Online DVD Rental Tips

Here's the lowdown on online DVD rental companies, what to look out for and how to take advantage of free trials.

Although DVDs aren't the most expensive things in the world, keen film watchers would find it pretty costly to buy all the movies they wanted to see. That's why good old fashioned rental companies are so popular -- we can watch the films we fancy, then simply give them back.

In fact, DVDs have become extremely popular in my house in recent months as the arrival of a young baby has meant that trips to the cinema are few and far between. Unfortunately, although we like to rent DVDs, we hate having to take them back!

Luckily, there's an answer for people like me -- online DVD rental companies. However, what started out as a simple concept has now grown into a hugely complicated one. With so many companies to choose from, how do you make your decision?

Renting DVDs online

Renting DVDs online is a relatively easy process. You sign up, search through the films listed on the website and place the ones you'd like to see in a list. Films are then posted out, roughly in the right order; you watch them and then mail them back in their postage paid envelopes.

There's typically no limit to how long you can keep each film, and thus no late fees are incurred. What's more, most of the companies offering the service will let you try it out for free, so if you don't like it, simply cancel within the time specified and leave.

How many films will you watch?

Of course, whether you get value for money depends largely on how many films you can actually watch. The best value tariffs typically give users the ability to watch as many films as they like, within a month. If you're able to watch, say four films a week (16 films a month), renting from your video shop at £3.50 a film would cost you around £56 a month.

Signing up for MyMovieStream's unlimited 3 disc rental package at £14.99/month (and assuming films are posted back and forth with no time delay) could therefore save you a whopping £41/month. Most companies offer three different types of unlimited package, giving you the option to have one, two or three films at once.

Light user plans

However, for many of us, the reality is we simply wouldn't get the chance to watch so many films. For this reason, many of the rental companies now offer light user plans, giving you the chance to rent a set number of films over a time period. For example, if you think you'd watch two films a month, MyMovieStream and Amazon offer 2 disc packages for £4.99/month and four discs for £7.99/month.

DVD rental credits

And 99pDVD.com works slightly differently by allowing you to effectively pay upfront for rental credits -- a bit like a Pay As You Go mobile phone. By paying £9.95 you can rent 5 movies -- you just have to make sure you do so within two months. Other tariffs include 12 movies for £19.99 with a lifespan of 3 months, all the way up to £99.95 for 100 rental credits, with 5 DVDs allowed at any one time.

This type of scheme is particularly good for people that prefer not to be tied down into paying monthly for films they may, or may not watch.

So which should you pick?

As you can probably tell, there are a lot of options out there. What's more, prices are pretty comparable, with unlimited options typically costing £9.99/month for one disc at a time, £12.99 for two and £14.99 for three. A few sites even offer very keen film watchers a five disc option!

With this being the case, the number of discs held by the company is vital -- the more they have, the more likely you are to get the film you want, quickly. LoveFilm is the biggest supplier with over 62,000 discs (although it does include extras discs in this number, which some other firms don't) and is said to stock practically every DVD released in the UK.

Ease of navigation around the site is also important -- you want to be able to find what you're looking for, quickly.

Service is another crucial factor -- after all, there's little point paying for an unlimited package if DVD turnaround is two or more days. According to the DVD Rental Guide, MyMovieStream and Blockbuster each have consistently quick turnaround and excellent customer service.

MyMovieStream is also one of the companies that allows you to pause your account for one, two or three weeks -- handy if you're going on holiday.

Free Trials

With such a wealth of choice, it's not surprising to learn that most of the rental companies will give you some form of free period to try their service. You can typically either sign up for 14 days of free rentals, or be offered a set number of films to rent for free.

So my advice is to have a look around and try out a few services for free. You'll get a feel for how many films you can watch, which will help you narrow down which package to choose.

Be careful though, you can only have one free trial per "group". So if you sign up with LoveFilm, for example, you can't usually then go on to have another free trial with one of its partners, such as Tesco.

And unfortunately, a number of firms go by your address, rather than name, so partners/flatmates can't take out a free trial instead. The main players are LoveFilm, Blockbuster, MyMovieStream, Amazon, MovieMine and Cinema Paradiso.

Obviously, the best value for money packages are the unlimited ones, as you can watch as many films as you like within a month. If you can watch, on average, two or more films a week, you'll make some good savings on the rental shop. Games players can get exceptional value for money by also renting the latest releases, rather than buying -- saving £40+ a pop.

However, watching one film (or less) a week could mean you're effectively paying £2.50 per film -- and with rental shops typically charging around £3.50, the savings aren't as huge. However, online DVD sites do tend to have far more choice and not having to return films within 24/48 hours is a very attractive proposition!

If you're interested in renting DVDs by post, why not try out one of the free trials available? Check out the excellent DVD Rental Guide site and DVDGenie for in depth comparison between each of the companies. You can compare games rental companies at the Games Rental Guide site.

And if you decide you like the look of MyMovieStream, we have some good news for you - Fool readers can sign up to an exclusive deal and get 6 free rentals to try it out!

More: Save 50% On DVDs