A reader asks:
What do you think about these "no payments, no interest for 12 months" types of offers?
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There is only one type of purchase plan for financially responsible people: 100% down, no monthly payments.
Folks, companies don’t make offers like this because they love you. They make those offers because they KNOW most people will buy things they can’t afford, fooling themselves into thinking they will be able to afford it LATER. They KNOW most people won’t pay it off and then they’ll get stuck with accumulated high interest charges.
These companies are NOT stupid or gracious, nor do they give a RIP about giving you a deal or saving you money. To the contrary, they want to APPEAR to be saving you money while getting as much of it from you as they can. They offer this stuff for ONE REASON: TO MAKE MONEY… LOTS OF MONEY.
If you can’t afford it now, you probably can’t afford it in 12 months. If you buy it on credit, you’ll rationalize buying MORE than you really need.
Let me translate offers like this into plain English… the REAL message that they don’t want you to hear:
Hey STUPID!!!! Come in here and buy something you don’t really need, that you can’t really afford… something you’ve lived without up until now and you could easily continue to live without… pay a premium price, and we’ll gladly wait 12 months to hammer you with a high interest rate because we KNOW for a fact that 99% of you lame brains out there won’t pay off the bill before then. And we sure as heck won’t do anything to encourage or remind you to pay it off. Ha, ha, ha, ha… come one, come all… all idiots welcome! It’s payday boys, they’re lining up around the block…." |
Okay, if you still want to "take advantage" of that great offer, go right ahead.