How to rent a car for Uber & Lyft: See the best options!

Need a car to drive for Uber or Lyft? Uber and Lyft offer rental car programs that provide cars for drivers starting at $250 per week—with auto insurance and routine maintenance included.

Renting a car is a great way to start with Uber and Lyft without making a big financial commitment. But is buying a car the better financial decision?

Read on to learn how to rent a car for Uber & Lyft, and see if buying or renting is the better move!

Article Contents

• Uber rental cars: The Vehicle Marketplace
• Lyft rental cars: Express Drive
• Third-party rideshare rental options
• Should you buy a car for rideshare?

Overview of the Uber and Lyft vehicle rental programs

Both Uber and Lyft partner with rental car companies to provide rental cars for drivers.

Uber offers rentals through their Vehicle Marketplace, and Lyft offers rentals through the Express Drive program.

Here’s how rentals work: You pay a weekly fee to rent a car. You can rent a sedan, SUV, or an electric vehicle. Insurance and basic maintenance are included in the weekly rental cost.

After you make a rental reservation in the Uber or Lyft app, visit a local rental car lot to pick up your vehicle. Some rentals require a refundable deposit, typically around $200–$300.

Rental associates will help you add the rental to your Uber or Lyft profile so you can immediately start accepting rides.

One limitation to remember is that you can’t use your Uber rental to drive with Lyft or your Lyft rental to drive for Uber.

Upsides to renting

• You can drive for Uber and Lyft without using your own vehicle
• Insurance is included — You don’t have to worry about adding rideshare to your personal policy
• You can rent with no credit or bad credit
• You don’t have to worry about vehicle depreciation or maintenance costs

Downsides to renting:

• High weekly cost — Plan to drive full-time to earn a profit
• Not available in all cities
• Rentals are in high demand. It can be hard to get a car when you need it
• There are hassles picking up, dropping off, and renewing your rental

Rent a car for Uber: The Uber Vehicle Marketplace

Uber partners with several vehicle rental companies to provide rental options for drivers. 

You can view rental options in the Uber driver app or visit the online Uber vehicle marketplace.

Uber currently partners with the services below to provide rental vehicles for Uber drivers.

Hertz rentals

• $200 refundable deposit
• Around $260 – $350 per week
• Keep the same car for up to 180 days without visiting a branch
• EVs are available
• Unlimited miles
• Insurance is included, $1000 deductible
• Must be 21 or older

Avis rentals

• $200 refundable deposit
• Around $250 – $350 per week
• Keep the same car for up to 56 days
• Unlimited miles
• Insurance is included, $1000 deductible
• Must be 25 or older

KINTO Carshare rentals

• No deposit
• Around $275 per week
• Unlimited miles
• Must be 21 or older

Getaround rentals

• Rent cars by the hour
• Unlimited miles
• Our full Getaround review

Hive EV rentals

• Specializes in electric cars
• $169 per week + $0.20 per mile
• Unlimited charging is included
• Insurance is NOT included
• Available in Los Angeles

Related: See every electric vehicle option on Uber and Lyft

Sally rentals

• Deposit required
• Starting at $275 per week
• Must be 21 or older
• Available in Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, NYC, San Francisco, Seattle

Can you rent without a deposit?

Hertz, Avis, and other 3rd party options require a deposit. The only rental agency that doesn’t require a deposit is Kinto, but it is only available in Southern California and Texas.

How to see your Uber rental options in the Vehicle Marketplace

Uber rental options aren’t the same in every city. To see what is available in your area, open the Uber Driver app and tap Menu > Account > Vehicles > View Rental Options.

Tap View Rental Options to see a list of all rental options in your area.

Credit check for rentals: Can you rent with a bad credit score?

Uber doesn’t run a credit check for renters, but rental car agencies may run a credit check depending on the payment method you use to pay for the rental.

There is no credit check if you use a credit card to pay for your rental. However, if you pay with a debit card, Hertz and Avis may run a soft credit check that will not affect your credit score.

Hertz and Avis don’t say what the minimum credit score requirements are. If you have a low credit score, make sure to bring a credit card to your reservation as a backup payment method.

Paying for a rental: How much money to keep on your card

Make sure you have enough funds to cover the rental deposit, the weekly fee, optional insurance, and taxes. That’s especially important if you use a debit card to pay. You don’t want to overdraft your account when Hertz places holds and completes the various charges.

When you begin a rental Hertz places a hold for the weekly rate and the deposit. After that, the weekly rate will be charged at the end of each week.

However, the exact policy for holds and charges may vary depending on your area. Read closely and ask lots of questions!

