Credit where credit's due?

[Tank]

OK - other kind of credit.

Had to pop down to Harvey Norman this morning.

They have sales on - but what surprised me was just how busy it was!

Saw many, many people buying large ass LCD's ($3.5kish) - almost all on nothing down - pay in 24 / 36 months.

'this' generation seems to have a huge credit dependancy. Despite all the warnings that are out there they are still putting large luxury purchases on credit.

My question is:

Are others changing how they purchase items / use credit cards etc? Or is is business as usual?

[blossomsowner]

OK - other kind of credit.

Had to pop down to Harvey Norman this morning.

They have sales on - but what surprised me was just how busy it was!

Saw many, many people buying large ass LCD's ($3.5kish) - almost all on nothing down - pay in 24 / 36 months.

'this' generation seems to have a huge credit dependancy. Despite all the warnings that are out there they are still putting large luxury purchases on credit.

My question is:

Are others changing how they purchase items / use credit cards etc? Or is is business as usual?




very dangerous having stuff on credit/finance at the moment.........what happens when the finance companies go under?????????


cash is the way to go.........if ou can't afford it then don't buy it.......after all some sectors of employment are finding it tough with jobs on the line........

and houses are devaluing quite happily as well...........

perhaps time to be cautious and think before you jump on in

[Blackbird]

Yep, deals for cash all the way, pay off the credit card completely as soon as it's due. Having recently retired, we're also bloody cautious about new investments. Our house in Tokoroa just sold for about $30 k less than what the "normal" price would have been and we were just +relieved that it sold! Money has gone straight into a term deposit with a major bank to minimise risk.

[Gremlin]

A lot don't seem to check who the loan is with either, which is a serious worry.

Me, buying habits haven't really changed. I never used loans before, don't now. I hate em. Only thing I do have is a student loan. Otherwise, stuff is saved up for, and paid for in cash.

Company, a lot is bought on credit card, if an account isn't set up, and thats purely for the kickbacks of the card. :shifty: Paid off every month, just like the banks hate :innocent:

[Pussy]

Nothing really changed here... although I don't put a lot of stuff on credit anyway

[riffer]

Hate credit. I avoid it like the plague.

If I ever get anything on HP, I make sure it's no interest for a decent period, and use their money for a while.

[trustme]

+1 on all of the above, credit card gets used 3/4 times a year. If I can't pay cash I can't afford it, never had a bike on HP , guess thats why I have only ever had 1 new bike.

[rainman]

Hate credit. I avoid it like the plague.

If I ever get anything on HP, I make sure it's no interest for a decent period, and use their money for a while.

I am generally happy to do that too but you have to watch out for "establishment fees" and similar bullshit. Also has to be a decent deal in the first place, of course...

[lb99]

cash is the way to go.........if ou can't afford it then don't buy it.......



thats us, we pay cash when we can unless its an emergency.

I make ok money, all the bills are paid, mortgage reducing, but we live pretty plainly, compared to all the people I know who live on credit, continuosly hp ing more and more flash new gear.

they may be in debt but they have a much better lifestyle than me, that hurts a lot.....

when we went to HN to pay cash for a new fridge (got $250 off a $1100 purchase), they were having a massive "buy it now, pay for it in 5 years or you'll miss out forever" sale, what I noticed was all the people standing around looking very nervous while waiting for credit to be approved, many appeared to be lower socio-economic types too, sad.

our sales lady was stoked with the cash sale, she said it was her first this week, (day 3 of a 3 day sale) guranteed commision, she said at least 50% of the work she did selling was for people who were ulimately denied credit, and it upset her chances of a decent sales commission.

nice lady, she's had 3 ~$1k purchases from us this year, pity she doe'snt sell bikes..............

[pete376403]

We've bought a few things that we could have paid cash for, but put on 12 months interest free of whatever the deal was. Use their money, not your own (provided there are no establishment fees or other hooks)

[Headbanger]

Only live once, who cares about a bit of debt?

That said, we restrict ourselves to one HP at a time, pay it off in the interest free period and then grab something else.

