With tuition and textbook prices still rising faster than inflation, students need every advantage they can get.  Finding a source for cheap (or at least cheaper) textbooks can help.

Textbook rental is becoming a popular money-saving option.

Why?  Textbooks are expensive.  Buyback prices are low.  If a new edition comes out during the semester, your $150 textbook is worthless.

Textbook rental removes the risk of new editions coming out and eliminates the hassles of selling your book back to the bookstore while only getting a fraction of what you paid.

The textbook rental websites work like this:

1. You select the textbooks you want and pay the rental fee.

2. The textbook rental site ships your books to you.

3. You use the books during the semester (you are going to use them, right?).

4. At the end of the semester, you ship the books back to the textbook rental company (they will typically provide an envelope or label for this and often return shipping is free).

That’s the basics of how textbook rental services work. Let’s have a look at of some of the most popular textbook rental sites:

1. Chegg.com

Chegg is a leading textbook rental company featuring:

- great prices

- free return shipping

- over two million titles

- flexible rental periods.

Plus, for every book you rent, buy, sell or donate to Chegg.com, they plant a tree through their partnership with American Forests Global ReLeaf® Program.

visit Chegg.com

2. BookRenter.com

BookRenter.com features:

- free return shipping

- flexible rental periods

- millions of title to choose from

- Next day and 2nd shipping available

visit BookRenter

3. skoobit.com

Skoobit offers an interesting plan:

- Pay $10.99 per month for each book as long as you keep them

- You get flexibility in rental period and a reasonable fee if you need to keep the book longer

- Like Chegg, Skoobit also plants a tree for each book rental.

Visit Skoobit

4. bookswim.com

- Bookswim offers a “Netflix-style” service

- Plan prices from $14.99 / month

- Bookswim rents paperback and hardcover bestsellers, classics, and new releases.

- Free shipping both ways.

- No Due Dates. No Late Fees.

Visit BookSwim

5. campusbookrentals.com

- Save up to 85%

- Free shipping both ways

- Referral program, internships and scholarship available…see their site for details.

- Also buys textbooks

Visit CampusBookRentals.com

More resources on textbook rental:

Wall Street Journal article comparing several textbook rental companies, including Book Renter, Campus Book Rentals and Chegg. Also reviews Textbooks.com, which sells some textbooks with a guaranteed buyback.

I’d love to hear about your experience with textbook rental or if there are other good textbook rental websites out there that I should add to this list.

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