When does “interest free” mean 17.5% interest.
When you want to buy a plasma TV from a well known New Zealand electrical retailer (starts with H and ends with …arvey Norman).
As I come to the end of my rather impressive splurge to celebrate my parents gaining residency (and –in my defence- making the house warmer and more liveable for 5 adults without us all going barmy), I felt it was time to buy a second TV.
This means that we can have a separate TV upstairs in our “flat” and we can then watch stuff that the Parents don’t want to, and they can watch what they want without having to wait for us.
So we started the investigations today with what was supposed to be a wander around a shop looking at plasma screens and going “oooh” and “ahhh” a lot and working out just how big a screen we can get away with without it pulling the wall down.
We finally found a Panasonic 50″ Full HD (as opposed to just HD which we are told is just so last year), with a ticket price of $3999. So far so good. I took a note of the model number, so we could research and do a price check. (Something I always do).
Then we get asked how we are going to pay for it. I make it clear that we aren’t actually buying it today – to then find out that there are different prices depending on how you pay.
Now this is a bit unusual for us Brits – but Noel Leeming do the same thing – only they have a Credit Card price and an EftPOS price – I presume to “offset” the higher cost to them of taking credit cards. Bit cheeky – and possibly why I have never bought anything from them yet.
This wasn’t the case today. Turns out if we paid by Credit card, cash or EftPOS – we would actually pay $3000. Not a bad discount (except I’m always dubious that they are actually overcharging by $1000 in the first place in these cases).
If we want to take out the “Interest free” finance – it will cost us $3500.
WHAT????
Ok, lets just look at this. Its supposed to be interest free right? So I can pay it off over 2 years with no interest. For which I have to pay a $25 “admin fee” anyway.
But it’s going to cost me $500 MORE to buy the TV.
That’s a whopping 17.5% interest already built into the price.
Just be careful – there are just so many reasons already to avoid these types of deals – but the minute you are being charged more upfront – you are being fleeced straight off the bat.
Always do your homework, and always check the prices – and if you do take an interest free deal – just do your sums and make sure it really is “interest free”.
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Related posts:
- Why are Credit Cards still charging such high interest rates in New Zealand?
- Petrol Price drops in New Zealand – well that didn’t last long did it???
- What Planet do economists live on?
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