When’s the last time you stopped by a Blockbuster Video (or any other major rental chain)? Their prices are insane! You can expect to spend $3-$5 to rent a DVD that’s not even new - one you could most likely purchase yourself for less than $10. Doesn’t this sound a bit batty?

Luckily, it’s not at all necessary to pay to rent videos. There are several totally free rental options, and if you take full advantage of all of them, you shouldn’t ever have to pay to rent a movie again.

Rent at the Library… For Free

I’m not sure why most people don’t think of this. It didn’t occur to me either until I was already at the library one day and discovered there was a big room full of DVDs and the selection was awesome. In addition to the requisite action, comedy, drama, and horror flicks, they have a whole bunch of foreign films, music DVDs, and other specialty stuff that you can’t find at Blockbuster. My library rents videos for free. I think there are some that charge a small rental fee, but it’s never as much as one of the big rental chains would charge. The library might not occur to you as the first option for renting videos, but it has the huge advantage of being free (or darn close).

Rent By Mail… For Free

Many online rent-by-mail services offer free trials. Even Blockbuster is operating its own rent-by-mail service. I’ve used it before and I certainly prefer it to paying $4 a pop in the store. Anyway, there are enough of these services that you can go for quite some time without having to fork over any dough. When one trial runs out, cancel it and move on to the next one. Online rental services have two additional advantages: convenience and, in most cases, an absurdly huge selection.

Blockbuster Online - 2 week free trial.

DVD Avenue - Use promo code “tuner” to get a two week free trial. If it’s expired, try checking RetailMeNot for a new code.

eHit.com - 10 day free trial. Specializes in Asian films, but has a fairly large selection of other stuff.

HiT Movies - 15 day free trial. Note that adult video rentals are a big part of their business. The site is not extraordinarily offensive if you stay out of that section, but I thought I should warn you.

Netflix - 2 week free trial.

Tiger Cinema - 10 day free trial. Stocks Chinese, Japanese, and Korean films, with a small selection of other stuff.

Watch Online… For Free

Just recently, some services have popped up which will allow you to watch streaming movies online, which means there’s no need to check out a DVD. Some of these also offer free trials:

CinemaNow - 3 day free trial.

TotalVid - 7 day free trial. Deals only in “specialty” videos (anime, sports, instructional, etc.) and TV shows.

Vongo - 2 week free trial.

Rent From a Video Rental Kiosk… For Free

Red Box is the big name in video rental kiosks - that is, the automated rental thingies that are popping up at lots of grocery stores these days. Red Box offers free rentals every Monday if you know where to find the coupon codes. Credit goes to Hustler $$$ Blog credit for making me aware of this tip.

DVDPlay is another video rental kiosk company. They’re not as widespread as Red Box, but they offer one free rental to anybody with an email address (or - don’t tell them I told you - as many rentals to one person as that one person has email addresses). Click here, give them some marketing info, and you’re ready to go.

Oh yeah, note that I’ll receive a commission if you click on some of the above links and rent videos. I’ve made every attempt to not let this affect my unbiased reporting, but I just figured I’d let you know.

Enjoy the free movies!

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