How to Rent a Car With Crypto
Since it first appeared in 2009, cryptocurrency has become increasingly widespread. Today, almost 200 million people worldwide own crypto, with over 15,000 businesses accepting Bitcoin payments, including large car manufacturers such as BMW, Porsche, and Tesla.
Moreover, crypto’s underlying blockchain technology is already an important part of the travel industry. Therefore, it’s no wonder some businesses providing car rental services also accept crypto payments. For your travels, you may rent cars with Bitcoin or other cryptos (so-called altcoins).
In this post, we’ll see just how to do that.
Pros and cons of renting a car with crypto
Before we go into the actual process of renting a car with crypto, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of doing so. After all, some of these factors might tip the scales in favor of another payment method.
Advantages
Increased security. Crypto payments are anonymous, meaning that no one can get any of your financial details or personal information due to the nature of blockchain technology.
Fewer fees. When using a traditional method of payment, your preferred financial service provider will take their cut off the transaction. However, as crypto completely bypasses banks, you will need to pay less money for fees.
More convenient payments. If you have internet access, you can make crypto transactions. There’s no need to worry about interruptions, for instance, during cross-border payments.
Disadvantages
Lack of regulations. Crypto is still largely unregulated by legislation, so if there’s a problem and you want your money back, you’re not protected by law.
Non-reversible payments. Once the transaction is completed, the payment is locked into the blockchain, so the car rental service must make a separate crypto transaction. This is another reason why getting your money back is trickier with crypto in case of issues.
Crypto volatility. Prices are constantly changing in the crypto market. While this is unlikely to happen, the value of your crypto may drop while you’re making the payment, effectively causing you not to send or have enough money for the transaction.
Renting a car with crypto
If you’ve decided to rent a car with cryptocurrency, the following section of this post will guide you through the process.
Obtaining a crypto wallet
Before making any crypto payment, you will need a crypto wallet. There are two ways to differentiate such wallets.
You can either get a custodial (also called hosted) or a noncustodial wallet. The first one is based on ownership. Custodial wallets are usually a better choice for newcomers in the crypto world, as they don’t require any setup - that’s left to the third-party custodian of your wallet. On the opposite side, noncustodial wallets are a better fit for those who’d rather not share their wallet access with anyone.
The second way to differentiate crypto wallets is by whether they are connected to the internet. We suggest using a hot storage wallet, as it will make paying for car rentals easier and more convenient. A hot storage wallet will keep your crypto online, while a cold storage one will keep it offline.
Buying crypto
With a newly-obtained crypto wallet in your possession, the next step is to buy a cryptocurrency for car rentals. Before that, however, check which cryptos the service accepts.
There’s a good chance that Bitcoin will be supported, but they also might accept Ethereum, Ripple, or stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT. The rules are somewhat different for stablecoins, so here’s an informative “how to buy USDT with credit card” tutorial.
Next, you should head to the crypto exchange of your choice to exchange the fiat currency for crypto. Popular exchanges include Coinbase, Binance, and Crypto.com (for more, check out the reviews section on tradecrypto.com).
Creating an account on one of the exchanges and making a purchase is a straightforward process that you likely won’t have any trouble with. After the purchase, transfer the currency into your crypto wallet. And voila, you’re now ready to make crypto payments.
Making crypto payments
You will now need to find car companies that accept Bitcoin or altcoins. This could be difficult, depending on your location. However, companies like Avis and Hertz do have a Bitcoin payment system through a service called Qeeq.
Once found, you shouldn’t have issues using the crypto payment method, such as the one offered by Avis, Hertz, Alamo, Thrifty, and others.
After choosing a car rental service and the right vehicle, it’s time to make the payment. There are several popular methods of doing so:
You will receive a payment URL. Simply copy & paste it into your crypto wallet’s ‘Send’ field.
You will be provided with a QR code. After scanning it, your mobile wallet app will automatically detect the right recipient wallet address and transfer the amount. Another common approach is using a generated dynamic QR code. This method often provides an added layer of security and expediency for the transaction.
Tap the ‘Open’ button in your wallet to open the upcoming payment. From this interface, choose one of the two methods above.
Note that you will have about 15 minutes to complete the transaction. If you don’t, you will have to restart the payment process.
Transaction fees
While the fees involved are less costly than those associated with the traditional payment method, they do exist. You will need to pay a small network fee, which differs depending on the crypto you use.
For example, the current average transaction fee on the Bitcoin blockchain is $0.6, and the fee for Ethereum transactions will cost you $0.5. While the differences between network fees are slight, you may consider this when deciding which crypto to use for car rentals.
Wrapping up
And with this, we conclude our guide. The trickiest part of renting a car with crypto is finding a service that accepts such payments. However, as more and more of them do so, we can expect this payment method to become popular enough in the near future for anyone to rent a car and enjoy their road trip.
Author bio
Maksym Prykhodko | Crypto Expert
Maksym has denied the existence of crypto as an asset for 3 years when he was working with standard financial instruments. Became Head of Treasury. Won the best bank employee award and left the bank for cryptocurrency exchange the next day. Got a second university degree, but that didn’t stop him from studying finance yet. Combines fiat and crypto experience to be as objective as possible in general matters. His dream is to be interviewed by Bloomberg.