Most rental agencies do not accept pre-paid cards. You will need a credit or debit card to make a reservation.

For debit card users on Avis, your first week’s payment is held as an authorization hold.

Warning for Hertz: Your card may be charged all at once when you return the car

Hertz has different policies for processing rental fees. In some areas, Hertz charges the weekly rental rate each week. But in other areas, Hertz charges you for your rental when you return the vehicle or at the end of your four-week contract.

That means that you may be charged over $1,000 at one time if you rented the car for a full month! And don’t forget that your deposit isn’t returned until your rental period is over.

Make sure you have enough funds to cover the full rental period AND the refundable deposit. Keep a close eye on your rental charges and earnings and don’t spend or transfer your rental funds!

Can you use an Uber rental for personal use?

You can use an Uber rental for personal use, but each rental option may have different mileage limitations.

For example, many Hertz rentals offer unlimited miles but some Avis rentals may limit you to 700 miles per week before adding additional charges.

Can you lease a car through Uber, rent to own, or buy?

Uber does not currently provide an option to lease a car, rent to own, or buy. The vehicle marketplace has a ‘car sales’ section, but it only links you to TrueCar, an outside car sales company.

Uber used to have a leasing program—Uber Xchange—but it is no longer available.

You can use a leased car to drive for Uber, but you may exceed mileage limitations or restrictions on commercial use.

Many typical leases limit you to 1,000 miles per month, which you can quickly exceed driving for Uber.

You can be banned from Uber rentals

You can be blocked from reserving a new rental if you had issues with past rentals. The most common reason is failure to pay a balance owed to the rental agency

When you are on the ‘do not rent’ list, you will see an error message when you attempt to create a reservation.

If you are blocked from rentals, you can try contacting Uber to see if there is anything you can do to rent again. If you owe a balance to a rental company, paying the balance can remove the block.

How to rent a car for Lyft: Lyft Express Drive

Lyft offers a vehicle rental program for drivers called Express Drive. With Express Drive, your weekly rental fee covers rideshare miles, insurance, and vehicle maintenance.

Lyft Express Drive rentals cost around $250–$300/week. Taxes, fees, and optional additional insurance can increase the cost to $350–$400 per week

Lyft currently partners with Hertz and Flexdrive for the Express Drive program. You can only use a Hertz rental to drive for Lyft, but you can use a Flexdrive rental for other companies.

You must be 25 years or older to qualify for Lyft Express Drive rentals.

• See our full review of Lyft Express Drive rentals

Can you use an Uber rental for Lyft or a Lyft rental for Uber?

You can only use a rental from Uber to drive for Uber and a Lyft rental to drive with Lyft. The rental agreements for both Uber and Lyft strictly prohibit using the vehicle to drive for another platform.

One exception is Lyft rentals through Flexdrive: Flexdrive allows you to use the rental for other platforms. Unless you rent with Flexdrive, don’t try to use your rental for another app.

HyreCar—a third-party rental platform—allows you to use rentals on any platform.

Should you pay for the loss damage waiver/collision damage waiver?

The standard insurance included with Uber & Lyft rentals has a $1000 deductible. That means you have to pay up to $1000 if you cause damage to the vehicle, including damage to the tires and glass.

Most rental agencies offer an additional insurance option that can waive damage fees. If you pay for the extra insurance, you won’t have to pay for any damages even if you’re at fault.

The additional coverage goes by several different names, depending in the rental agency. It might be called Loss Damage Waiver (LDW), Collision Damage Waiver (CDW), Limited Liability Damage Waiver (LLDW), or Optional Supplemental Insurance.

For Uber and Lyft rentals, LDW/CDW optional insurance costs $5–$10 per day. The exact cost depends on your location and the vehicle you rent.

Is LDW/CDW worth it? That depends on how long you plan to rent and your financial situation.

Doing the math, you will pay $1000 in supplemental insurance if you rent for 20 weeks or more. If you rent for a full year, you’ll pay $2600.

Loss damage waivers are a good idea if you’re planning to rent for only a few months, or if you know that a sudden $1000 expense would stretch your finances too far.

But if you plan to rent for longer than 20 weeks, it is more profitable to decline the supplemental insurance and put money aside to save for the $1000 deductible.

Other rideshare rental options

Many drivers choose to rent vehicles directly through Uber and Lyft, but several third-party companies also offer rentals that you can use for rideshare.

A qualified third-party rental agency will give you the vehicle documents you need to add the rental vehicle to your Uber or Lyft driver profile.

