quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

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Originally posted by egregore:
At 16-24% (variable) for the Visa and 28% for the Prime store card, I still maintain this is a deal with the devil. But as long as you're keeping up and managing it, it's all good.

As with any CC you carry a balance and you are dealing with the devil.
We have not carried a credit card balance in nearly a decade and have no plans to start again so no worries here.

That's the ticket right there. As long as you don't use a credit card as a means to finance something and you pay in full each month you are good. Emergencies arise that might be the exception to the rule. Great deal to get 18 months interest free. However, I am leery about ever opening new lines of credit. If you are not disciplined, they are way to easy rationalize their use.

So the wife and I went down to the local furniture store for a piece she had been wanting.
The piece she wanted was sold out and discontinued. We shopped around a bit and found another piece, managers special $499+tax oh we don’t have a warehouse in town so $50 delivery fee to the door or $70 to the door then assembled. The extra $20 was a no brainer for assembly.
So just over $600. I asked if I could just take the floor model and save the shipping, nope can’t sell floor models.
It was a piece by the company we were at and a really good looking piece so figured not a bad price as the normal price was $700 so they said.
Got home and mother in-law came over so I googled the piece to show her a picture. Well hot damn they sell it on Amazon.
$439 then save 5% with the Amazon card $417. So I called the store back to see if they would match the price and they would not. They charged a $50 restocking fee of course when I cancelled.
Still $467 beats $600 and yup I opted to pay over 12 months.
I see no issue with using the no interest payments.

Amazons buying power is amazing won’t be too long until it is a bit dangerous and they have way too much control of all the markets.

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Originally posted by gpbst3:

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Originally posted by Aeteocles:
If you need to split it into payments, you probably shouldn't buy it.

If you have the cash and can afford it, then just pay it off at once.

Nobody in the history of 0 percent financing offers has ever taken the money that would have been spent on X and put it into an interest bearing account for the period and not spent it elsewhere. (Okay, maybe like a half dozen people).

The hit to your credit with the revolving debt load probably isn't worth the 2.2% interest you are making in a FDIC insured high yield savings account.

Come on, have a little fun. Paying cash for everything can actually hurt your credit score.

No, you misunderstand me.

I put everything on a credit card when I can.

I regularly open new cards and game the system for rewards. My wife and I have hundreds of thousands of dollars in available revolving credit, and thousands of dollars in free points in opening bonuses.

My debt to credit ratio is less than 1% on any given day, despite literally having credit card transactions every day of the month.

What I don't do is carry a balance from month to month, even at 0% interest.

The hit to the debt to credit ratio isn't worth it, and the money that pays for stuff isn't going to get moved into my money market and then moved back out. Money for "stuff" comes out of my checking, and doesn't earn interest. Money that earns interest is money that is being saved and shouldn't be taken out to pay for "stuff."

Honestly, if zero percent offers makes something psychologically more appealing, then you should examine whether you can truly afford it. Suze Orman probably says you can't.

I'll always take 0% interest. I usually pay cash but not taking advantage of 0% interest doesn't seem all that bright. FYI, when I do take advantage of a 0% or very low interest rate I could pay cash. There's just plenty of places to park my cash and make money with it.

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Originally posted by Bytes:
I'll always take 0% interest. I usually pay cash but not taking advantage of 0% interest doesn't seem all that bright. FYI, when I do take advantage of a 0% or very low interest rate I could pay cash. There's just plenty of places to park my cash and make money with it.

Adding to what I wrote on page one, to me cash is king. I’ll keep an extra $500 or whatever in the bank doing nothing and take the interest free credit - paying it off in the required time period. I see no reason not to especially when you can also grab something on sale at the same time.

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Originally posted by Jimineer:

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
I'll always take 0% interest. I usually pay cash but not taking advantage of 0% interest doesn't seem all that bright. FYI, when I do take advantage of a 0% or very low interest rate I could pay cash. There's just plenty of places to park my cash and make money with it.

Adding to what I wrote on page one, to me cash is king. I’ll keep an extra $500 or whatever in the bank doing nothing and take the interest free credit - paying it off in the required time period. I see no reason not to especially when you can also grab something on sale at the same time.

Yep I buy stuff on zero percent interest all the time while having to money to pay cash, but I like getting free loans.

It's a dangerous game to play with credit cards but IF you are going to buy anyway and the amount is significant enough it could be useful.
Really dangerous is going form CC to CC with balance transfers.
NO debt is a better policy but not all can get there I know.

Got my bill since doing this round.
It appears they are doing it slightly different.
In the past they just charged the monthly amount to your card and you got the 5 percent on the monthly charge.

They now are charging the full amount to your balance and in the notes it tells you the total you need to pay including standard balance and monthly promotional balance not to incur interest.
It also appears that the total amount charged NO LONGER gets 5% cash back.
So that is a $20 lesson learned.