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As Americans, we've been flogging ourselves plenty lately for our addiction to credit, and how it gives us the ability to get things now that we wouldn't be able to afford until later. There's another version of that, and it's the world of "rent to own."
Funny, I read almost exactly the same article last year.
When I had very little money, I never seriously considered rent-to-own - because of exactly what they outlined: why pay 3-4x the value of something? Do I REALLY need that new TV that badly?
Anyone looking to get furniture or appliances at Rent-to-own scams should start looking for what they need on Craigslist. They can find anything they need at about one or two week's payments to these predatory places.
The author of the article suggests putting the money you would spend on the rental item into savings until you've saved enough to pay for the item with cash..... but:
The one disadvantage is that you have to wait.
Imagine that! Having to WAIT while you save up the money. How humiliating. How un-American. How un-patriotic for the author to even suggest such foolishness as saving up to buy something. Where did she get such a crazy notion? This is a heresey in a credit card society like we have in America. What about the poor credit card companies? What about the lost income for all of those rent to own businesses? She's only thinking about the well-being of the consumer.
When we needed a new computer, we found a local guy who gave us 90 days, same as cash. No interest! After putting a whole lot of money out for heating fuel, we were a bit strapped for the entire amount. Folks need to check their local merchants for the 90 day deal. Many will accomodate you.
Yep, they're a rip off. Another one is Fingerhut. My mom used to get stuff from there because she could make such small payments. I figured out she was paying way more than the stuff was worth in the long run.
my partner's mom bought all her appliances at a place like this. insane. what is worse, they LIED to her and told her the payments she made would be helping her credit. They don't even report!!!
She ended up paying about double what she had to for a basic fridge, stove, microwave... then got upset when she had to move and wanted to sell the stuff for way too much because it was "only a year old" and she paid X for it.
d'oh.
she didn't want to hear it when i pointed out that she could have had the same fridge, stove, and microwave (or at least very close to it in quality) for about 1/10th of what she paid the rental place.
another issue i have with these places; they obviously don't really want you to "rent" anything. when my computer crashed and i was having to wait 2 weeks for it to be fixed and NEEDED it for my job, I couldn't find any place to reasonably rent a computer. The rental places all wanted you to sign up for a month minimum and after paying those fees i could have just bought some older pc on craigslist and gotten the job done.
I went in to one of those rent to own places (to deliver their mail, not rent) and walked past the exact bunkbed my dd's have, with the final prices displayed (as required by law) and it was TWICE what I had paid for it at a regular store!
Those places market heavily to people who don't have much money to begin with. You're so much better off just picking up furniture off the curb, or on freecycle or tagsales, then, saving to buy stuff for cash. I got my first washer and dryer used for $100 cash, and they lasted a couple years-by which time I had saved enough to buy new for cash.
Last edited by wanderintonc; 08-31-2008 at 07:37 PM..
Reason: punctuation
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