HyreCar, a peer-to-peer rideshare rental platform

HyreCar is a vehicle marketplace that allows you to rent vehicles from private owners for use on any rideshare or delivery platform.

You can rent a car on HyreCar for as short as two days. Map and filtering tools make it easy to find a vehicle that fits your budget. Insurance is included with every rental.

KINTO Share

KINTO Share is a service by Toyota that offers rentals for rideshare, delivery, and personal use. Rentals are available by the hour or by the week.

Rentals start at $275 per week. Unlimited miles and insurance are included. Payments are charged upfront when you begin your rental reservation.

KINTO Share is currently available in Southern California and Texas.

Getaround: Hourly & weekly rentals (Uber Only)

Getaround is another peer-to-peer rental service that rents cars for Uber drivers. You can rent the vehicle by the hour or by the week.

Getaround uses technology that allows renters to get inside the car with a smartphone, so you never have to meet with the vehicle owner to get the car keys.

Getaround for Uber is currently available for drivers in Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Portland, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle, Baltimore, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Miami and the state of New Jersey.

• What it’s like to rent a car with Getaround

RideShareRental & EVmo: Evs and Hybrids

RideShareRental, also called EVmo, offers EV and Hybrid rentals that include unlimited miles, insurance, and no credit check.

EVs currently rent for around $300 per week on EVmo at RideShareRental.

RideShareRental is currently available in Los Angeles, Oakland CA, Las Vegas, Chicago, Cranford NJ, Vista CA, San Diego CA, and Westfield NJ.

What are the differences between the rideshare rental options?

The table below shows the features of each major rideshare rental service to make it easier for you to see which one might work for you.

	Uber	Lyft	Hyrecar
Price	~$250 per week and up	~$250 per week and up	~$30/day and up, $250/week and up
Deposit	~$200 refundable for Hertz, no deposit for Avis	~$250 refundable	$200 refundable
Rental Period	Weekly	Weekly	Daily, weekly, or monthly
Insurance	$1000 deductible	$1000 deductible	$2500 deductible
Use for other services?	No	No for Hertz, yes for Flexdrive	Yes

Rent a car for Uber Black on Craigslist

Some fleet owners rent out vehicles to use on high-end services like Uber Black. It’s a common way to drive for high-paying services without purchasing an expensive luxury vehicle and commercial registration.

How to rent a car for Uber on Craigslist

• Search your local Craigslist for “Uber rental,” “Uber Black” or similar keywords
• Contact the owner and review any offered leasing arrangement
• The vehicle owner will then add you to both the vehicle’s insurance policy and their Uber Partner account
• If you aren’t an active Uber driver, you will have to undergo background screening

Part-time drivers: The math for rentals doesn’t add up

For part-time drivers, it’s usually the most profitable choice to use a car you already own. You have to drive 12+ hours just to pay for a rental, and many part-timers only want to drive that many hours in a week.

Even accounting for vehicle depreciation, your earnings will likely exceed your costs if you don’t put too many miles on your car and choose your rides wisely.

But rideshare rentals may be the best option for full-time drivers putting 1000+ miles on their car each week.

When you drive that many miles, vehicle depreciation and maintenance become major expenses that might not make sense for your everyday vehicle.

• Uber estimates that renters only make $12/hour?

Should you buy a car for Uber & Lyft?

Buying a car exclusively to drive for Uber or Lyft is a big investment that may not pay off if your market isn’t busy with ride requests.

According to our research about how much Uber drivers make, you should expect to make around $15–$25/hour after expenses.

Many drivers can make money with an affordable used car ($15,000 or less), but other drivers who splurge on a more expensive model find that it can become a breakeven or a loss.

Always closely check Uber vehicle requirements before you purchase a car, and email Uber to make sure your car qualifies, especially if you’re aiming to use your vehicle for UberXL or Lyft XL.

Upside: You’ll own the vehicle, so you can use it as you wish, sell it whenever you want
Downside: You might get stuck with a car payment you can’t afford if the vehicle is too expensive or if rideshare isn’t lucrative in your area

Don’t buy a car until you’re approved to drive!

Some people buy a car before they get approved to drive by Uber or Lyft.

In many cases, these people were confident they could pass the driving record check and background check, so they went ahead and got the car before Uber approved their application.

Then something happened in the application process—delays or a rejection—and now they’re stuck with a car payment they can’t afford. Don’t put yourself in that position.

Get approved to drive before you get the car! You can get approved in only a week or two.

Uber and Lyft applications allow you to sign up without a car, so you won’t need to enter vehicle information to complete the application. You can figure out how to get the car after you’re approved.