Join If: You rent more than 52 DVDs a year (or one every week), you’re often late returning rentals, or you have trouble finding the movies you want at the local store. Choose your selections online and the services mail you your choices; you send them back in postage-paid envelopes.

Options

Netflix
There are three membership levels. The least expensive, $10 a month, lets you rent one DVD at a time and keep it as long as you like. For $15 a month, you get unlimited two-at-a-time rentals. For $18 a month, you can rent three movies at a time, with no monthly limit. You need to rent 40, 60, or 72 DVDs a year, respectively, for these memberships to be cost-effective (assuming an average rental price of about $3). Note: Netflix took over Wal-Mart’s online DVD-rental business this past May. Go to www.netflix.com for more information.

Blockbuster Online
Paying $15 a month, you have to rent at least 60 DVDs a year for it to be cost-effective. Blockbuster Online allows you to rent three movies at a time and keep them as long as you like. This plan also gives you two in-store movie or game rentals a month. Go to www.blockbuster.com for more information.