals for college trip explorations and appalled by the prices. $300 for 2 days DC to Phila. But here’s the clincher:
- Pick up Saturday in Boston; return on a Wednesday to Hartford CT.
Called Hertz; asked for cheapest car, blah blah blah.
The quote was … $1,166!</p>
<p>I think renting storage space in the college’s city is the best idea. We do that. I first spray the space (Top, bottom, etc) with home safe bug spray. Then we put the stuff in. We also double bag stuff in big trash bags and such. </p>
<p>But…call ahead to reserve. Some book up early!</p>