Using credit advice?

EliteLamer

Hey, I have had a credit card but always have paid it off so never had to make payments on something. Well, now I am thinking of getting a 500 dollar pistol on credit account through the company. It has one year no payments but before I do this I wanted to know if there is any advice to follow so I don't get in trouble using credit. How to know how much debt you can afford.

Scrublet

Everyone is different on the amount of debt they are willing to take. One of my friend's dad refused to buy his ski house until he could pay for it with cash. Other people are willing to accept that mortgage and monthly payments. Look at how much you make, and decide how long you want to pay for that pistol. Are you the kind of person that really likes having that empty credit card? Then don't get the gun till you can pay it in 1-3 payments.

You get in trouble using credit when you have more on your cards than you could pay off in any reasonable amount of time. You get in WORSE trouble when you have so much on your card that you can't make the minimum payments on the card.

Thanatos

You shouldn't buy the pistol unless you can afford it now. This isn't a mortgage or a car, it's like putting it on a credit card. Once you've got the $500 in a savings account, then buy the gun, and just pull in the interest on it until you want to pay it down (obviously, making the minimum payments).

Improvolone

So the idea is to make the minimum payments on the gun untill the final month where you pay it off in full?

NotYou

Unless you really need the gun now, because I assume you need to kill someone or are involved in a shooting competition or going hunting, wait till you have the money for it like Thanatos said. This really isn't the right time to start putting yourself into debt for no good reason. Interest will pile up and you'll end up paying more for the gun than its price.

And what if some other emergency costs come up? Youre going to keep getting yourself even more into a hole that you won't be able to get out of.

The economy is going down the shitter. Hold on to your money.

ProPatriaMori

If it's one year, no payments, no interest then I don't see any real reason why you shouldn't so long as you actually remember to pay that sucker off.

I don't know if you necessarily should have the $500 set aside at the start, like Than says--that's optimal--but definitely make sure you're squirreling it away over that year so at the end you get it paid and everybody's happy.

Crashtard

One thing to remember is while you don't have to make any payments for 12 months, it's still racking up the interest. On a store credit card you'll be lucky to get 18% APR, so you would have 75-80 bucks in interest on top of the 500 if you don't pay till you have to. If it's no payments AND no interest that's not bad, but be sure to divide the cost of 500 between 11 months so that you pay it off a month early. If you don't pay it off within the 12 months the interest for those 12 months is added on all at once.

blanknogo

Also keep in mind that no interest doesn't necessarily mean no fees related to the financing.

Scrublet

Crashtard wrote: »

One thing to remember is while you don't have to make any payments for 12 months, it's still racking up the interest. On a store credit card you'll be lucky to get 18% APR, so you would have 75-80 bucks in interest on top of the 500 if you don't pay till you have to. If it's no payments AND no interest that's not bad, but be sure to divide the cost of 500 between 11 months so that you pay it off a month early. If you don't pay it off within the 12 months the interest for those 12 months is added on all at once.

Remember, these are companies. They make these offers for one reason. They generally make money on them. Don't make purchases based on these offers unless you are A) buying a big ticket item and want to avoid the interest and are experienced enough with managing credit to know you're not gonna fuck it up.

Mishra

I bought a bed like this. Here's what I did, I had 18 months no interest no payments. I ignored this and budgeted to pay it off in one year. Then I set my bank up to automatically pay the debt off. It's worked out well my beds paid for I didn't have to save up the couple of grand it would have taken and I got charged zero interest. The key was I had it set up so I couldn't forget to make a payment and I left plenty of time between when it would be paid off and when the full lump sum was due. Your mileage may vary.