Exhibit 99.1


                 Rent-A-Center, Inc. Expects to Exceed
                High End of Current Earnings Guidance


    PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2003--Rent-A-Center, Inc.
(the "Company") (NASDAQ/NNM:RCII), the largest rent-to-own operator in
the country, announced today that it expects to exceed the high end of
its previously announced first quarter 2003 guidance of $1.37 per
diluted share by approximately $0.04 to $0.05.

    "Our increased guidance is primarily a result of higher than
anticipated same store sales of 6.2%, largely driven by increased
merchandise sales due to income tax refunds that exceeded our
expectations," commented Mr. Mark E. Speese, the Company's Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer. "Furthermore, the rent-to-own market
continues to have significant potential for new store development and
continues to present acquisition opportunities due to industry
fragmentation," Mr. Speese added. "In fact, we opened 20 new store
locations in the first quarter of 2003 and acquired one new store in
addition to the 295 stores acquired from Rent-Way in February 2003."
Mr. Speese continued, "All of the Rent-Way stores have been fully
integrated into our system, 176 have been merged with existing
Rent-A-Center locations and 119 we kept as new store fronts."

    Rent-A-Center will host a conference call to discuss the first
quarter financial results and other business updates on Tuesday
morning, April 29, 2003, at 10:45 a.m. EST. For a live webcast of the
call, visit http://investor.rentacenter.com. The web cast will be
archived for a period of two weeks.

    Rent-A-Center, Inc., headquartered in Plano, Texas currently
operates 2,547 company-owned stores in 50 states, Washington D.C. and
Puerto Rico. The stores generally offer high-quality, durable goods
such as home electronics, appliances, computers, and furniture and
accessories to consumers under flexible rental purchase agreements
that generally allow the customer to obtain ownership of the
merchandise at the conclusion of an agreed-upon rental period.
ColorTyme, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, is a
national franchisor of 319 rent-to-own stores, 307 of which operate
under the trade name of "ColorTyme," and the remaining 12 of which
operate under the "Rent-A-Center" name.

    This press release and the guidance above contain forward-looking
statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking
statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking
terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "could,"
"estimate," "should," "anticipate," or "believe," or the negative
thereof or variations thereon or similar terminology. Although the
Company believes that the expectations reflected in such
forward-looking statements will prove to be correct, the Company can
give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been
correct. The actual future performance of the Company could differ
materially from such statements. Factors that could cause or
contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to:
uncertainties regarding the ability to open new stores; the Company's
ability to acquire additional rent-to-own stores on favorable terms;
the Company's ability to enhance the performance of these acquired
stores, including the stores acquired in the Rent-Way acquisition; the
Company's ability to control store level costs; the Company's ability
to realize benefits from its margin enhancement initiatives; the
results of the Company's litigation; the passage of legislation
adversely affecting the rent-to-own industry; interest rates; the
Company's ability to collect on its rental purchase agreements; the
Company's ability to effectively hedge interest rates on its
outstanding debt; changes in the Company's effective tax rate; changes
in the Company's stock price and the number of shares of common stock
that the Company may or may not repurchase; the final reconciliation
of the Company's books and records for the first quarter of 2003; and
the other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC
filings, including but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K
for the year ended December 31, 2002. You are cautioned not to place
undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only
as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, the
Company is not obligated to publicly release any revisions to these
forward-looking statements to reflect the events or circumstances
after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of
unanticipated events.


    CONTACT: Rent-A-Center, Inc., Plano
             David E. Carpenter, 972/801-1214
             dcarpenter@racenter.com
                 or
             Robert D. Davis, 972/801-1204
             rdavis@racenter.com
                 or
             Mitchell E. Fadel, 972/801-1114
             mfadel@racenter.com
                 or
             Mark E. Speese, 972/801-1199
             mspeese@racenter.com