When you think of car rental, you probably think of companies like Avis, Hertz, or Enterprise Rent-A-Car. We doubt that you love these companies, either, since the process of renting from them is generally expensive and frustrating.
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a car rental solution that was modern, flexible, and tech-savvy? This is what you’ll find with Zipcar.
Zipcar is a car sharing service that offers car rental for a flat daily or hourly rate. You make your reservation using the Zipcar mobile app, and you use a special card called a Zipcard to unlock and lock the vehicle.
In many cases, Zipcar is cheaper to use than a rental car from another company. For some people, it’s enough to make car ownership unnecessary (especially people who live in cities with access to public transit). Still, Zipcar isn’t free. To this end, you might be looking for ways to lower the cost of your Zipcar rental.
If so, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we’ll take a look at the Zipcar deals and promo codes currently available. Whether you’ve yet to join Zipcar or are a veteran Zipcar member, you’ll find a way to save money in this guide.
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How Much Does Zipcar Cost?
Before we start talking about various Zipcar coupon codes and ways to save money on the service, it’s best to understand how much Zipcar costs. The company claims the service is cheap in comparison to other car rental companies, but is that really true?
Where Zipcar shines in terms of affordability is with its hourly rentals. This is a service that few other companies offer; you certainly won’t find any traditional car rental companies that let you rent a car by the hour. Hourly rentals can be as low as $8 per hour, meaning that you can save in comparison to another car rental company if you just need the car for a few hours.
Once you get into the territory of daily rates, it depends on your situation. Zipcar can still save you money compared to another company, since they include gas in the rental cost. For rentals as long as a week, however, it tends to be cheaper to go with a traditional car rental company. They offer weekly discounts, while Zipcar does not.
In addition to the cost to rent the car, Zipcar members also have to pay a $7 per month or $70 per year membership fee. New users must also pay a $25 application fee (which is non-refundable even if Zipcar rejects your application).
Related: Long-term car rental options that are similar to Zipcar
Zipcar Discount Code
Now that you understand how Zipcar pricing works, let’s examine how to save some money when you sign up for the service. Using the referral link of a friend (or from a website you find), you can get $25 in free driving credit when you join Zipcar. Applying this code is as simple as clicking your friend’s link and filling out the application.
If you use our referral link from RetailMeNot, you’ll get your $25 in driving credit.
This special offer is only available to new customers. The $25 in driving credit effectively negates the application fee (assuming Zipcar accepts your application). From time to time, Zipcar offers special promos in which they’ll waive the application fee for new members. They generally do this when expanding into a new city.
To find out about promos like this, your best bet is to go to Zipcar.com. The site will automatically determine what city you’re in and show you if a new member promo is available. But what do you do if you’re already a Zipcar member? In this case, you still have ways to get discounts. You just have to be more creative.
Zipcar Referral Program
Getting $25 in driving credit is a nice perk when you first sign up, but that credit won’t last long. To keep your Zipcar costs low, you can refer a friend to the service. Using your unique affiliate link, both you and your friend will get $25 in free driving credit when they sign up for Zipcar.
To find your unique referral link, visit the Zipcar referral page. Then, sign in and choose the method you want to use to share your referral link. Your options for sharing the code include email, Facebook, and Twitter. Of course, you can choose to share the link via other methods if you prefer, but email, Facebook, and Twitter are certainly good places to start.
Let’s look at strategies you can use to share your referral link via each of these platforms.
1. Share Your Code Via Email
In the image above, you can see the default referral message that Zipcar generates for email referrals. The message is as follows:
“Zipcar is a great way to get around. Join through this email and we both get a $25 credit towards future driving! Do nothing and we both get…well, nothing. No pressure.”
This message is certainly cleverer than your typical form referral message, but you should still do some work to personalize it. The more you can tailor your message to your friend’s interests and personality, the better your chances of them actually taking action.
For instance, you could mention a place your friend loves to travel and explain how Zipcar could help them get there more easily. Or, you could suggest the two of you take a road trip using a Zipcar.
2. Share Your Code on Facebook
The next option Zipcar gives you for sharing your referral link is Facebook. They don’t suggest any sort of message for you to use, so it’s up to you to be creative. Just make it something that sounds natural and interesting. If you write like a corporate advertising agency, it’s going to give the wrong impression.
You should instead talk about your experience with Zipcar and how it has improved your life. The details of this are personal, but be sure to be as descriptive as possible. For instance, you could talk about a cool weekend trip you took with Zipcar or how Zipcar allowed you to sell your main car and is now saving you money.
3. Share Your Code on Twitter
The final option Zipcar gives you is to share your code on Twitter. They do include a suggested message, which reads as follows: “@Zipcar is great! And we both get $25 if you sign up. Check it out:” This is not a great message. Saying that Zipcar is “great” means almost nothing.
Instead, we recommend posting a picture of a trip you took using Zipcar or something else that shows Zipcar in action. This helps you overcome the character limit by telling a story with a picture. You can then include a brief caption explaining what’s happening in the picture and briefly mention Zipcar and the discount. This will make for a far more effective post than the default Zipcar one.
Join Zipcar Today
We hope you now understand how you can use Zipcar promo codes and referral codes to save money on the service. Whether you’re about to join Zipcar or have been using the service for years, you can save money using the right types of promo and referral codes.
Looking to save on other methods of transportation? Check out our guide to Uber Promo Codes and Lyft Promo Codes.
And if you’re a new user, click here to get $25 in free Zipcar driving credit.
