Why Buy Textbooks When You Can Rent?

No matter what they say, your college bookstores are not there to save you money. Think about it: even used books easily rack up several hundreds (if not a thousand) dollars, but amount to no more than a pittance during buy back week. What worse, this scenario will repeat itself every year for as long as you're in college.

Well, it won't this year. My wallet is sick of being raped semester after semester. So I went online to look for cheaper alternatives and came across a site called Chegg.com, which rents textbooks for college students. The company was founded by frustrated former college students who were fed up with the ridiculous price of textbooks (who isn't?). They have over a million titles to choose from. The cost to rent is around 60% to 80% of the original price depending of the title, and when you don't have to pay for shipping when returning books at the end of the semester. They also offer to buy back books (although you might not get as much money back as you would selling it elsewhere such as Amazon). The books are delivered in the mail (which means no more long lines waiting at the bookstores) and you have the option of expedited delivery ($3.99)or standard delivery ($.99). Chegg also provides pre-paid shipping labels should students switch classes or just want to return the books. Note that there is a 25% late fee if the book is not returned on time.

Here's a quick comparison of what I 'd have to pay at my school bookstore as opposed to renting with Chegg.

College Bookstore:

Abnormal Psych (used): $102.50
Vander's Physiology (new only): $175
Intro to Genetic Analysis (used): $117.25
Organic Chem lab manual (used): $56.75
Organic Chem (used): $167.75

Total: $619.25

Chegg Rental Service:

Abnormal Psych: $64.40
Vander's Physiology: $13.24
Intro to Genetic Analysis $45
Organic Chem lab manual: $31.06
Organic Chem: $71.54

Total: $225.24

Another neat thing about Chegg is that it's environmentally friendly.

From their website: At Chegg, we love books. We also love the environment. Renting textbooks is a great way to save money and reuse our natural resources. When we realized that 20 million trees a year are consumed for books - 4 million for textbooks alone - we decided it was time to give a little back to Mother Nature. That's why we plant a tree for every book you rent, buy, sell or donate! Together we can make a difference, one book at a time.

Since they've been in business, they have planted over 100 acres in Malawi, Guatemala, Mexico, Pakistan and the U.S. Wow, save money and be green? Sounds like a sweet deal.