The answer is yes, a credit card is required to sign up with GameFly. Credit/Debit cards are the only form of payment accepted, cash, checks, paypal or bartering cattle are not allowed. GameFly will still accept GameFly gift certificates, but you need to have a credit card on file to use them.

If you are a kid and don’t have a credit card this means you have to ask your parents for their card before signing up for GameFly. If you are an adult and don’t have a credit card get your act together and get yourself one.

GameFly accepts credit cards from, MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express. Debit cards are also okay as long as it has a Visa or MasterCard logo on it.

GameFly shipping is totally free. You pay the flat monthly fee, $16 if you have one game out at a time, and that covers all shipping expenses. Shipping is also free if you decide to purchase a game from GameFly as opposed to just renting it. Bottom line is you never pay shipping costs, ever.

GameFly’s “Keep It” service gives GameFly subscribers an easy way to purchase games after renting them. Here is how it works,

1. You rent a game from GameFly’s and have it delivered to your door as usual.

2. You decide you love the game so much that you can not bear to see it leave your thumbs.

3. Go to GameFly’s website and log into your account. Then in your GameQ click the big button that says “Keep It” next to the game you want to buy. You will be then taken to a confirmation page to finish your purchase.

4. You get to keep the disc you still have and ships the the game manual and original casing. Shipping for these is as usual with totally free.

5. Congrats, that’s it, you have just used Keep It to purchase a game with GameFly!

At the current time GameFly does not rent video games for the PC. The exact reason GameFly doesn’t rent PC games is unknown, but it probably has to do with the more frequent piracy of PC games, and other online distribution methods like Steam. Game only rents games for consoles and hand held video game devices. Here is the full list of consoles they rent for,

Xbox 360
Xbox
PS3
PS2
PSP
Wii
Gamecube
Nintendo DS
Game Boy Advance

Click to check out GameFly’s full inventory of console games.

By it’s very nature it is inevitable that some of the games you receive from GameFly will have been played before by other people. Who knows if they carefully caress that games every night before bed, more than likely they just snatch them clumsily with their Cheeto laden hands.

Thankfully GameFly inspects each game after it is returned to their processing centers. Once the game is confirmed to be working they then clean it to remove those Cheeto stains and polish it to remove any scratch marks it has gathered. They do this for all the games they send out, whether you are just renting it on their monthly plan or purchasing one of their pre played games. What this means for the consumer is that all the games you receive are not only playable glitch free, but so shiny you can use them a mirror.

Usually GameFly games will not get lost in the mail. The people who ship the games, the United States Postal Service is very reliable and games getting lost is a rare occurrence. Because GameFly ships thousands upon thousands of games a day though it does happen, so here is what to do if a game does get lost. There are places the game could get lost, on route to your residence from GameFly, or on route to GameFly after being returned.

Game is lost being sent to you:

Go to GameFly’s website and go to your GameQ. Check the ship date of the game, if it has been less than 7 days since the game has been sent wait till that 7 day period has been reached. If it has been more than 7 days go to report a shipping problem page and tell them the game has not arrived.

Game is lost being sent to GameFly:

If you have mailed the game back to GameFly but your GameQ shows that it has not been received first wait 7 days before reporting the problem. After 7 days have passed a login to the report a shipping problem page and tell them GameFly never received the returned game.

After you have reported the shipping problem through either venue the amazing GameFly customer service will take care of the rest.

If you ever need to get a hold of GameFly customer service, to ask about your account, shipping, pre purchase questions, or whether that cute girl Jill sitting across is flirting with you - or just making conversation. GameFly’s email support offices are open every day from 9AM to 6PM Pacific Standard Time. GameFly’s customer service is very good, it takes them at most 24 hours to respond to an issue.

There are two possible paths here, if you have a customer service question go to their website, GameFly and then click on the link entitled “Contact Us”.

If you want to report a shipping problem with your game again start by going to GameFly’s website. Then login to your account, and click the “Report a Shipping Problem” link.

Need some support in the area of GameFly support? Comment here and ask us.

Below is our grand video game rental company comparison chart. The upper orange column divides the different game companies, each row represents an area of their service and how they rank. Green check marks mean yes, while the red X marks mean no. If you don’t feel like reading through this whole deal our top choice for rental services is GameFly.

Category	GameFly	GotaPlay	RentZero	RedOctane	Gamerang
Pricing by # of Games Out	1 - $15.95 2 - $22.95 3 - $29.95 4 - $46.95	1 - $11.95 2 - $19.95 3 - $27.95	1 - $13.95 2 - $20.95 3 - $28.95	2 - $18.95 3 - $23.95 4 - $39.95	1 - $14.95 2 - $21.95 3 - $29.95 4 - $39.95
Number of Games	6,000	3,500	5,000	2,100	5,000
Shipping Speed	Fast	Medium	Slow	Slow	Fast
Customer Service	Good	Decent	Good	Poor	Decent
Free Trial	10 Days	10 Days	14 Days
Purchase Games?
Review Article	GameFly Review	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Recommended?		Maybe

As you might notice the company gameznflix is not on this list. This is because of widespread Better Business Bureau complaints about their company. They have a record of not shipping games to customers at all, and not refunding money after they don’t send the games. Needless to say I wouldn’t deal with them.

GameFly has a year end sale and many of their used games selection is 50% off it’s usual price of $14.99 per game. Click here to start browsing their use game selection for games listed under this sale offer.

Please note you must already be a member of GameFly’s monthly subscription service to purchase games from GameFly. Because you must be a GameFly member beforehand though shipping for the games you buy is totally free. The sale ends January 5th, 2009, while that may be next year you don’t have much time left you buy.

FastReturn is a new process introduced by GameFly and the United States Postal Service in an effort to get the games inside your console of choice faster. In the past when you rented with GameFly you had to wait for the game you were returning to arrive at the shipping center before they sent you a new game. This takes quite awhile because you essentially have to wait for two shipping cycles before the game gets to you. That all changes with FastReturn however.

With FastReturn the instant your game is sent to be returned to GameFly the Postal Service scans it into their database. When they see that scan is coming from a GameFly envelope they automatically notify GameFly telling you the game has been returned. GameFly sends your new game out, effectively cutting shipping time in half. This is all thanks to that spiffy little barcode on the packaging and a little creative thinking.

Unfornately FastReturn isn’t a 100% deal, it will fail to work on rare occasions. This can happen if your barcode gets mangled, the shipping center doesn’t have a barcode scanner to begin with, or someone just messes up shipping the items. Again this is pretty rare, but this is why FastReturned games can be delayed. Hopefully that clears the subject up a bit.