You probably already know that if you want to use your car to make money, you could sign up to drive for Uber or Lyft. But what if you don’t want to be a glorified taxi driver? There are still plenty of options.
In fact, you can use your car to make money without having to drive a single extra mile. That’s because a host of online platforms will pay you to rent out your spare car to tourists, wrap your car with advertising or loan it to photographers and movie makers.
Here are some of the better ways to use your car to make money without adding to your daily commute.
Plaster the car with advertising
Let’s say you use your car to drive to work each day. But you’d still like your vehicle to do more than just depreciate.
If you are willing to wrap your car with advertising, you could make $100 to $500 per month for simply driving as usual.
The details:
Wrapify pays by miles driven and how much of your car is covered in advertising, estimating that the average driver will earn between $50 and $450 per month.
Carvertise will also pay you to drive around with advertising on your car. However, the payments are set from the outset. You’ll usually earn $100 per month, and the site expects you to drive at least 30 miles a day to qualify for a campaign. Payments are occasionally more. However, the site sometimes offers $30 an hour if you’re willing to park your wrapped car in a high-traffic location.
Beware fakes
All of the car advertising companies operate in the same way. They have you sign up, provide the make and model of your car, as well as where you typically drive. If they have an advertiser that wants what you offer, they’ll advise you of who it is, what’s required and how much it is likely to pay. If you agree to the job, they’ll make an appointment to have your car wrapped. They will pay the wrapping firm directly.
They will NEVER send you a check in advance. If someone offers to send a check in advance for your fees, plus getting the car wrapped, report them to your local city attorney. This is a fake check scam that could cost you thousands of dollars if you fall for it. These scams have become so pervasive that Carvertise warns about these too-good-to-be-true offers on the first page of its FAQs.
Your car oughta be in pictures
If you have a classic or unique vehicle, you may be able to make good coin renting it out to movie makers and photographers. A site called Giggster allows people to rent houses and cars by the hour to filmmakers, studios, advertising agencies and others who need to capture a particular look.
A classic 1954 Buick Skylark, for example, is listed on the site for rent at $120 per hour. A 1976 police car rents for $166 per hour, while a red Tesla Model 3 is listed for rent at $33 per hour. A 1950 Chevy Pickup rents for $166 per hour. Naturally, you won’t get a rental every day, but when you do get one, it pays handsomely.
Rent a spare car to travelers
There are a host of online platforms that will help you rent out a spare car to tourists, too.
Turo, for example, advertises your car for rent to travelers. One Colorado resident says his strategy is to price his rentals a few dollars cheaper than big-name companies like Avis and Enterprise. That keeps his four used rental vehicles — three of which he purchased solely to rent out — rented nearly full time.
There are three other firms that also propose to rent your car by the day, but SideHusl.com doesn’t recommend any of them. Why?
GetAround and Fetch also rent cars to travelers, but they require an up-front investment in a keyless operating system for your car. This system has proven problematic for some car owners. And where the cost of the keyless system is a sure thing, getting a rental after you’ve installed it is not.
HyreCar, meanwhile, proposes to rent your car to Uber and Lyft drivers. Although demand for this type of rental is high, the horror stories are legion. Although the site says it has insurance that covers your car, the coverage is full of holes and exclusions. Many car owners say they’ve lost thousands in vehicle equity because HyreCar’s insurance refused to pay claims. We’d suggest you steer clear unless you have purchased your own comprehensive commercial lines coverage on your car.
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