Payless Car Rental
Bottom line
- Total investment $626K – $1.6M including a $50K franchise fee, 7.5% ongoing royalty.
- No Item 19 financial performance data disclosed — the franchisor chose not to publish revenue figures.
- Rated AVOID with a risk score of 80/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 4 loans (below the industry average).
- 17 litigation matters disclosed in Item 3 — higher than typical. Review the summary for patterns (franchisor-initiated vs. franchisee-initiated).
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one Payless Car Rental unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
11%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Overview
About
Franchisees operate car rental locations managing vehicle fleet acquisition, maintenance, and customer reservations. Day-to-day operations include counter sales, damage assessments, fuel management, toll processing, and customer service while paying 7.5% royalties on gross revenue to the struggling franchisor.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
This franchisor did not disclose financial performance representations in Item 19, or our extractor could not parse them.
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 16 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Payless Car Rental presents extreme risk due to going concern status, active fraud litigation, undisclosed unit economics, and a shrinking franchise system with no territorial protection.
Score breakdown · what drove the 80 / 100 rating
- 01HIGHGoing concern status is FALSE — indicates financial instability at corporate level
- 02HIGHPending consumer fraud litigation involving counter sales, administrative fees, and pricing misrepresentation — suggests systemic operational issues
- 03HIGHHistory of concluded litigation on deceptive practices (fuel charges, tolls) and misclassification — pattern of legal exposure
- 04MEDNo disclosed average revenue or net income — inability or unwillingness to demonstrate unit economics
- 05MINORTerritory not protected — direct competition from other franchisees and corporate-owned locations possible
- 06MINORHigh investment range ($625.5K-$1.6M) with 7.5% royalty on unknown revenue base — ROI cannot be calculated
- 07MINOROnly 109 units with unknown growth trajectory — suggests stagnant or declining system
- 08MINORFranchise fee ($50K) relatively low compared to investment, suggesting franchisor dependent on royalties from struggling units
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
25 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Payless Car Rental · FDD (2025) PDF