Start here
Start with the part of your next rental that you need to decide. These guides focus on US renters; a program benefit, card benefit or booking condition may have limits for your location and rental.
Choosing a company or program
Start with the rental-program comparison and which brands belong to which groups. Shared ownership doesn’t establish identical prices, service or benefits. For more detail, read the Hertz, National, Avis, Enterprise Plus, SIXT ONE and Budget Fastbreak program guides.
Checking benefits you may already have
See card-linked rental status for benefits that may require enrollment. Then compare primary and secondary card coverage and which card to use for a rental. Status and coverage answer different questions; neither replaces the conditions in your booking and benefit documents.
Booking and preparing for pickup
Use the booking and fare-checking guide to compare offers and their cancellation terms. Before deciding about a counter offer, read the damage-waiver guide and check the documents that apply to your rental.
Before booking through Costco, use the Costco Travel rental guide to check membership, driver and cancellation terms. At pickup and return, use the inspection and records checklist.
For the pickup location, use the airport versus neighborhood comparison to include transfers, time and branch hours. If someone else will drive, check additional-driver permissions and fee waivers before pickup.
Before deciding at the counter, print what to check before you decline coverage: the documents and questions in one place.
Tolls and other charges
Before driving through a toll, read the rental-car toll guide. Its Bay Area example separates the toll from service fees and explains why the payment route and rental agreement matter; other regions have their own rules.
For the fuel choice, compare prepaid fuel, refilling yourself and company refueling charges using the worked example.
For pickup and return, print the one-page rental car record and keep it with your agreement. To add it all up for your own rental, use the rental car total cost calculator: your quote, counter add-ons, tolls, fuel and other charges line by line, with the deposit hold shown separately.
Reading a review here
Our guides compare published rules and explain trade-offs. They don’t stand in for a personal test of a particular car, branch or counter. Read our editorial policy for how we handle sources, examples and corrections.