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Bought a TV, got several puzzled looks.

nick1985

nick1985

Lifer
I recently bought my new LCD TV from Best Buy. They wanted to sign me up for their Best Buy card so I could get no interest for 3 years on the bundle. I said "No thanks, I'll use my chase freedom card". Puzzled look by employee. "But its 3 years no interest" he says. I tried explaining to him that I pay off my CC in full every month and collect rewards, but he was still in shock.

When I went to check out I had the exact same conversation with the cashier.

Do people not understand paying off a CC in full every month? Why the hell was that such a foreign concept.
 
If you are a disciplined person a deal like that can actually benefit you. They are counting on you not paying it off by the 3rd year so you get smacked with 3 years of accrued interest. If you play it right though you use their money for 3 years interest free for other purposes and pay off the purchase by the due date.
 
but wait, you understand that means you can be a weasel and pay 50$ a month for 3 years instead of paying for it in full, wait, you must not be an american....

chase freedom ftw, i've already gotten hundreds of dollars for free via that card.

i do the same thing with my CC's
 
I buy EVERYTHING in cash and get the same damn reaction all the time.

But you could get no interest for xyz months!!!

Um, how about no interest at all and it's paid for?

If I don't have the money, I don't buy it. Novel idea right?
 
if you ordered online through bing cashback at best buy, you could have stacked another 5% cash back on top of that purchase. then gone in and picked it up without any hassle and got 5% back.
 
nick1985 said:
I recently bought my new LCD TV from Best Buy. They wanted to sign me up for their Best Buy card so I could get no interest for 3 years on the bundle. I said "No thanks, I'll use my chase freedom card". Puzzled look by employee. "But its 3 years no interest" he says. I tried explaining to him that I pay off my CC in full every month and collect rewards, but he was still in shock.

When I went to check out I had the exact same conversation with the cashier.

Do people not understand paying off a CC in full every month? Why the hell was that such a foreign concept.
Click to expand...

No no.. there's his problem.
 
IceBergSLiM said:
theoretically you could have financed it at 0 interest and put that money in a CD or something and come out ahead right?
Click to expand...

This is what I was thinking.
If you spread payments over a period of time, the money near the end of the period of time is not worth as much as the starting money and as a result you could have invested the money at the start and paid it off with more, less valuable money
 
lokiju said:
I buy EVERYTHING in cash and get the same damn reaction all the time.

But you could get no interest for xyz months!!!

Um, how about no interest at all and it's paid for?

If I don't have the money, I don't buy it. Novel idea right?
Click to expand...

haha. i have over 20k in stuff i don't need on 2 cc's

🙁
 
IceBergSLiM said:
theoretically you could have financed it at 0 interest and put that money in a CD or something and come out ahead right?
Click to expand...

Eh...

Perhaps. But I will also get 3% back on a $1700 purchase with my rewards(actually 3.5% if you factor that I save to $200 and cash out the $250 reward check). So thats $51 bucks in rewards, as well as not having the hassle a monthly CC bill for a TV for 3 years.
 
You should know better than to listen to the sales drones at Best Buy. Only lies and deception designed to squeeze every cent from you spew forth from their gaping maws.

Just pay for your good deal, say no to whatever they ask, repeat no until they shut up and scan your card, and leave.
 
BassBomb said:
This is what I was thinking.
If you spread payments over a period of time, the money near the end of the period of time is not worth as much as the starting money and as a result you could have invested the money at the start and paid it off with more, less valuable money
Click to expand...


even if you don't invest that money, and just pay it off say a 1month (to be on the safe side) before the 3 years is up... with inflation you would be paying less.

tbh, I will ALWAYS take advantage of 0% interest... for me it's a no brainer not too. Now I'm not saying to go out there and get every single 0% card and max it out, but in the OP situation, there is no doubt I would have take the 0% interest for 3 years.

edit: cash rewards cards do change the picture (I use the Charles Schwab One w/ 2% cashback), but even then I think I still would take the 0% interest.
 
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Good for you OP
icon14.gif

lokiju said:
I buy EVERYTHING in cash and get the same damn reaction all the time.
Click to expand...

What is this, 1992? I hate when people do that. Replace your Costanza wallet with a credit card and just pay it off each month. You do realize that you can benefit from one, right? It may not be much but you can still earn at least $100 extra a year for using one instead of cash, depending on card type and how much you spend.

I've had a credit card since I was 17 and have never paid any interest or charges and I don't have to worry about going to the ATM so I can have cash to buy stuff.

Even with a CC, if I don't have the money, I don't buy it. Amazing how that works! Now THAT is a novel idea!!
 
nick1985 said:
Eh...

Perhaps. But I will also get 3% back on a $1700 purchase with my rewards(actually 3.5% if you factor that I save to $200 and cash out the $250 reward check). So thats $51 bucks in rewards, as well as not having the hassle a monthly CC bill for a TV for 3 years.
Click to expand...

FYI The $250 reward check is no longer. Also even the old chase freedom the most you could get at 3% reward was $600/month or something stupid, anything over was 1%.
 
They all make commission and BB makes a cut off the deal with HSBC to supply financing.

It's because fat lazy americans love to put on debt, just like we love our cheezburgers. When one of us strays from the couch folks get concerned.
 
IceBergSLiM said:
theoretically you could have financed it at 0 interest and put that money in a CD or something and come out ahead right?
Click to expand...

Depends on what kind of cash back bonus he's getting with that Freedom card. If it's 5% cash back, for example, he would still be better buying it with that card instead of getting a lousy 2% interest rate on a CD.

That doesn't factor in inflation, either. Who knows what $1,000 of 2009 dollars will be worth in 2012.
 
nickbits said:
FYI The $250 reward check is no longer. Also even the old chase freedom the most you could get at 3% reward was $600/month or something stupid, anything over was 1%.
Click to expand...


yeah it totally blows

they cut us off 2 days before our Sept statement ended. we have 193 bucks in rewards and were making a 3300 dollar payment(just moved into a new house and bought furniture and a TV!)

if they closed our statement 48 hours early we coulda paid it and gotten a check.

instead we JUST qualified for 250 gift card finally.




also to the OP, yeah its annoying as hell. I also bought my last 2 TV's from Best Buy, due to them having the best deal on the TV I wanted. and it was at a dealnews like 6 month low.

of course months later the BF price was cheaper, but I got a free passable to me great to my wife 5.1 surround with dvd player to go with
 
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