August 24th, 2009
Chegg.com Saves Money on Textbook Rentals for Students
Chegg.com, the self-proclaimed Netflix of textbooks, enlightens broke college students with an ingenious philosophy that stretches their dollars farther and encourages sustainability—stop paying full-price for textbooks and rent them instead.
The secret to their wild success is one part creativity and one part practicality. The easy-on-the-wallet concept of Chegg.com puts a fresh solution to an old problem—a textbook rental service solves the college gripe of the expensiveness of buying a textbook for only a short-term use, and makes it more affordable and convenient to rent and return. College students simply log-on, find their textbooks, rent it at a fraction of the price for a given time, and return it to Chegg.com at the end of the term.
Chegg.com claims consumers can save 65% – 85% by renting with them instead of purchasing college textbooks elsewhere. In addition to significant savings, Chegg.com provides a 30 day “Any Reason” guarantee, flexible rental terms, and prepaid shipping labels for more convenient book returns. The ‘Any Reason’ guarantee provides a 30 day no questions asked refund guarantee, which is great news for picky students who drop a class or picky professors who cancel classes. When it comes to rental terms, customers have the choice of a 125 day semester rental term, 85 day quarter rental term, or 60 day summer rental term. In addition to “recycling” books through renting, which cuts down on the number of books in circulation each semester, Chegg.com pledges to plant a tree for every textbook they rent or they purchase via the Buyback program. Chegg.com’s dedication to green, sustainable practices along with significant cost savings for consumers is why we simply love this company.
Being a college student, I decided to put the Chegg.com’s savings claim to the test. I’m very happy to report that it definitely saves to rent and return rather than let purchased textbooks collect dust on my shelves. With my upcoming 5 class course load of 23 books, renting from Chegg.com will cost me $317.78 while buying new books direct from my university bookstore would ring up $801.21 on my student credit card – a potential savings of $483.43 or 60%. My only complaint is that I didn’t find out about Chegg.com sooner—maybe I could have saved myself a few thousand dollars and planted a forest by now.
The savings aside, Chegg.com is not for everyone. The books Chegg.com rents out are in brand new or excellent condition and have to be returned in nearly the same condition, so if you require significant highlighting or like to take notes or doodle in the margins, you’ll find yourself paying for the book at the end of the rental term. There is also a 25% late fee if you go over the rental term. Finally, Chegg.com is still building its database so they may not carry your specific book or currently have it in stock, but Chegg.com does try to track down and add any requested book not currently in their 2.4 million book catalog.
I’m not the only one thrilled about Chegg.com; hundreds of thousands of students on over 5,000 U.S campuses have jumped on the money-saving, earth-friendly bandwagon too. Competitors like textbooks.com, ecampus.com, and even some colleges launching their own rental services are cashing in on the opportunity to rent to broke students, but Chegg.com remains king. Chegg.com has saved students over $42 million by renting instead of purchasing, and the savings will keep growing and the trees will keep sprouting as long as students keep reading. So, if you find yourself sticker-shocked at the campus bookstore register, try renting—your wallet and the earth will thank you.
Personally whether looking to rent or buy my textbooks I always use http://www.bigwords.com They are a textbook search engine that searches all the online textbook retailers and rental sites (including chegg) to find you the best prices. That way you can compare prices from tons of sites from one place instead of having to bounce around from site to site.
Thanks. For me, I use http://www.DealOz.com to buy and sell textbooks. I’ve saved lots of money with their great prices and store coupons.
Check out this site http://www.bookase.com, A price comparison search engine for books and textbooks. It searches for the lowest prices among the major online stores worldwide and also offers discount coupons. You can also choose among various shipping options to calculate the lowest price
Chegg.com is good and has some ok prices. I would also suggest using GreenTextbooks.org
Save Money, Save The Planet
GreenTextbooks.org specializes in the recycling of textbooks, DVDs, CDs. Buying used textbooks not only saves you money, but cuts down on greenhouse gases caused by the manufacturing of new textbooks.
With GreenTextbooks.org you’re not only saving trees, you are saving some green. http://www.GreenTextbooks.org
Chegg is awesome. The have saved me over $1000 in two semesters. We never keep our books anyways, so renting is the best option. They also plant a tree for every book rented. Saving money and helping the evironment is a win win for me. Use promo code: CC100221 to get an addl’ 5% off your entire order.