Rental Cars in 2026: How to Skip the Counter, Cut Costs, and Avoid Insurance Mistakes

Rental Cars in 2026: How to Skip the Counter, Cut Costs, and Avoid Insurance Mistakes

From Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways by NerdWallet Travel

March 25, 2026 · 55 min

About this episode

The episode discusses strategies for renting cars in 2026, including how to save money and avoid common pitfalls.

Learn how to skip rental car lines, lower costs, and avoid pricey insurance mistakes on your next trip. When should you rent at the airport, and when should you skip a car entirely? Hosts Sally French and Meghan Coyle break down how to rent a car in 2026 without overpaying, wasting time at the counter, or getting tripped up by confusing coverage. But first, they unpack the latest travel headlines, including long TSA lines during the federal partial shutdown, fresh findings from NerdWallet’s 2026 summer travel survey, Hilton’s new Yotel partnership, Citi ending points sharing, and Chase’s new hotel price-match feature. Then, Sally and Meghan dig into rental car strategy, with tips and tricks on booking early and repricing later, comparing airport and city pickup spots, and deciding when Turo, Uber Rent, Zipcar, or public transit make more sense than a standard rental. They also cover which credit card perks matter most, how rental car elite status can help you skip lines or add drivers, when EV rentals can save money or create hassles, and why their editor Claire and colleague Craig come up in a conversation about portal pricing, rental car dread, and smarter booking choices. Card…

People in this episode

Hosts: Sally French, Meghan Coyle

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NerdWallet, Hilton, Citi, Chase

Products: American Express Platinum, AmEx Business Platinum Card, AmEx Green

More episodes of Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways podcast page.