Thursday, January 27, 2011

How to Save Money on Textbooks

It has been a few years since I was in College. I remember textbook prices were outrageous. Well things have changed since then, and they are even more outrageous now. In fact, textbook prices have continued to sky rocket over the past few years.

With College students being more strapped for cash everyone is trying to find ways to save on textbooks. Some enterprising students only buy the most essential textbooks and try to get the rest of their information online or split the cost and share the book with another student.

These methods both have their downsides. It is hard to actually get your work done without your very own copy of the text available when you have time to study. Fortunately, the schools and textbook vendors have taken notice. And there are some new cost saving programs available.

The advent of eBook readers and digital textbooks was going to be the panacea of College savings. There have been a lot of strides in the eTextbook market. There are online companies like eCampus and Cengage which offer many titles at 50% off the regular price.

With Cengage you can even purchase only the chapters you need saving money and time. These digital versions of college texts were also touted as more green, easier on the pocket book, and less stuff to carry around while traipsing across a large campus.

You can save money with these digital versions and they do have a lot of potential. But, there have also been issues with ereaders still needing some work, and different formats and standards.

The latest cost saving method is renting textbooks. And this method is actually a great solution. You still save money, but you actually physically have the book to mark up and use as you see fit. Plus the prices are very competitive in fact you will save about 55% renting instead of buying.

Renting is also convenient. You can order your texts online and have them delivered to your door. Then at the end of the semester just pack it up in the same packaging it arrived in and send it back with the preprinted label.

The traditional way of cutting down on textbook costs was to purchase a used book and then sell it back at the end of the semester. This is still a viable option, but you may be able to save more with these new methods of eTextbooks and textbook rentals.




Liz loves education and saving money find out more about eTextbooks and how to rent textbooks on her favorite site.

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