Giving The Gift Of Redbox #cbias and #CouchCritics

The hustle and bustle of the busiest gift-giving season has passed, but gift-giving never really ends. One gift idea that never goes out of season is the gift of movies. Theater tickets are pricey, but there’s an alternative movie gift idea — Redbox rentals.

Did you know you can give the gift of Redbox? I didn’t. In fact, when I was asked to give the gift of a Redbox rental to a fellow blogger, I had a hard time figuring out just how to do so on Redbox.com. (Note, I am so accustom to finding things in a menu I didn’t even notice the button at the homepage that says Redbox gifts, LOL.) Once I was able to find where to purchase the RedBox gift it was super easy. Best of all, it is super affordable (which is awesome for gift giving).

Here’s the scoop on affordability. A normal Redbox rental costs $1.20 for a DVD ($1.50 for a Blu-Ray), which in of itself is a deal. Remember the days of video rental stores when a movie rental cost $4-5? And on-demand rentals that cost $3.99 each. So even full-price Redbox rentals are a deal. But back to gift-giving, when you purchase Redbox as a gift, you pay only $1 per movie (for a DVD – Blu-Ray gift codes are not currently available). Nice, huh? When was the last time you were able to give someone a evening of fun for just $1?

Redbox gifts are delivered, via email or Facebook, in the form of individual promo codes to be used at a kiosk (so there’s no gift card involved, which is what I was initially looking for). Codes can be purchased in batches of five or 10 rentals for $5 or $10, respectively. For the gamers in your life, you can also buy game codes for $2 each, which is the normal daily rate (also in five and 10 code batches).

One thing to note is that when the gift recipient is ready to rent a movie, they still need to swipe their credit card to rent. This is in case they don’t return the movie on time (or at all) in which they will be charged a late fee. But as long as they return the movie on time, the credit card will not be charged.

Here’s my frugal tip. Sure, the codes make a hot gift. But you can also buy the codes for yourself. That makes movie night, buy four get one free. (Four movies at $1.20 each is actually $4.80, but close enough.) You can also rent your movie online for just $1 per rental to save that $0.20 if you don’t want to purchase five at a time (at least through 1/31/12).

I know it is still months away, but I am think this would make an excellent end-of-the-year teacher gift. I have four teachers to buy gifts for, so I could buy five codes and send them to myself. Then I could jot the code down in a nice note paired with some popcorn, candy and soda presented in a nice gift basket. Ta-da — instant, affordable gift with one code left for a movie night with the family.

Free Movie Rental Code Alert – like Redbox on Facebook to get a  code for one free movie rental .

Disclosure – This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.