Just about replaced all our cheap and nasty gear through out the house over the last five years. The bed was the best purchase. Should have replaced the last piece of shit a decade ago.

[dipshit]

very dangerous having stuff on credit/finance at the moment.........what happens when the finance companies go under?????????

You get to keep all of the shit and don't have to pay the now non-existent finance company off..???

[pete376403]

Probably not - more likely the company that the finance co borrowed from come after you to try and get their money back - and they probably want it RIGHT NOW ( so they can pay who ever they borrowed it from....)

[dipshit]

Probably not - more likely the company that the finance co borrowed from come after you to try and get their money back - and they probably want it RIGHT NOW

I doubt very much something like that would happen.

The biggest problem is your employment going down the toilet. No income = no servicing your loans = banks and finance companies go bust.

[alanzs]

I use my credit card for absolutely everything possible. My wife does the same for her business expenses. If they want to lend me money, I think that's great. I pay it off completely every month and get tons of air miles and then use them. I live below my means and I like it that way. :niceone:

[Boob Johnson]

Nope haven't changed a thing, don't have consumer debt & don't plan on getting any. Other than large ticket items what could people possibly need that quickly that they can't save for it?

[Crazy Steve]

I see Dicksmiths was offering no deposit and no interest for 3years on any product over $899...

There was a $80 doc fee and a further $5 admin fee for every month etc..

So if im to pay cash for that New Lcd at $1399 can I ask for $200 off ? ?

Crazy Steve..

[Gremlin]

So if im to pay cash for that New Lcd at $1399 can I ask for $200 off ? ?
no harm in asking... worst they can say is "I'm afraid we can't do that sir, what I can offer you is...."

[alanzs]

For any big ticket item, always ask if that it the best price they can do. The worst that can happen is they say no. The best that can happen is you save money. 99% of the time, the answer is yes.

[pete376403]

I know a guy who works for H/N. I asked about the credit/commision/discount thing. The sales people like cash sales because they can loose up to 50% or so of their commision if the sale is financed. They have quite a lot of leeway with discounting - to almost wholesale price -when it is a cash sale.
As others have said, you have nothing to loose and everything to gain by asking for a discount *if you are paying cash*

[Boob Johnson]

I know a guy who works for H/N. I asked about the credit/commision/discount thing. The sales people like cash sales because they can loose up to 50% or so of their commision if the sale is financed. They have quite a lot of leeway with discounting - to almost wholesale price -when it is a cash sale.
As others have said, you have nothing to loose and everything to gain by asking for a discount *if you are paying cash*
When I worked on car yards years ago we used to give bigger discounts to people on tick (if needed) as we made more money from the deal than a cashie, by a long shot and it is the same for some retail so paying cash isn't always as good a negotiating tool as you may think

[marioc]

Bah dont believe the hype,credit used properly is the key to making money.

[jrandom]

credit used properly is the key to making money.

I think the point here is that buying luxury consumer goods is not the way to do that...

[vifferman]

Meh.
MEH! I say.
We pay for just about everything using the credit card.
CardS (have only two each now, plus a company one each, but used to have 3 or 4).
Of course, we pay them off every month (apart from when I was in Yurp, and forgot I had to set up paymnets for BOTH cards, and missed by two days, and got pinged nearly $90 in interest...)
But (however!) we canceled our GE card after we paid it off a couple of years ago. Don't EVER go there - they're fucking rogues.

We buy the odd luxury item (like a $15k vacation, and a new plasma TV coz our Loewe carked it), but so what?

[Clockwork]

If you deal with GE, watch them like a hawk. We have several items on deferred payment, no interest. It is our habbit to repay the item shortly before interest charges begin. The last time we did this, we did did not specify that the $3,199 payment was in settlement of the $3,199 computer that was about to start charging interest, so they decided in their wisdom to apply it as a part payment on a 3 piece suite which does not change interest until April next year. They then sent us a statement asking us to make our first installment payment of the computer.

Of course they take their payments by direct debit and fortunately for us we've never had to pay installments as we always pay-off at the end of the interest free period but I guess if we had regular statements for installments already being paid each month, that little stunt could have easly slipped under the radar.