Mom's Minute

Rent-A-Center

Can you think of any circumstances where you may rent a video game system?  Suppose you are out of town, visiting friends and there is an epic video game that you would like to play on a video console system vice a mobile device, maybe to show the game off.  Would you choose to rent a system for this purpose? 

The above is a hypothetical example of why you may want to rent a video game system, even though there may be others.  If you are thinking of renting a system, I would caution you that doing so can be an expensive proposition.  In fact, renting other items, such as furniture, appliances, etc. can prove to cost a lot more than you bargained for.  Instead, you may want to to either lay- away the item, or even use financincing instead of renting.   Rent-A-Center has an option to rent to own, which still, in my opinion could cost more than just paying for the item outright at a retail establishment.

Video game system rentals at Rent-A-Center

Based on my visit to Rent-A-Center as part of my video game field trip for Mom's Minute Video Game Show -- here's what involved in renting -- in this case a video game system, the PlayStation 3.

--You need to provide at least four references

--There is no credit check

--You will be asked to provide proof of income as well as how often you get paid

-- Your rental payments has to be made at the specific rental store where you made your rental 

Regarding  the price of renting a video game system -- the initial quote given to me was $24.99 per week -- which was reduced to $19.99 a week, maybe in an effort to lure me to rent a system.  Of course, rental rates may differ at other rental stores.  In my opinion, the $19.99 price is still a lot to pay -- especially when the rental costs increase as the weeks go by.

Renting can drain the funds in your wallet quickly.

Of course there are other rental centers other than Rent-A-Center, who may have different policies; however, the similarity, in my opinion, is the overall high cost of renting.

Also at this particular Rent-A-Center, you could rent a video game system; however, interesting enough, there were no actual video games at the establishment to rent along with the system.  So if you rented what could be a very expensive video game system, you would either have to already have video games in your possession or go elsewhere to obtain video games to play on the system.

I strongly advise you not to go the rental route for a video game system, due to the cost as well as all the personal information you have to divulge.   However, if you are contemplating renting a video game system for whatever reason, remember to read all the fine print and follow this axiom:  "Buyer beware."