Books and Smiles!

Back in ye olden days when I was at the University of Georgia...okay, waaaaay back in 2003...I bought my books from whatever off-campus bookstore my friends and/or roommates happened to be going to that day. I don't even remember a lot about the process except I would walk in with a list in hand and a student employee would lead me around placing books in my hands and then I'd be ushered up to the front checkout where I my parents would then pay $1 million for a semester's worth of books. I was buying gently used books, but they still cost a darn fortune. It. was. insane.

Imagine my surprise when I was contacted a few weeks ago by a company called CampusBookRentals. What? I always, always sold mine back at the end of the semester for approximately 35 cents each, but I never knew that you could RENT textbooks? Mind = blown.

In case you're a college student yourself or have a college student in your life, I thought I'd share a little about this company with you. To rent textbooks is anywhere from 40-90% cheaper than buying plus they have free shipping both ways. Highlighting in the books is perfectly acceptable! You can also choose your rental period - a quarter, a term, a semester, or you can choose your own timeline! If you decide to drop the class you can return your book within 30 days for a full refund. If you need to keep them a little extra longer, you have a free 15 day grace period or you can extend your rental period. It's a library for textbooks!

Another feature of CampusBookRentals is RentBack.com. This is a great program! If you've purchased your textbooks and are finished with them, you can either sell them back to a bookstore like I did, OR you can submit them to RentBack.com and they'll rent them out for you. You get paid each time your book is rented out and can make 2 to 4 times MORE than you'd make by reselling it to a bookstore or another student.

But here's my favorite part of this company. With each textbook rented, CampusBookRentals donates to Operation Smile, an international children's medical charity that heals children's smiles. This organization provides safe reconstructive surgery for children born with cleft lip and cleft palate. CampusBookRentals has committed to donate a minimum of 80 surgeries by June 2014. Every time a book is rented they're closer to meeting and exceeding that goal.

If you're in need of college textbooks, check them out!

This is a sponsored post. The company contacted me and I was compensated for a review. Opinions are my own.