Don't judge a book by its cover. Instead, save the criticism for the hefty sticker price traditional campus books stores charge for required texts.On a budget? No problem.
With college students shelling out hundreds--sometimes thousands--of dollars on textbooks each year, the latest back-to-school savings rage is renting required texts. In fact. the college bookseller branch of Barnes & Noble recently announced that it expanded its multi-channel textbook rental program to hundreds of colleges and universities.
The program, which is offered through campus bookstores managed by Barnes & Noble, has already resulted in thousands of students renting their fall textbooks and, by the end of the back-to-school season, will provide millions of higher education students, and their families, significant savings off the high cost of college textbooks.
Along with delivering savings of more than 50 percent over the cost of purchasing a new, printed textbook, Barnes & Noble’s rental program contains the features higher education students want most, including:
* The convenience of renting their books either in the campus bookstore or from the bookstore’s Web site, eliminating the need to pay shipping costs or wait for their books to arrive in the mail
* The choice to return their rental textbooks to the campus bookstore or via mail using free return shipping
* The flexibility to use a wide variety of rental fee payment options, including financial aid and campus debit cards, as well as cash and credit cards
* The ability to highlight and take notes in their rented books
* The freedom to keep their books for up to ten days after the last day of finals
* The comfort of getting automated, reminder emails alerting them that the rental period is ending and to return their books to the bookstore
Also, Consumer United has teamed up with CollegeBookRenter.com, an online alternative where students can rent or sell college textbooks. Renting online can save you as much as 85 percent on your textbook costs.
Click here for the lowdown on CollegeBookRenter.com.
