Would you pay with finance for a component?

In light of Titan's release, i noticed Scan offer finance options. An £827 costs over £1k over three years. I guess the extra £60 over three years for finance isn't too bad, but it got me wondering - would anyone here consider finance for a component?

There appears to be a lot of people on various forums snapping the titans up so i wager some of them will be going this route, unless the amount of people who do have that much to blow really is quite significant.

Ignoring possible work purposes/uses, i mean in general an item you don't necessarily need, would you go the finance route?

Edit: Forgot to add a poll. /facepalm.

Personally, I'd just wait, or get something cheaper. In 3 years time, that £270 could be very useful... it'd pay for another upgrade on top.

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Originally Posted by snootyjim

Personally, I'd just wait, or get something cheaper. In 3 years time, that £270 could be very useful... it'd pay for another upgrade on top.

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I've just said the same thing on Aria.

Maybe Titan wasn't the best example. :p

Unless it was for making money or towards your education,I don't see the point.

However,personal debt is at a high in the UK,and it is really adding to the problems many people have. They keep buying loads of things on credit and cannot seem to manage it well.

If you can manage your debts,maybe it would be OK,but it is still a few years of payments.

never. if my entire computer was broke and that was my only computer then i'd use credit to get a new computer if i didn't have the money, but i'd use a credit card and then sell stuff to clear the debt. not pay for it over months/years

when it comes to a component for an upgrade, you just shouldn't be buying/upgrading if you don't have the money, especially when it comes to something like that, it's far from nessesity

there is the saying that "it's your money you can do what you want", which is fair enough if you have the money you can blow it on what you want, but if you don't have the money in the first place it's just crazy to get into debt for something unimportant

take something like this, by the time you've paid the item off, how much is it realistically going to sell for if you sold it second hand 3 years later? a tenth of the price, if you are lucky? give it a year or two and something of that power will be less than half the price brand new

Nah, luxuries on credit is a no no for me. Know a couple of people who buy whole towers on credit on the logic that selling the it at the end of the credit agreement will cover the interest then immediately going for an upgrade, just a hassle free way to get a brand new top of the range box every few years. Don't know anyone who'd do a single component on credit.

The only justification for buying a component on finance without being a complete muppet is if it's for work or personal development.

I caveat this that this thread is clearly about finance for a component, not a computer.
If you can't afford a component that is purely for luxury reasons without finance, you should wait until you can.

Can you guess what my answer was?

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Originally Posted by badass

Can you guess what my answer was?

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Given that 100% have said no, I'm fairly confident :D

Not a chance. There's nothing I want badly enough to go into debt over it, short of a roof over my head and food on the table. Fortunately, the former is sorted, and the latter unlikely to ever require debt to fund it.

So I'm 100% debt-free, and have every intention of staying that way. Personally, I wouldn't even go into debt for a whole computer, let alone a component. I'd make do with the existing machine, or use an older but still working machine, or if need be, buy a dirt-cheap end-of-use machine from someone upgrading, for whatever I could afford. And if I can't even afford that, I sure as hell can't afford finance for a component or a better machine.

I don't even use credit cards much, and NEVER for anything I can't afford outright, and then, I pay it off in full, on time. Most months, probably 8 out of 12, my credit card bill is zero.

Even in good, safe, stable, high-growth and secure-job periods, you never know what's round the corner .... like ill health, accident, etc. Learnt that lesson the hard way. And a debt that is easily manageable today can turn into a nightmare millstone, right quick. Seen it happen.

So, without wishing to seem judgmental, and with the proviso that we each get to live our lives as we wish, and make our own mistakes, my view is that unnecessary debt, and especially for things like this, is the sign of the naive, or the idiot. I'm sure as hell not going there, and I would advise others not to either .... but the one thing I've learned about advice is that most people (me included) rarely recognise good advice whenwe get it, and even more rarely take it, especially if it means denying ourselves something we want. Oh well.

No my computer is a luxury so for an upgrade i would just wait. Although i would probably whack a component on a credit card if it blew up out of warranty and i didnt have the money so i dont know which is worst lol

Don't need? Can't afford?

Don't buy.

Doesn't get harder than that folks.

If it's some kind of interest free credit then it makes sense to do that as inflation will erode some of the debt so you would be better off. Like what you get when you buy a sofa. Also if you use interest free credit cards you can make a saving.

Of course that sort of thing requires discipline.

Personally I use my credit card to buy anything as then I have a nice record of transactions, the security of using then and I build up a credit rating. I find having everything listed in my debit account harder to track what's what.



Personally I never use those kind of finance in the op.

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Originally Posted by Kumagoro

If it's some kind of interest free credit then it makes sense to do that as inflation will erode some of the debt so you would be better off. Like what you get when you buy a sofa. Also if you use interest free credit cards you can make a saving.

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Depends on how you look at it. First, unless you have the money to pay off the finance before you start, then you are taking a risk. Say you buy that sofa, £1000, on credit. Then next month, you lose your job and income drops to benefits only. If you have the £1000 and can pay off the loan or card, then you're okay. But if not, the interest and/or charges can mount up very quickly, and if you're not careful, it costs you a fortune, and maybe ends up with debt collectors or even bailiffs after you.

