Lovefilm by Post customers, who pay a monthly fee for the DVD rental service provided by Amazon, face having their prices hiked from February 2016, with some saying their monthly fee will increase by as much as 500%.

Film fans currently pay £7.99/month to rent unlimited DVDs from Lovefilm by Post, which enables them to have two discs at home at a time, or £6.99/month if they're a member of Amazon's £79/year Prime service (see our Reclaim Unwanted Amazon Prime guide if you've unwittingly used the service).

But from February 2016, customers will be moved to one of three membership plans:

  • £4.99/month for two DVD rentals per month with one disc at home at a time.
  • £8.99/month (or £7.99 for Prime members) for four rentals per month with one disc at home at a time.
  • £11.99/month (or £9.99 for Prime members) for unlimited rentals with two discs at home at a time.

Amazon says members were sent an email between 27 and 29 October detailing their new price, however we're still awaiting confirmation on how it determines which price plan customers are moved to, and how many people are affected. See our Cheap DVD Rental guide for alternatives.

'How can you justify the 500% increase?'

However, some customers who say they currently pay less than the standard £7.99/month (we're awaiting confirmation from Amazon on why this is), report mammoth price hikes of up to 500%. Here are a few of the tweets we've seen:

Beat the price hike

1. Cancel your subscription.

If you're unhappy with the price hike, consider if you really need the service and cancel. To do this, go to your online Amazon account > click on 'Settings' and select 'LOVEFilm By Post Membership' > then select 'Cancel Membership'.

Amazon says once you've cancelled your subscription you'll be able to continue to use the service until the end of your current billing month, after which you'll have 30 days to return any outstanding discs. Cancelling your Lovefilm by Post membership will not affect any Prime or Prime Instant Video subscriptions you may have.

Lovefilm users report price hikes of up to 500%
Lovefilm users report price hikes of up to 500%

If you're looking for alternative access to movies, DVD and Blu-ray rental service Cinema Paradiso costs from £6.98/month for two discs at a time (limited to four a month), while some independent shops and local libraries still rent DVDs on a pay-as-you-go basis. See our Cheap DVD Rental guide for all the options.

Alternatively, consider online streaming. See our Watch Movies & TV Online for how to do it, the top providers, how to watch the top TV boxsets and movies (legally) for free and what to watch out for.

2. Downgrade your package.

As outlined above, we're awaiting confirmation from Amazon as to which customers will be moved onto which packages, but Amazon does say users can switch to any of the three new packages from February 2016 via their Lovefilm membership page.