The readme and privacy statement for the response file, and every other file from this survey, are on the survey's data page.
Key findings
88.1%
104 of 118
of people who rented only from a store, and used it in the last year, said they were satisfied.
A small group: about 81% to 93%, for scale only. The FTC reported no last-year figure, so this has no FTC counterpart.
79.3%
n = 329
of everyone who used rent-to-own in the last year said they were satisfied, at a store or through virtual rent-to-own.
74.1% of those who used it one to five years ago, and 53.6% of those whose last use was more than five years ago.
70.2%
n = 949
of everyone surveyed who has ever used rent-to-own said they were satisfied.
A wider group than the FTC counted, so it is not set beside the FTC's 75%.
59.2%
n = 949
said they were likely to use rent-to-own again.
90.4% of the 208 very satisfied respondents said so, against 18.0% of the 128 somewhat dissatisfied.
10.5%
39 of 373
of the comparison group said they were dissatisfied.
The FTC's survey found 19% of customers dissatisfied, most of them citing price.
72.6%
204 of 281
of people who only used virtual rent-to-own, in the last five years, said they were satisfied.
Against 81.5% of the 275 who only used a store. The question named stores, so read that gap with care.
Read the comparison with care
- Two different groups, measured two different ways. Our 2026 figure comes from an opt-in online panel and is unweighted. The FTC's comes from telephone interviews with 532 customers in December 1998 to February 1999, and is weighted.
- The 373 are the closest group our survey allows: respondents who had used a rental store, alone or as well as a checkout, and had used rent-to-own within the last five years. Counting only the 275 who used a store alone gives the same figure to one decimal, 81.5% (224 of 275).
- The two figures are 6.5 points apart. We can judge the direction of only two of the nine method differences: answering on the web tends to lower the figure, and showing positive answers first may raise it. The rest could move it either way, so part or all of the gap may come from method. See How our method differs from the FTC's.
- In our group, 39 respondents (10.5%) were dissatisfied and 30 (8.0%) were neither. The FTC's survey found 19% of customers dissatisfied, most of them citing price. We did not repeat the FTC's follow-up questions about reasons or about how late payers were treated.
Satisfaction by how recently people used rent-to-own
The more recently people used rent-to-own, the higher the figure: 79.3% of those who used it in the last year were satisfied, against 53.6% of those whose last use was more than five years ago.
Of the 949 respondents who have ever used rent-to-own, at a store or through virtual rent-to-own at a checkout, 666 (70.2%) were satisfied. This group of 949 is wider than the 373 in the comparison above: it includes people whose last use was more than five years ago and people who only used virtual rent-to-own. The FTC counted only store customers from the previous five years, so we set only the 373 beside the FTC's figure.
These are separate groups asked at one point in time. Nobody was followed over the years. People who used rent-to-own recently include those who keep coming back because they like it, and memories of older experiences fade. Some of this pattern would appear even if the experience had not changed. The survey recorded when people used rent-to-own in three bands.
How the 949 answered
The question referred to rent-to-own stores; 329 of the 949 had used only virtual rent-to-own at a checkout, so the 70.2% figure mixes two experiences.
Store and virtual rent-to-own
Of the 118 respondents who rented only from a store in the last year, 104 (88.1%) were satisfied.
Over the last five years, 81.5% of the 275 store-only respondents were satisfied, and 72.6% of the 281 virtual-only respondents were. A group of 118 is small: its simple-random-sample-equivalent range is about 81% to 93%, for scale only. Across all time periods the two groups are level: 70.4% of the 453 store-only respondents and 70.5% of the 329 virtual-only respondents were satisfied.
The FTC-comparable group of 373 at the top of this page is the 275 store-only respondents plus the 98 who used both, whose most recent use of either was in the last five years.
Full tables: where and when
The survey asked where people had used rent-to-own: at a rental store, through an option at a checkout, or both.
| Where they used it | Respondents | Satisfied | Likely to use again |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rent-to-own store only | 453 | 70.4% | 54.1% |
| Virtual rent-to-own at a checkout only | 329 | 70.5% | 63.2% |
| Both | 118 | 78.0% | 76.3% |
| Not sure | 49 | 23 people (small base, directional) | 19 people (small base, directional) |
| Where | When (as answered) | Respondents | Satisfied | Likely to use again |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Store only | In the last year | 118 | 88.1% | 81.4% |
| Store only | 1 to 5 years ago | 157 | 76.4% | 59.9% |
| Store only | More than 5 years ago | 178 | 53.4% | 30.9% |
| Virtual only | In the last year | 143 | 71.3% | 78.3% |
| Virtual only | 1 to 5 years ago | 138 | 73.9% | 55.1% |
| Virtual only | More than 5 years ago | 48 | 28 people (small base, directional) | 20 people (small base, directional) |
| Both | In the last year | 61 | 52 people (small base, directional) | 56 people (small base, directional) |
| Both | 1 to 5 years ago | 37 | 28 people (small base, directional) | 24 people (small base, directional) |
| Both | More than 5 years ago | 20 | 12 people (small base, directional) | 10 people (small base, directional) |
How likely they are to use rent-to-own again
Of the 949 respondents who have used rent-to-own, 562 (59.2%) said they were very or somewhat likely to use it again.
The more satisfied they were, the more often they said so. The question about using rent-to-own again came right after the satisfaction question, so part of this link may come from the order they were asked in.