Although Ireland's 3 DVD rental by post companies have a slightly different subscription options, almost all use the same the same four-step process:

	1. Selection: First you pick the DVDs you want to rent, in order of preference, from an online library of thousands of films. New releases or obscure titles are often unavailable, so instead of getting your number 1 choice, you may get lower-ranked ones instead. This is why the DVD rental by post companies suggest having preference lists at least 15 titles long, so they can always supply something you want.
	2. Dispatch: The DVD rental company will mail your DVDs frst class. The discs usually arrive within one or two days in individual envelopes.
	3. Enjoy: Keep the films as long as you like--none of the companies listed on Ireland-DVD-Rental-Guide.com charge late fees.
	4. Return: When you're finished, simply reuse the envelope and post it back freepost. When the DVD rental company receives the disc, they post out another one straight to your door from your preference list, and so on.

 

DVD Rental by Post Packages: Irish DVD rental companies offer packages of one to four discs at home at a time, with three as the industry standard. These discs come individually packaged and you can send them back as you watch them, in theory allowing you to have new DVDs all the time as they recycle through the post. Assuming market leader Screenclick's €27.99 monthly charge for a three DVD service, if you watched three DVDs a week, you'd be paying €2.21 each for them. This is under half of what typical video store rental charge (not to mention late fees, which account for nearly a quarter of video store profits). So unless you only rent a few DVDs per month, you'll save a substantial amount of money by using an unlimited service. In addition to value, you also get a much better range; even the smallest Irish DVD rental company, Busy Bee DVD, stocks over 10,000 titles, perhaps four times as many films as an average video store, while Moviestar stocks 25,000.

Free Trials: The best thing is, all Irish DVD rental by post companies offer a free trial period of 2 weeks--so feel free to look around and sample a couple DVD rental companies before settling down on one you like.

 

Advice On Choosing the Right DVD Rental by Post Company

Film Range: The overall catalogue size really doesn't matter that much if all you're into is mainstream films--almost every service will cover these well. Catalog size is important if you're a fan of obscure genres.

Price: The costs for these DVD rental by post services are so similar (and you're already getting such a discount over the bricks-and-mortar stores) that we don't think price should be the critical factor. We'd rather pay an extra euro for a much better service, but it's entirely a matter of personal taste to balance these various factors.

Phone Support: Thankfully, all three Irish DVD rental by post companies offer phone support--unlike other countries where only about half have this feature--as it can be very frustrating trying to contact them by email if you have problems. Luckily, Irish renters won't have to deal with the horror stories we read on the internet of waiting for some UK, US, Canadian, and US companies which lack phone numbers to respond.

Game Rentals: You may also be interested in renting games under the same DVD rental by post program--with games so expensive to buy, this can be a very attractive combination if you are a gamer or have one in the family. See our Game Rental Guide for reviews on that, though it's a short list, as currently only Gamesenders offers game rentals, and even there a limited selection. Hopefully, this niche area will expand in future (in Canada there are 3 games-only rental companies, in the UK 13.) Of course, the great thing is you can keep the game until you finish it.

Frequently Asked Questions on DVD Rental by Post

Do I pay for sending DVD rentals back by post? No, all the DVD rental by post sites we review include freepost envelopes to return the DVDs.

How long do DVD rentals take to arrive via post? It really depends on the quality of postal service to your area--all three companies are based in the Dublin area. The Post Office claims 90% of all Irish post arrives within 24 hours, with nearly all the rest within 48 hours, often depending on where you live. Of course, when you return your DVD, you have to allow time for the disc to be received and a new one sent, which often adds another day to the cycle in addition to post transit time back.

Do I need to post back my DVD before getting my next DVD? Yes, only when the DVD rental company has acknowledged receipt of the disc will they send the next title out.

How long will it take to get my top choices? This is the main limitation with DVD rental by post and the primary source of complaints; as with any library-type system, if a very popular choice is all rented out, you'll have to wait until it becomes available.