I used to be a member of a regular DVD rental store. Once a week I would visit it, choose from the selection of DVDs available, and settle down for a relaxing evening of movie watching. The only problem was that I often had trouble getting to the video store to return my rental on time. More often than not I was paying overdue fees that meant my DVD evening was becoming a very expensive affair. Then I saw an advert about online DVD rentals and I have never paid a late fee since.

The way that online DVD rental companies work is very simple. You sign up for the service, and pay a monthly fee. This fee depends on how many DVDs you want to have out at any one time. I chose the maximum three from my service. Once you have your account set up then you need to prepare your list of DVDs. This is easy to do, and you can compile your list from all DVDs that have ever been released. I usually have a few old favourites, as well as a few new releases to keep a nice balance. I also change the order of my list around depending on the mood that I am in. The system then selects the first three DVDs from your list that are available, and mails them to you.

Once you have watched a DVD, you place it in the pre-paid envelope that it came with, and mail it back to the company. They then send you another from your list. It is as simple as that. There is no time limit as to how long you ca keep a particular DVD, so no late fees – ever! Many of the services have a mix and match type of facility where you can specify the genre of the films that you want to have. This helps ensure that you don't have all horror movies or all children's at one time. Also, my service has a first-to-last feature to enable me to watch a series of films in the order that they were made. I wouldn't want to watch The Ring 2, before The Ring, for example.