SOLUTION: The Axel Car Rental Company rents compact cars at a daily basic rate of $29.99. If a customer is offered a 20% discount on the daily basic rate what will a customer's total basic r

Question 697740: The Axel Car Rental Company rents compact cars at a daily basic rate of $29.99. If a customer is offered a 20% discount on the daily basic rate what will a customer's total basic rate be for a three day rental of a compact car at Axel Car Rental Company?
29.99*.20=5.9980
5.9980*3=17.99
The answer is wrong, but I don't understand why.
Answer by Positive_EV(69) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The 20% is the discount applied -- in your work, you're multiplying the amount of the discount by three, and not the cost of the car per day. The cost of the car is the basic rate minus the discount.

The cost of the car per day is $29.99 - $5.998 = $23.992. For three days, this product is $23.992 * 3 = $71.98 or $71.97 depending on where you choose to round to the nearest cent.

In general, you should use 100% - the discount% when you are asked for the price of the item after the discount is applied, and use the discount itself if you are asked how much you save by applying the discount.
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