Online textbook rental is an interesting new way that college students can save money. Instead of buying used or new books and hoping to resell them after you finish, you can rent textbooks – often for half the retail price! For more information about how textbook renting saves you money and time, read my post, “Why Rent Textbooks?”
Today, I am presenting a picture tutorial explaining exactly how to rent a textbook. The book that we will rent is called Focus on Personal Finance (ISBN-10: 0073530638 ). Its retail price is $98.46, and it is published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin. The company that we will use to rent this textbook is Campus Book Rentals, currently one of Debt-free Scholar’s sponsors. (Discloser: No company or person is paying me to write this post. It is entirely my idea.)
Step-By-Step Guide
Go to CampusBookRentals.com and search for your book. You can search by ISBN, author, title, or keyword. Here I search by ISBN because I know exactly which book I am looking for.
Choose your rental period. You can rent books for a semester, a quarter, or the summer.
Next choose your shipping method. Unless you need the book quickly, you can get standard shipping for free.
If you would like, you can insure your book against theft, loss, or damage. This is probably a good idea.
Scrolling down, click “Add to Cart”.
On the shopping cart page, click the button that says “Checkout”.
Fill in the information to create a new account, and click “Create Account”. If you already have an account, just sign in.
You will be redirected back to the shopping cart page. Click “Checkout” again.
Enter any coupon codes that you have.
Enter your billing and shipping information.
Enter your payment information, agree to their terms and conditions, and click “Proceed To Confirm Order”.
Once you confirm your order on the next page, your textbooks will be on their way!
You can expect your books within five to sixteen days, depending on which shipping method you chose.
Returning the Book
Once you are done using your book, you can return it using the provided packaging and prepaid shipping label. Yes, you did hear me right! They actually do provide you with a box or envelope (Depending on your order size) with a prepaid, preaddressed envelope already attached! All you have to do is put the books in the packaging and drop it off at the nearest post office.
Have you rented textbooks online? What has your experience been?
Very informative and interesting. Thanks, Nate!
I went with Chegg after I tried Campus Book Rentals (they didn’t have the books I needed but it is an obscure class).
I’ll try for it again next semester but so far happy with Chegg, which I mentioned on Twitter I never would of learned about without this blog.
So thanks for saving me money (which I promptly spent unwisely :).
Very nice post, Nate. I linked to it over at Back2SchoolMoms.com. Just wanted to comment also on what a nice looking site you have; I’ll admit, I’m a little jealous. I guess that’s the difference from a site run by a sixteen-year old technical genius and one run by a forty-something mom who fights with her WordPress widgets on a regular basis!
All – Thank you for your kind and encouraging comments! Notes like yours mean more to me than any amount of visitors.
C – I am glad to hear that Debt-free Scholar actually helped someone save money!
Norma Rickman – Thank you for linking to my post! By the way, I am subscribed to your blog also, and I really like your writing style and post topics.
Wow, this looks like a great opportunity for all students. Great find, Nate. Thanks a lot.