You can rent movies, but as colleges gear up for the fall semester, you can also rent textbooks. Because of the economy, more students are catching on the trend.
"I'm not getting as many hours, you know at work. I need to work to make money because I pay for my own school," said San Diego State senior business student, George Rios.
And if you're in college, or are going to start soon, you're most likely looking at ways to save money, especially when it comes to textbooks.
"Probably it'll be about 500-dollars a semester," said Todd Summer, director San Diego States Campus Stores division.
It can cost even more depending on the major. But instead of "new" or "used" textbooks, what's catching on is renting textbooks.
Summer said it's been popular for years in east coast colleges, but because of the economy, it's gotten greater attention.
"It sort of caught on about three or four years ago it caught on a little bit, but California's been leading the new charge for it," he said.
The positives of renting books is obviously cost. The difference in price from new to used depends. Sometimes between $10 to $30. But the difference between a rental book and new book can be between 40 % up to 75 % in savings.
At San Diego State's bookstore, Summer said they have rental books for about 20 subjects. He said you save money, but some drawbacks are that you don't get to sell them back once you're done, and depending on the subject, rental books can be hard to find.
But online, the rental textbook craze has caught on. Websites like chegg.com and bookrenter.com have seen more hits, and interest, in recent months.
"In renting you're able to save on average about 75-percent off the cost of your textbook so that's significant savings," said Colin Barceleaux, founder of bookrenter.com.
Renting textbooks online is pretty simple. Just type in the bar code, title, or author's name and if the book is available, it'll show up on the drop down menu. On bookrenter.com, you can even choose how long you want the book. Once you're done, just print out a free shipping label, and send it back. Make sure you send it back before the due date to avoid late fees.
"I'm not getting as many hours, you know at work. I need to work to make money because I pay for my own school," said San Diego State senior business student, George Rios.
And if you're in college, or are going to start soon, you're most likely looking at ways to save money, especially when it comes to textbooks.
"Probably it'll be about 500-dollars a semester," said Todd Summer, director San Diego States Campus Stores division.
It can cost even more depending on the major. But instead of "new" or "used" textbooks, what's catching on is renting textbooks.
Summer said it's been popular for years in east coast colleges, but because of the economy, it's gotten greater attention.
"It sort of caught on about three or four years ago it caught on a little bit, but California's been leading the new charge for it," he said.
The positives of renting books is obviously cost. The difference in price from new to used depends. Sometimes between $10 to $30. But the difference between a rental book and new book can be between 40 % up to 75 % in savings.
At San Diego State's bookstore, Summer said they have rental books for about 20 subjects. He said you save money, but some drawbacks are that you don't get to sell them back once you're done, and depending on the subject, rental books can be hard to find.
But online, the rental textbook craze has caught on. Websites like chegg.com and bookrenter.com have seen more hits, and interest, in recent months.
"In renting you're able to save on average about 75-percent off the cost of your textbook so that's significant savings," said Colin Barceleaux, founder of bookrenter.com.
Renting textbooks online is pretty simple. Just type in the bar code, title, or author's name and if the book is available, it'll show up on the drop down menu. On bookrenter.com, you can even choose how long you want the book. Once you're done, just print out a free shipping label, and send it back. Make sure you send it back before the due date to avoid late fees.
