Do you remember renting a telly?

[Needtosoundoffandbreathe]

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.

We were still renting our living room TV when we bought our first house in 2002. When we stopped renting we just kept it.

Yes we need a similar system for our smartphones!

Yes. Well my parents rented it.

Colour TV was new so they thought renting might be a good idea in case the TV went wrong. In those days they would send someone out to fix the TV in your home.

Someone came out to 'set up' the TV. But it was Saturday morning and most programmes were still in B and W.

Every kid on the street was in our living room waiting to see colour. The 'set up' man had to wait for Tom and Jerry to come on.

When we moved my parents bought it as we would be out of the area for repairs.

It was still working when I was in my 20s.

Yep, my parents rented one from Radio Rentals. The common threat if we were naughty was to "send the telly back to Radio Rentals"

@suki1964 that was hire purchase for the furniture.

DP sold an ancient (and massive) CRT TV to a gamer only a couple of years ago - we didn't use it and he had been refusing to get shot of it - for a surprisingly high amount given it was 20+ years old.

yes back in the 1980s when i left home i rented a small tv

I can remember my mum talking in disapproving tones about neighbours who had TVs on ‘HP’. So I guess ours were always bought outright. 🤷‍♀️

Yes I remember this! I’d totally forgot about that.

They’ll be collector’s items soon!

I remember when I moved into my first place I had a tiny black and white tv and no landline. Had to go to the local telephone box to make and receive calls. There was a landline already in the property but I couldn’t afford it, however it had something called a party line on it which (I t think) meant you shared it with other people? That wasn’t going to happen!

We had a rented tv when I was a kid, plus a video recorder. My parents carried on renting for years didn't matter what was said.

Radio rentals, rumbelows and then martin dawes. The last time the tv was changed with the martin dawes it was a rent to buy scheme . That tv was a Sony bravia in about 2008 and it's still going strong many many years later.

When I was first married we rented a TV from Radio Rentals. I seem to remember that we had a book of tickets, and paid weekly at the RR shop.
Then in the early 70s we moved to a different part of the country, with no RR nearby, so we bought our own black and white TV. It was another few years until we got a colour TV.

Yes all through my childhood (born mid 60s). The man who collected the payments was known to us as Uncle Derek because he practically became a family friend. I think it was about mid1980 before my parents bought a set.

No, but when Dh and I first moved in together we had literally nothing. We had a tv oddly, but I think it may have come with the house, which was partly furnished, but inconsistently. Like we had a tv and dining table, but no sofa. Had a bed, but no mattress. We sat on the floor for months to watch tv.

We had to get a mattress and we went to Dreams and got the cheapest they had at £200 on finance. Took 2 years to pay it off and the man nearly choked on his tea because apparently he’d never financed a £200 mattress before. 😂 I was a student and Dh in graduate job on £18k a year, so no money for big spends like a mattress.

We didn't but a few relatives had rediffusion so had to keep a stack of coins for both that and the electric meter.

How long ago was this minutopia?

Yes, in my first flat. It was a huge luxury. I had to put 50p coins in to make it work.

Yes!! We rented a black and white right up till 1983 - after my dad had been in hospital for a few weeks and he got used to the colour telly in the patients’ room and missed it when he was home 🤣🤣 We were the last ones out of anyone I knew 🤦🏻‍♀️

🎶"Great service you get renting your colour set from Granada!"🎶

I never rented a tv, but always used to buy them on HP when I was first starting out. Tellies were relatively much more expensive then.

Later when we were first married, there was a brilliant shop in the St John's centre in Leeds called De Cobain's where you could buy tvs and other equipment on interest free credit. We had two or three tellies, a VCR and a fax machine over the years. Happy days.

Yes, all through my childhood. TVs were not reliable as they are now and I also remember engineers coming to fix it when it went on the blink. I also remember one engineer putting a soldering iron down on the carpet and burning a hole in it, we got a whole new carpet out of that visit. I think mum and dad bought their first owned TV probably mid 80s.

Yes we did too, not on a coin operated meter but on a contract.

I don't think they were less reliable just we get them longer and they were fixable. Nowadays they change spec frequently and are almost treated as "disposable" as the screens are more sensitive

How long ago would this be? 🤣
I grew up in the 90’s and we just had a tv, we didn’t rent one or put coins in. Am I a baby?

We didn't have one at all when I was a very small child - my parents bought one in 1976. It malfunctioned quite frequently and would be away being repaired for long periods.
When I left home in the 90s I had a tiny black and white portable because the licence was much cheaper than for a colour one. I think it was about 12' which seems amazing now I have a 50' one!

It was mainly in the 60s to 80s, some of us like me were still renting in the 90s and into the 00s, I rented for years but that was probably because we just carried on renting. my parents also rented, I am in my 60s. Video players also were rented, ours did seem to go wrong a lot, tapes would often get stuck so didn't really want to buy one. We didn't put coins in, we paid a monthly amount.

I can remember my parents renting a TV from Radio Rentals throughout the 1970s. They said it was cheaper and easier than buying one. TVs were comparatively more expensive in those days and more prone to going wrong,so it made sense to rent one. If it developed a fault,a quick phone call to the shop and someone would be round within 24 hours to fix it or bring a new one. I think they actually bought one around 1983, when the price of TVs came down and they became more reliable. Incidentally,do TV rental companies still exist any more?