So, for peace of mind, my attitude is NEVER rely on future income to pay off a debt on a non-essential, because you're gambling that things go according to plan, and that that future income materialises. It may not.

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Originally Posted by Kumagoro

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Personally I use my credit card to buy anything as then I have a nice record of transactions, the security of using then and I build up a credit rating. I find having everything listed in my debit account harder to track what's what.

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I keep my own records, so don't need credit card statements for that. An accounts prog, a simple Excel spreadsheet, or even a £1 paper notebook will do the job. I agree about the building of a credit rating, but I don't really care about building one, as personally, I don't want credit, certainly not beyond what I have available. But I'm at that stage in life where that isn't an issue, and I grant you, many people aren't. And I also agree about security, up to a point. Consumer Credit Act protection is useful, provided the transaction is over £100

I entirely agree about it requiring discipline.

But the sheer habit of bunging everything on a card tends to erode that very discipline. Each to his own, of course, but for me, credit cards are an occasionally useful evil. but an evil, nonetheless.

as someone that has screwed up financially in the past. no, never, and not again

getting myself back on the scale has been hard, its done, end of, no more credit, except maybe for a house.

No. I learnt my lesson that debt is a poor and expensive substitute for saving. The list of things I'd buy on credit is very very short indeed.

For something 'non-essential' as a new component then I would never advise anyone to take finance

A grand for something that can be used pretty much for only game playing? Nope. I'm still struggling with the concept of spending £200 for a decent graphics card! I take the view that a PC/ graphics card is a luxury and paying for luxuries on the never never is a no no. It's good to see that most people agree. Common sense returns!

So far ALL people agree, and it's good to see. That sort of money on a luxury you can't afford is madness. Nay, madness on madness.

Ultimately I think it comes down to how you were raised.

Plenty of people 20/30 years ago thought it good to buy a TV on credit. In fact buying one that way was probably all they could afford, by buying it slowly over 3 years, ment they didn't have to wait the 2 years it would have taken to save the money not paying credit.

Now if that TV has a life span of 20 years, that isn't really that much of a bad deal. Two years is a hell of a long time to wait for something you want, which has such an effect on live as having no tv vs having tv would have done in the 80s say. It was common for people to buy a washing machine on credit, because the outlay (say £500) was too much, and the cost of not having one negated the costs of credit, laundrettes are not cheap!

The problem is now adays the life span is less, not because it stops working, but because zomfg 4k pixels in 3d!!! The fact is that this thing is making only a little improvement on life compared to not having a TV, or financial impacts of laundrette use.

Personally I can not comprehend the idocy of some people and credit, they buy a 'flash' car they can't afford, which horrifically de-values, I've seen students buy expensive DSLRs, the bodies of which never hold value for long.

I know a student who bought a DSLR (one of the Nikon DX0 range IIRC), and lent it to a mate of his. You can guess the rest.

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Originally Posted by Saracen

I don't even use credit cards much, and NEVER for anything I can't afford outright, and then, I pay it off in full, on time.

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I use my credit card for most PC component purchases simply for the additional protection you get. The credit card company is jointly liable for the goods if anything goes wrong under warranty, so you have added protection if the seller or manufacturer goes bust.

The credit card is however paid in full each month to prevent costly interest!

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Originally Posted by Chadders87

I use my credit card for most PC component purchases simply for the additional protection you get. The credit card company is jointly liable for the goods if anything goes wrong under warranty, so you have added protection if the seller or manufacturer goes bust.

The credit card is however paid in full each month to prevent costly interest!

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Only for transactions over £100 (and under £30, 000, but it would have to be one heck of a component for that to be a problem).

But yes, that protection is a benefit, as I mentioned in post 13 above. It doesn't change what I said, though. I don't use credit cards "much", and never, ever for something I can't buy outright. In other words, I do occasionally pay by card, when circumstances demand. For instance, I bought a food processor at the thick end of £400 just before Christmas, and to qualify for a Magimix promotion, it had to be bought that day. And it wasn't in stock at my local branch (of John Lewis). It was in stock at another branch, so to guarantee it was held at that branch, my local branch rang through, organised the purchsse and I paid by card. But I was in the first branch, with cash, and had they had it there, would have paid cash. I used the card, as a convenience and because of circumstance, not because I wanted or needed credit, or even was bothered about that purchase protection. And I paid the card off in full when the bill arrived, and that processor, and one other similar item, were the only things on the bill. The following month, the bill was £0, as it had been for a couple of preceeding months.

The upside of credit cards, for me anyway, is the convenience factor, but the downside is that first, you tell the card company something about yourself every single time you use it, and second and much more importantly, they are seductive and dangerous if you get to use them as a matter of course.

in this day and age i would not take finance for anything ...iff you an't got it save it .. or buy secondhand ..

Rather than paying more for it early, why not just wait a few months and save up, by that time a better component would probably have come out anyway