When Never to Rent and When You Should

MSN Money has a list of items you should never rent, some that are borderline, and when you should rent. We'll start with the five things they say you should never rent:

• Rims
• Furniture
• Computers
• Televisions
• Your paycheck (payday loans)

Personally, I hate renting and I certainly don't rent any of the items above. So far, so good.

Here's the list of items they list as borderline rent-ables:

• Tuxedos
• Handbags

I have very little need for a tux, and when I have used one I rented it. I'll pass comment on renting a handbag. ;-)

Here's the list of when to rent:

• Pickup trucks
• Vacation homes
• Anything you use once a year or less
• DVDs
• The next car you plan to buy

The "anything you use once a year or less" includes the items I think of when I think of renting -- power washer, chipper, aerator, etc. Basically any sort of low-use big equipment that you'd find at Home Depot or Lowe's.

By the way, the "next car you will buy" means to rent the car you're thinking of buying and test drive it. The suggestion DOESN'T mean to lease it.

I can't think of many items we rent on a regular basis. we did rent a condo last year when we went to Disney and we do "rent" DVDs from the library.

How about you? What do you rent?

Comments

[Danny Gamache]

Very good list. I really like the concept of renting anything you will use less than once a year. That will really help people simplify their lives.

[rwh]

We rent cabins at state and county parks. We rent a cabin on a lake in the summers. It's much cheaper than owning and we have the flexibility to go different places, rather than the same place each time.

I've never thought about renting a car as a way to determine whether I wanted to buy it. That's a good idea, provided you can find one to rent. Most rental fleets are full of Fords, Chevys and Dodges. Not too many have cars I would be interested in buying, but maybe the specific dealer would rent one to a prospective buyer.

[Ben E.]

I think a tux is one of those things that you had to rent, but sometimes have too. I think it's more applicable if you're a groomsman in a wedding which I have been twice in the past 30 days. That's $250 for looking sharp for two days. Ridiculous.

[Emily Coyne]

Um, we rent furniture.

And I think it's not always a bad idea. We rent our bed for $7/month from our apartment complex. Brand new mattress and boxspring. We'll be leaving here soon after 3 years. And we won't need a big moving truck because all of our furniture was given to us, and we won't have a bed to move.

Sure, it's $250 we won't have to spend on a bed. But seriously? I'm glad I won't have a bed to move, and once we're more settled (read: not at University) we can buy our own

[Jess]

I rent movies and video games. I don't have cable, but get 2 DVDs at a time from Netflix for 14 bucks a month. As long as I watch them pretty soon after their arrival (and they're so quick to hit your mailbox after you've returned the last one), it's really worth it. Plus, unlike cable, I'm guaranteed to be watching things I'm interested in seeing.

I pay $16 a month to rent video games from Gamefly. I really love to play video games but always hated a) buying games that end up being terrible, and b) how most games don't have great replay value, so once you're finished you're stuck with a game you don't play. Trading them in is never really worth the money. As with Netflix, so long as I don't let a game sit around for awhile, it's a much better deal than buying or renting from my local video store. Plus I get 10% off the games if I decide to keep them. I really like the service. You do have to be diligent: I don't like to keep games for more than a month, or else for the most part it would have made more sense to buy it outright.