The video rental market has changed. Traditional video stores like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video are now going out of business. The video rental market has evolved from storefronts to video by mail outlets, like Netflix to an even more efficient phenomenon: Video Rental Kiosks.
These video rental kiosks are essentially vending machines which allow you to use your credit card to rent movies for only $1.00 a night. This business model is by far the most efficient, it can run 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week and can run by itself without any staff onsite. However, there is also a trick to beat this system and actually keep your DVD for only $1.00 without ever having to return it or be charged any additional money.
Getting the Movie for only $1.00
The way these video rental kiosks work is that you select which movie(s) you want to rent. You swipe your credit or debit card in the machine and your movie is given to you and you are billed $1.00 plus tax for one night’s rental. If you don’t return the movie within 24 hours you will be billed an additional $1.00 plus tax for each night you keep the movie. After 25 nights and $25.00 plus tax, the movie is yours to keep and you will no longer be billed.
The Credit Card Transaction Process
When you rent the movie, the video rental kiosk checks your credit or debit card and makes sure that $25 is available on the card. You are initially charged $1.00 plus tax, which turns out to be $1.08 (with tax) in my area, you are not charged anything over this initial $1.00 for 24 hours.
The Trick
If you buy one of those $25 Visa or Amex Gift Cards, you will be able to use this gift card to rent the movie. It will check to see that $25 is available, which it is and then it will charge you an initial $1.08 as a rental fee. Leaving a balance of $23.92 on your gift card. You can take your video and then go spend the rest of the money on the gift card, thus they will not be able to charge you anything additional beyond the initial $1.00 regardless of whether or not you return the movie!
This trick would only allow you to rent one movie using a $25.00 gift card, because after the initial rental, the card no longer has $25 available on it. That’s why I prefer using the $50 gift card, because it allows you to rent multiple movies and still keep $25 available on the card. Using a $50 gift card you can rent 10-12 movies easily and still have over $25 left over.
After you rent the movies using your gift card be sure to spend the remaining balance on your giftcard within 24 hours or you will be billed an additional $1 per movie. I like using gas stations to spend my additional balance because you can buy beer, cigarettes, food, soda and then gasoline. With pumping gas you can spend the remaining balance on your gift card to the penny.
You can easily use the process above to get any movie from the video rental kiosks for only $1.00 plus tax and keep it forever without being charged anything additional!
but you don’t get the artwork, you don’t get a bonus disc, and it’s not blu-ray which is what a lot of people want in regards to owning the media
who cares about the cover, the bonus disk, etc? you get the movie complete with the special features and bonus footage for only a buck. the other crap is not really necessary.
in terms of bluray, yes they are starting to rent these disks with the kiosk systems, so you could do the same thing to get a free bluray disk.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Blockbuster and Hollywood started putting out their own kiosks like this one in order to compete!?!
These two companies could copy what Redbox is doing and put them out of business in a snap. They really needed to do that from the beginning. Either that or acquire Redbox entirely.
You are a dirty thief!
Awesome idea! I wonder what other items you can use this trick on???
Doesn’t work at all. These machines do not allow gift cards.
Yes they do work provided you have $25 on the card to authorize at the time of purchase.
PS- Blockbuster owns RedBox
RedBox is owned by CoinStar, not Blockbuster… idiot. Look it up before you open your mouth.
Redbox is owned by Coinstar who is a publicly traded company. Great Concept!
i wonder what they do if you rent the movie and then the next day cancel your credit card?
They’ll have your name & address and will get it plus fees because you’ve intended to fraud a business. You may want to go with the gift card, or of course you can just do the right thing which is return the movie or pay the $25.
This trick will only work for so long - I own several of these machines (not Red Box-but another brand), and they are starting to change their card processing techniques in order to prevent fraud. They are starting to place an actual hold on the entire $25 instead of just verifying the balance.
that sucks cause this trick works awesome now. did it again last night and got another $1 movie from redbox.
redbox machine clearly states gift cards are not accepted
where does it state that giftcards are not accepted? i used redbox tonight and it worked, i also looked for something both on the machine and in the program indicating that giftcards were not accepted. i could not find anything.