How Much Money Students Can Save By Renting Textbooks Online

Renting textbooks online is a popular trend among university and college students. They are using textbook rental services offered by some of the most reputable online book rental stores to save money. New students on university campus often have less idea about the textbook rental facilities. They are either ignorant to this affordable option of getting college textbooks or have no idea about how much money they can save by renting textbooks online. This article will provide some important insight to online book rental services and the money saving potential being offered by online textbook rental stores.

Original Textbook Cost vs. Textbook Rental Fee

Online textbook rental services help students in cutting their expenses over semester textbooks. On an average, student can reduce their textbook expenses by 50% to 60% by utilizing textbook rental services. There are many online book stores offering wide range of college textbooks on rent. Their textbook rental fees for the whole semester comes around 35% to 40% of original retail price of books.

For example, the popular book "UNDERSTANDING SCIENCE" which is priced $ 149.95 can be rented for $ 74.98; that simply means saving of $ 74.97 (approx 50% of the original cost). The book rental fee usually includes shipping charges (both delivery to recipient and dispatch to book rental store at the end of semester).


Usually an Australian college student has to spend an average of $1000 to $1500 on buying all college textbooks for a semester. At the end of semester, the books become useless to them. They have the option to either sell it or give it to their juniors. However, in many cases the syllabus or the books are changed depending upon the curriculum revision or professor's preferences of teaching. In that case, the books cannot be used by juniors.

Think about a student who prefers renting books rather than buying it. He will spend approx $ 500 to $ 750 for all the textbooks for one semester. At the end of semester, he will return all the books to the online book rental store and order books for next semester. He doesn't need to worry about selling used books or giving it to juniors. His expenses over book rental is approximately 50% that means for the total purchasing cost of books in one semester, he can rent same books for two semesters.

In summary, utilizing book rental services for getting college textbooks is a wise decision for college students in Australia. They can reduce their costs of getting books and spend the remaining money to fulfill their other needs.