Buying textbooks is one of the many exorbitant costs of going to college. Tuition and housing can be expensive enough, but books can cost a few hundred dollars on top of that. Then there is the headache of selling your books back at the end of the semester and, quite possibly, only getting a quarter of what you paid initially.
There is an option you can choose that will help save a great deal of money, and that is renting your textbooks. A student can rent a book from a website, have it delivered, and then return it for a fraction of the cost of buying the book from the store. An example of this would be a book that costs $75 new or $53 used at a bookstore, can be rented for a certain period of time for only $19. Shipping is usually free and unless the book is kept longer than the rental period, no other fees should apply.
To rent a book online, the student goes to whichever website that they choose. There are a few popular sites out there. The student then enters the title or ISBN and the book is shipped to them. Returning is easy as well, since the book will come with a return shipping label, so all the student needs to do is drop it into the mailbox.
Many colleges and universities are also starting to offer book rental at their campus bookstores. The students can rent the books on a website and then check them out at the bookstore. After the semester is over, they can return the books there as well.
There are a few disadvantages to renting books, however. Because the student does not actually own the book, they need to be careful of damaging it. Damage could cause the rental place to end up charging the student full price for the book, which defeats the purpose of renting it in the first place. Also, the books cannot be written in or highlighted, taking away the chance of using a helpful study tool.
Textbook rental seems to be a growing industry and may help students save thousands of dollars through their college career. With all of the new websites dedicated to this new trend, and campus bookstores also joining in, most students may try this option at least once. Because inflation has made college textbooks even more expensive, more and more students will be renting as opposed to buying.
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