I don't have alot of money to spend on a rental car. I have found decent rates from Ez, Fox, Advantage, and Payless rental companies. Has anyone used any of these at the Denver airport? I am very apprehensive after reading reviews. Which is the lesser evil? I will be using a debit card, too.

I haven't rented a car in Denver in years -- but in general you usually get much lower rates if you don't rent at the airport. If you head into town you can probably rent from one of the more reliable, big name agencies for less.

well that was a whole paragraph of non advice

I have no real advice to give you

Ina, Well, that paragraph offered more advice than you did. Nothing more irritating on this forum that those who post offering no advice but criticizing those who do.

Mana, I live in Denver so have no experience with airport rentals. My suggestion would be to google the agencies you mentioned to see if you can find any reviews. There are more posters here who will hopefully give you further information.

>>well that was a whole paragraph of non advice)

I think the debit card may be a bigger issue.

Do you by any chance belong to Costco or AAA. They have rentals that are often less money.

Did you use kayak.com to look for prices and compare them?

Priceline is another option to consider--I used them for a Denver airport rental several years ago and have always gotten my best rental car deal using Priceline. Know that if you go that route, and use the "name your own price" option, if your bid is accepted, your debit card will be charged immediately and there are no refunds. Priceline only uses the major rental agencies such as Avis, Hertz, National, Budget, etc.

I have researched it every way possible. I have checked priceline, etc. The cheapest rates are with these second rate companies. I am just looking for personal experiences with them.

I wouldn't really call them second rate--you just don't know them. I have certainly heard of them often and may have rented from Advantage. I used to think the same thing about Enterprise.
You might try a quote from Hotwire--I got the cheapest there (at DIA) one time. AND they will give you the full price including the DIA surcharges (which, if you haven't gotten that, you need to know), so you get the total rental charges.
People recommend renting offsite, but then you have to actually get to that place.
And I may get laughed at for this, but Denver airport OKs these to be there and that is a certain amount of approval.

I think the debit card is a bigger issue than the rental company - I'd highly recommend checking first. I haven't used them before, but we are renting from EZ next winter. I learned my lesson in Palm Springs this year - we rented from Advantage, which I was very skittish about, and it was better than any of the biggies - efficient, new, very clean cars, etc. No personal experience recently in DEnver though.

I always check Thrifty, Dollar, and Hertz using my AAA discount code or a discount code I get on retailmenot.com. These are all reliable companies (all owned by Hertz) and one of them usually has a good deal.

HTtY

Great if you have those perks.
For those of us who don't, shop as best you can.

I don't think off airport locations are going to work since the OPs flight gets in late.

As long as you are careful about what you sign or don't sign, make sure the rates you were quoted are the same as what's on the paperwork, and don't give in to anyone trying to upsell you on insurance or gas, etc, you will be fine. The bad experiences I've read about mostly seem to center around an unexpected cost due to unclear paperwork or the customer signing off without reading what they are signing.

Also, rates can change dramatically, even from day to day; keep checking various sites (clear cookies), including carrentals.com and hotwire and priceline.
As stated above, don't be upsold (your own car insurance should be sufficient coverage for theft/damage, and most cc also provide coverage). Have your paperwork (proof of insurance, license, etc.,) and card with you.
I've watched inexperienced people end up paying 2-3 times as much as they were initially quoted when they got to the counter.