Looking for a way to avoid the crowd at your local video rental store? Tired of the one movie you want to see being rented out? You may want to consider one of the new DVD rental services available today. Online DVD rental has become a big business in the past few years. DVD's are more reliable, and much less expensive to produce and mail than VCR tapes. More and more consumers are skipping the theaters and waiting for the film they want to see to come out on DVD, so the rental business is booming. However, with today's even more busy families, time for browsing the video store is at a premium. The new online DVD rental services are the answer to long lines, out of stock films and late fees. There are many services, each offering great selections of movies. The rental service works like this: You sign up for a membership and pay a monthly fee. This fee entitles you to receive one to eight movies per month (depending on the plan you choose). Typically, monthly fee for two and three movies is incrementally higher than the fee for one movie, but you choose the plan that you think you will use. After signing up, you create a list of movies that you'd like to see. Most of the services have extensive lists and numerous copies, so you aren't likely to miss out on a movie due to unavailability. This is called your movie list or queue, and you can change it at any time. The first movie(s) on your list are sent to you via the postal service, complete with postage paid return envelopes. You only pay for the membership fee, you don't have to worry about postage. The movies arrive in your mailbox. No more frustrating trips to the video store. Once you've viewed the movies as many times as you wish, you simply put the movie in the return envelope and drop it into a mailbox. Upon receipt, the online DVD rental service will process the next movie on your list and get it in the mail to you right away. You can keep movies for as long as you want, since the next one will only be sent when one is returned. If you choose a movie you simply can't part with, you can go to the service's website and purchase the movie at a pre-viewed price (typically). If you're a serious movie buff, this plan could be quite cost effective. For the monthly membership fee of $39.95 (for example) you could receive eight movies to view. If the video plan takes about a week to turn your order around you could turn this stock over at least three or four times before the month is up. That's about 30 movies that you could view for $39.95. At $5 each for rental, that a savings of about $110. Of course, you'd have to keep churning those movies out, and your social life might suffer, but you'd certainly catch up on all of the movies you'd been meaning to see. As with anything, read the fine print. Try to avoid plans that charge late fees (yes, they're out there), and select a plan with a mailing center in your area of the country for quicker turnaround. Renting movies with an online DVD rental company can be fun, entertaining and cost-effective, not to mention convenient. If you enjoy using your DVD player, consider joining one of these services and catching up on your movie nights. |
