Perhaps the most well know of all the movie clubs available is Columbia House. In business since 1955, Columbia House began their business offering a wide selection of long playing records to their customers. Today, Columbia House offers three different clubs: a music club, a DVD club, and a TV on DVD Club.
Benefits of Columbia House Benefits
Columbia House membership offers a great selection of benefits and over 7,800 movie titles from classics to new releases to choose from. Once membership requirements have been met, you are offered special sales and bonus offers that allows you to save 50% or more on your favorite movie titles. In addition to special sale prices many movies are always available at extremely low prices with over 1,000 titles priced under $9.99. Finally, Columbia House offers a bonus point program that allows you to accumulate points good towards free movies during special cash in periods during the year.
Membership Requirements
Your initiation into the Columbia House DVD Club will begin with you selecting 5 (or more depending on the offer) DVDs at $0.49 each plus shipping. With your initial selections you must promise to buy five more DVDs at regular price ($19.99) within the next two years. To reduce the number of movies that you will need to buy over the next two years and save money, you can select another title for $14.99 and then only have to purchase four titles, or you can purchase two titles, one at $14.99 and one at $9.99, and then you will only have to buy three more movies over the next two years.
Each month you will receive a mailing with your highlighted director’s selection. You can either accept or deny the selection by checking the appropriate box and returning the card by the reply date. If you want to save a stamp, you can also manage your account and respond to director’s selections online.
If you receive a selection that you don’t want you can email Columbia House and request a postage paid return label to be mailed to you so you can return the unwanted shipment at no cost to you. Your account will be credited for the price of the movie once Columbia House receives the movie back.
Drawbacks
While Columbia House offers a wide selection of DVDs to chose from and they offer many great discounts and deals on movies, you do have to be aware of their shipping and handling charges that they assess. In some cases, especially before you have completed your club membership requirements, the added shipping costs make individual titles more expensive then simply buying them at a store or buying them through another dealer.