PhillyCarShare adds monthly fees

PhillyCarShare cut its free membership option and is now requiring all members to pay a monthly $15 fee.

PhillyCarShare recently announced that it has added a monthly fee for its services.

According to an e-mail sent to customers, the company began to "streamline" their services into a monthly plan on May 1.

Members who pay the $15-dollar monthly fee will get "the lowest PhillyCarShare hourly rates" - from $3.55 to $8.55 an hour. The 5-cent reduction in hourly rate will continue through July.

Basic Freedom members' memberships were automatically converted to the new plan, called the Philadelphia Plan, on April 30. The $15 was automatically charged to their credit cards.

PhillyCarShare, a popular service among Penn students because of its convenience and affordable prices, may become less used as a result of the changes.

College junior Emily Belfer and her housemates have used the service for outings to the movies. Now that a monthly fee is mandatory, "we will probably not still use it," she said.

She added that since many of her friends have cars on campus, she would find other ways to reach her destinations.

Still, "as a freshman, I might still use it," Belfer said.

College freshmen Rachel Baker and Rachel Grosser, who travel via PhillyCarShare to their job as Hebrew school teachers, use the service for five hours each Sunday and three hours on Tuesdays.

Their employers told them "it was too expensive to fully cover it," Grosser said. "Now we cover part of it."

The service has, for the most part, been to Baker's satisfaction.

"Sometimes there'll be something wrong with the car - such as problems with the acceleration - but usually it's fine," she said.

Even though there is now a compulsory fee, "I would still use it on my own," Baker added. "It would not be a hindrance because it's not that expensive."

PhillyCarShare representatives did not return calls for comment.

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Comments (5)

For anyone driving 5 hours on the weekend and 3 hours during the week, like the college student described in the article, the plan change is going to save them money. They should never have been on the free plan anyway. Being auto-upgraded to the Philadelphia Plan means, yes, they have to pay a $15/month membership fee, but also that they will pay $2 less on all hourly rates compared to their old plan. 8 hours of driving a week, that's $16/wk or $64/month in savings. Worth the $15, I'd say. PCS should have been more clear about this rate reduction- maybe more members who are considering leaving would stay. It's those members who don't drive every month- those that have a membership for emergency back up- that may not find it cost- effective to stay on board with PCS.

Philly Car Share is a joke. I used to use it a lot. My friends and I loved it - until the car broke down in New Jersey at night, stranding us in a sketchy place for four hours... because it took PCS FOUR HOURS to get someone to drive 9 miles outside of Philadelphia... aside from the huge inconvenience, I WAS CHARGED A LATE FEE ($250!!!) FOR NOT BRINGING THE CAR BACK ON TIME (BECAUSE IT F***ING BROKE DOWN!!). In addition to that, I was charged ANOTHER HUGE FEE FOR THAT NIGHT ALONE, BECAUSE APPARENTLY I HAD SOMEHOW WENT THROUGH A WORMHOLE AND CANCELED MY RESERVATION AFTER MY CAR BROKE DOWN!! WTF?! I used PHILLY CAR SCAM once a week to travel to work, so every time I made a reservation, it was for the same time frame... problem was, PHILLY CAR SCAM'S employees had a difficult time discerning when my reservation should end... so they constantly were ending my reservations earlier than I had requested, which ended up causing me huge late fees... I got billed into the thousands of dollars, not kidding. My friend was also a 'valued customer'--- an asthmatic valued customer. They charged him $250 for smoking in one of their cars. I don't know what they were smoking when they made the determination that my friend (who has enough problems breathing as it is) smoked in one of their cars... but he no longer uses the service either. PHILLY CAR SCAM is such bullshit. The idea is really great, but, SEPTA is better. At least they're upfront about their fees and usually manage to get you to work on time and without major equipment malfunctions. Screw PCS.

[QUOTE id="4e08b3ed-97a1-4fb2-ad78-90c682d61f1a"]Philly Car Share is a joke. I used to use it a lot. My friends and I loved it - until the car broke down in New Jersey at night, stranding us in a sketchy place for four hours... because it took PCS FOUR HOURS to get someone to drive 9 miles outside of Philadelphia... aside from the huge inconvenience, I WAS CHARGED A LATE FEE ($250!!!) FOR NOT BRINGING THE CAR BACK ON TIME (BECAUSE IT F***ING BROKE DOWN!!). In addition to that, I was charged ANOTHER HUGE FEE FOR THAT NIGHT ALONE, BECAUSE APPARENTLY I HAD SOMEHOW WENT THROUGH A WORMHOLE AND CANCELED MY RESERVATION AFTER MY CAR BROKE DOWN!! WTF?! I used PHILLY CAR SCAM once a week to travel to work, so every time I made a reservation, it was for the same time frame... problem was, PHILLY CAR SCAM'S employees had a difficult time discerning when my reservation should end... so they constantly were ending my reservations earlier than I had requested, which ended up causing me huge late fees... I got billed into the thousands of dollars, not kidding. My friend was also a 'valued customer'--- an asthmatic valued customer. They charged him $250 for smoking in one of their cars. I don't know what they were smoking when they made the determination that my friend (who has enough problems breathing as it is) smoked in one of their cars... but he no longer uses the service either. PHILLY CAR SCAM is such bullshit. The idea is really great, but, SEPTA is better. At least they're upfront about their fees and usually manage to get you to work on time and without major equipment malfunctions. Screw PCS.[/QUOTE] I am the original poster of the above comment. To be fair, even though I really don't like PCS, I have had a few friends that have used it and have raved about it... so I guess I should just say that it's not entirely bad and it is convenient, but in my experience, some of their cars have not been maintained as well as they should be, and some of their customer service reps are not good. To each his own, I guess...

I agree the $2 hourly reduction should have been made clearer. I Did not know if I drove once for for 2 1/2 hours the monthly would only cost an additional $10. If I drove twice a month, the additional would only be $5. Three trips or more a month and it cost me less on the new Philadelphia Plan than on my old Basic Plan. Thank you "Do the math"

I don't believe your story at all...even if they did accidentally mischarge you, I'm sure you got reimbursed if you didn't do something else stupid. Plus nothing else in your comment makes sense...employees at PhillyCarShare wouldn't end your reservation early without asking you. Also none of the fees you're stating are even close to correct. Part of using PhillyCarShare is always making sure the vehicle is sound and clean when you enter it. If you don't report stuff at the beginning of the reservation, there's no reason for the next person to believe that you weren't the culprit. Sounds like you're probably leaving out part of the story. The only real problem with PhillyCarShare is idiots who don't take care of the cars, leave them dirty, smoke in them, and return them late. Obviously the cars get driven into the ground because the service is so popular...with the amount of money you save from not owing a car and not having to rely on SEPTA, a few quirks here and there are worth it. If you want to be in control, get a car? Do the math is right!

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