Overcharged for Storage? U-Haul 1-Year Price Lock Delivers Certainty

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--U-Haul^® announced today it is changing the self-storage industry with a 1-Year Price Lock Guarantee.

“I’m fed up with the major players in our industry thinking the profitable strategy is to offer low, misleading introductory rates and then jack up the prices on their storage unit multiple times a year,” U-Haul CEO Joe Shoen said.

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The offer provides cost certainty to storage customers while Public Storage^®, Extra Space Storage^®, CubeSmart^® and other national competitors advertise deceptive introductory rates — only to be followed by frequent price hikes and hidden fees.

The U-Haul 1-Year Price Lock automatically locks in a customer’s monthly rate on a new self-storage unit with the assurance of at least one year with no rate increases. U-Haul doesn’t charge admin fees or deposits.

Fixed-rate storage offers peace of mind from sudden rent increases and junk fees that competitors use to hurt budget-conscious families in a tight economy.

“I’m fed up with the major players in our industry thinking the profitable strategy is to offer low, misleading introductory rates and then jack up the prices on their storage unit multiple times a year — sometimes before customers move in,” U-Haul CEO Joe Shoen stated.

“Other industry giants are using these bait-and-switch tactics while people are already dealing with high inflation. It angers customers and dissolves trust in the entire industry. After 80 years in business, we know there is a better way to treat people.”

Shoen’s critique of the deceptive practices that certain storage competitors use was endorsed on Feb. 10 when the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection filed a lawsuit against Extra Space for exploiting customers through predatory pricing and failing to provide advertised services.

In 2025, the Self-Storage Almanac referenced “the strategy of low move-in street rates with aggressive in-place rent increases” as a reason why national competitors “saw drops in occupancy after long-term tenants moved out due to increased rent” (page 75).

U-Haul is going the other direction with its price lock, knowing that customers want cost transparency and a fair monthly fee with no surprises.

The 1-Year Price Lock comes with U-Haul benefits like:

• Insurance is optional — never mandatory.
• Receive a free discus lock for your storage unit when renting on the U-Haul app or uhaul.com.
• Your first month of storage is free with a qualifying one-way equipment rental, in which case a price lock would be applied to the next 11 months.

The U-Haul 1-year Price Lock applies to new customers renting a self-storage unit and existing customers renting additional units. For customers who need multiple units, the offer applies to each new self-storage rental.

The 1-Year Price Lock is now available at more than 2,100 U-Haul-owned and -operated facilities across the U.S. and Canada.

“I encourage storage providers to follow our lead and offer a monthly price lock for a full year,” Shoen said. “It will protect consumers and make our industry better.”

U-Haul has offered consistent, posted rates at Company stores for more than 20 years. Find a self-storage location near you on the U-Haul app or at uhaul.com/storage, or call or stop by any U-Haul storage facility.

About U-HAUL

U-Haul, which offers rate transparency to self-storage customers through its 1-Year Price Lock, is the third largest storage operator in North America. U-Haul has 1,126,800 rentable storage units and 98 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities. Get the U-Haul app from the App Store or Google Play.