Credit where credit's due?

[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.