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Original poster

Do you remember renting a telly?

125 replies

Needtosoundoffandbreathe · 13/06/2025 20:42

We did as students and when we got out first jobs. It was a bit more to rent a video too, for those weekend trips to Blockbuster.

OP posts:
Coffeeishot · 13/06/2025 20:44

Yes we got our first tv from.Radio rentals we got a coin meter in ours was powered by £ coins

Lindajonesjustcantlivemylife · 13/06/2025 20:44

I remember my parents having one with a meter and putting 50p in to keep it on.

ConstantIllness · 13/06/2025 20:45

Yes! From Radio Rentals. Ours got burgled. I also rented a washing machine as a student!

TheNightSurgeon · 13/06/2025 20:45

Yup I had a TV that I had to put £1 in for an hour.

The man would come once a month to empty the coin bit and take the rental fee from it, and give me the rest back.

It did mean I only stuck the TV on when I really wanted to watch something, which was probably a good thing.

JockyWilsonsaid · 13/06/2025 20:45

Yes, as a student and when I first moved in with then bf in the 90s.

Justkeepingplatesspinning · 13/06/2025 20:46

Goodness, yes. Every family in my friendship group rented their TV when I was little. I think I was about 9 before we got a colour TV, and I had to wait until I had my own home to get a video recorder!

BalloonSlayer · 13/06/2025 20:46

Yes for years, and a video too.

Very handy, as they were always going wrong and the engineer would come to fix then for free.

(Apparently the late Queen rented her tellies for a number of years)

TooBigForMyBoots · 13/06/2025 20:47

My folks got one from Radio Rentals. I was sent round to the shop to pay it every Friday night. They eventually bought one in 1986 when we moved.

Coffeeishot · 13/06/2025 20:47

We used to get money back after the rental came off so it just went back in the TV,

Coffeeishot · 13/06/2025 20:50

We rented our first washing machine but from Euronics no coin meter though. You had to go in to the shop.

EBearhug · 13/06/2025 20:51

No. We didn't have a TV at all. But coincidentally, last night I was chatting to someone who mentioned renting a TV as a student.

MsTada · 13/06/2025 20:56

Yes, I was born in 1988 and remember our TV being rented when I was a kid. It didn't have a coin meter though, we just paid a rental fee.

Original poster
Needtosoundoffandbreathe · 13/06/2025 20:57

Growing up my parents were late adopters of colour TV because my dad had an expensive black and white telly he'd invested in. I clearly remember getting a colour TV the weekend before the royal wedding in 1981!

I shared a house with three other students and the rental wasn't much between us. Plus TV licence of course.

Back then we'd watch The Word, Spaced, etc after getting in from nights out. Spend 40 minutes in Blockbuster on a Saturday evening after queuing round the corner shop to buy a lottery ticket. Back in the day when the lottery was new.

OP posts:
Seawolves · 13/06/2025 20:58

I remember renting the telly. I also remember Rediffusion TV back in the 1970s, it was very early cable television.

BrightOrangeDahlias · 13/06/2025 20:59

We didn't, but I can remember that it was a thing in the 80s. I remember because I was a kid then, and we went round to a family friend's house with DM and DD. The friends had what seemed like a massive telly (it was probably about 20" but it seemed huge at the time and I was in awe!). In the car on the way home, I asked why we couldn't have a big telly too, and my mum was really sniffy about it, saying "well our telly is ours, theirs is only rented". It's stuck in my mind all these years and I always think of those friends as the ones with the big (but rented) telly Grin

Bathroomfloor · 13/06/2025 21:00

I was born in 1989 and my parents rented our TV. I wanted to rent one for our shared house at uni when I went in 2008 but couldn’t find anywhere that did rentals anymore!

Motnight · 13/06/2025 21:00

Seawolves · 13/06/2025 20:58

I remember renting the telly. I also remember Rediffusion TV back in the 1970s, it was very early cable television.

My parents rented from Rediffusion. Don't recall it being cable TV in any way though.

spanieleyes · 13/06/2025 21:01

TheNightSurgeon · 13/06/2025 20:45

Yup I had a TV that I had to put £1 in for an hour.

The man would come once a month to empty the coin bit and take the rental fee from it, and give me the rest back.

It did mean I only stuck the TV on when I really wanted to watch something, which was probably a good thing.

That could have been my dad! That was one of his collecting jobs. When people moved on to paying weekly, he moved on to collecting weekly payments or repossessing TVs from those who couldn’t pay!

Original poster
Needtosoundoffandbreathe · 13/06/2025 21:05

One of my grandmas had Rediffusion. I remember the radio coming through the TV. They lived in the midlands where it was much more prevalent. You sometimes see old Rediffusion boxes on the side of houses.

OP posts:
Coffeeishot · 13/06/2025 21:10

I remember my Aunt and Uncle getting BskyB satellite maybe 89/90 We were all jealous.

BethDuttonYeHaw · 13/06/2025 21:12

Did this as a student.

cornflourblue · 13/06/2025 21:13

Yes when I first left home in the early 2000s, not that long ago!

Rapunzle · 13/06/2025 21:14

Omg this is something I’d completely forgotten about!! Yes as a student & then young 20 something from good old Radio Rentals!!

WingBingo · 13/06/2025 21:16

We had a 10p tv. It went off when friends came around and I was mortified

we had 50p electric too.

mum had some extra money when it was emptied as they’d take the rental out and give you back the rest.

Idontknowhatnametochoose · 13/06/2025 21:17

My mum did, plus a video player.

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