Planning ahead for your Emerald Club free days
Lifetime transfer options and steps to take now for National Car Rental free days
Emerald Club Member Services
Emerald Club Member Services
(General customer service)
Because Emerald Club free days are forfeited at death under National Car Rental's terms, the only way to preserve their value is through action taken while the account is active.
Emerald Club allows members to transfer free days to other program members during their lifetime. Fees may apply, but this is a direct way to move free days to family members while you are alive.
How to protect your Emerald Club free days
6 steps for managing your Emerald Club free days during your lifetime:
Family sharing
Members may transfer up to 3 Free Days per year to an immediate family member who shares the same address. "Immediate family member" is defined by shared residential address rather than biological or legal relationship. Once transferred, Free Days cannot be returned to the original member's account and are valid for one year from the month of transfer. The membership itself is non-transferable, and the enrolled member must be present at the time of rental. National also allows a spouse, common-law spouse, same-sex domestic partner, or immediate family members (mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister) who share the same address on their driver's license to drive the rental vehicle at no additional cost without being listed as an additional driver. To request a Free Day transfer, contact Member Services.
Should you save your passwords for your family?
Some people store account passwords so a family member can sign in later. The practice has three practical limits:
- Two-factor authentication often blocks it. Most accounts require a second factor — a code sent to a phone, an authenticator app, a passkey, or a physical key. A saved password alone frequently does not grant access, and the recovery codes that would are easy to lose or let go stale.
- It usually conflicts with the platform's terms. Most operators prohibit account sharing and signing in as another person, including after a death. Stored credentials are not the operator's recognized access path, and using them can violate the terms of service.
- Operators provide other paths. Where an operator offers a designation tool — Apple's Legacy Contact, Google's Inactive Account Manager, a beneficiary designation — that mechanism grants access the operator recognizes. A password manager's own emergency-access or legacy feature passes credentials through a controlled process. Digital assets named in a will or trust give a fiduciary authority under each state's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).
Frequently asked questions
Yes, while alive. Members can transfer up to 3 Free Days per year to an immediate family member who shares the same address. Contact Member Services at 1-800-962-7070 to request a transfer.
No. The enrolled member must be present at the time of rental. Memberships cannot be shared. However, membership is free, so family members can enroll in their own Emerald Club accounts.
Transfer up to 3 Free Days per year to an immediate family member at the same address. Redeem remaining Free Days for rental car use. Since Free Days are classified as non-property, they cannot be preserved through estate planning.
National defines an immediate family member as any family member who shares the same residential address as the Emerald Club member. The policy uses shared address as the qualifying criterion rather than specifying particular family relationships.
Yes. Once a Free Day is transferred to an immediate family member, it cannot be returned to the original member's account and is valid for one year from the month of transfer. This is more restrictive than the standard expiration for Free Days that stay on the earning member's account.
Yes. National allows a spouse, common-law spouse, or same-sex domestic partner who shares the same address on their driver's license as the Emerald Club member to drive the rental at no additional cost, provided they meet normal renter requirements. Immediate family members (mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister) at the same address also qualify for this benefit.
An inventory listing the Emerald Club account lets a fiduciary identify it and act on it through the operator's official channels.
There is no beneficiary designation option for Emerald Club. This account type does not support naming a recipient the way bank or investment accounts do.
Sources
Data sourced from National Car Rental primary sources (6 pages reviewed). How we research.
Emerald Club Member Services
Emerald Club Member Services
(General customer service)
