Apple's Financing Plan

Search the forum, there are several threads on this.

One catch I remember reading about is that if your order ships in multiple shipments, only the first one is under the interest free plan.

VoltronBomb said:

Apple offers a seemingly great finance plan if you cannot currently afford one of their products. There are two plans available that both claim to charge no interest if paid within the given time frame. The first one being no interest if paid within 6 months for purchases of $999 or less. The second one is no interest if paid within 12 months for over $999.

Barclay is the finance company not Apple of course.

This seems like a very good deal (if you pay within the time frame of course). Other than very high interest rates after the 6 or 12 month period, are there any other things that I should know about before choosing this option (good or bad)? What have you experienced with this method of payment?

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I took a look at the finance plan. It's a Visa card. Like I need another one of those. I was considering a 15 or 17 in MBP to replace my 2008 Macbook so I could run ML. I decided to go for a refurb mini ($469) rather than sign up for a rather hefty bill even if it was interest free. Perhaps a year from now I might decide to replace my white Macbook and if Apple/Barclay still offers this 0 interest financing, I will probably use it.

VoltronBomb said:

Apple offers a seemingly great finance plan if you cannot currently afford one of their products...

...Other than very high interest rates after the 6 or 12 month period, are there any other things that I should know about before choosing this option (good or bad)? What have you experienced with this method of payment?

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Other than not being able to afford it? No, no problems with spending that much money at all.

ITs not bad all around. Just remember that you are opening a Visa Signature card and you will get a card in the mail. Any purchase you make after your initial i subject to your interest rate. Further, only your first purchase with apple qualifies for financing. If you buy a MBP and then decide a few months later that you also want an iMac you will be out of luck for financing. Other than that its a great system just pay it off it before your promo period expires.

If you cannot afford to buy it cash, why finance it? Bad financial practices.

PhoenixMac said:

If you cannot afford to buy it cash, why finance it? Bad financial practices.

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Right on.

Finance a house, yes
Finance a car, maybe, big maybe
Everything else, no way!
Small debt like a computer or anything else is not good.

If it is interest free and you are comfortably able to pay it off, and need a computer, there's no downside.

Take the money you would have had to save to buy it outright, and pay off other debts that are accruing interest - like your house, car loan or whatever. Or stick the money in the bank and GAIN interest whilst the Apple loan accrues nothing.

throAU said:

If it is interest free and you are comfortably able to pay it off, and need a computer, there's no downside.

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If you are "comfortably" able to pay it off, why not just buy it outright to begin with ? And save your credit resources for other, more important and significant purchases.......like...oh I dont know....maybe...... a home.....income producing investments....life insurance etc etc etc

That way you are not accumulating debt on something that will depreciate VERY rapidly and eventually have to be disposed of and replaced, thereby starting the cycle all over again......

SmurfBoxMasta said:

If you are "comfortably" able to pay it off, why not just buy it outright to begin with ? And save your credit resources for other, more important and significant purchases.......like...oh I dont know....maybe...... a home.....income producing investments....life insurance etc etc etc

That way you are not accumulating debt on something that will depreciate VERY rapidly and eventually have to be disposed of and replaced, thereby starting the cycle all over again......

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The money you are spending upfront could be earning you interest while there is a 0% finance option. May as well earn 12 months of interest in a savings account rather than letting the banks earn it

Ap0ks said:

The money you are spending upfront could be earning you interest while there is a 0% finance option. May as well earn 12 months of interest in a savings account rather than letting the banks earn it

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Solid advice and usually my thoughts...but the interest rate here in the US banks is dismal. 1.5 percent of 2,000 is...not much.

Again, always better to have money in the savings earning something than debt earning nothing.

Ap0ks said:

The money you are spending upfront could be earning you interest while there is a 0% finance option. May as well earn 12 months of interest in a savings account rather than letting the banks earn it

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Thankyou.

I thought I made this clear in my original comment but obviously some missed it.

0% interest vs gaining interest in the bank or putting the money into loans that ARE accruing interest = why pay cash? Put the money to better use to reduce interest incurred debt, or gain interest with it.


Sure, if you were going to pay interest on it, that changes things. even so, if the rate is low enough, it may still be worth paying the small rate of interest if the money could be put to better use.


Similar to how I use my credit card: i have interest free for 55 days on my card. So i live off it, and keep the money i WOULD have spent in my mortgage offset account. I pay the card off before the 55 days interest free expires.

Instead of doing nothing, the cash I was spending interest free was reducing the interest on my mortgage....

fenskezen said:

Solid advice and usually my thoughts...but the interest rate here in the US banks is dismal. 1.5 percent of 2,000 is...not much.

Again, always better to have money in the savings earning something than debt earning nothing.

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That's the only downside at the moment interest rates are dire on most savings accounts, but still every little helps

Ap0ks said:

The money you are spending upfront could be earning you interest while there is a 0% finance option. May as well earn 12 months of interest in a savings account rather than letting the banks earn it

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But the people who finance it probably do not have a comfortable savings account to begin with and think they are going to pay it off before it accrues interest, and then life happens. The car breaks, the house needs repairs, a medical emergency, you name it. Now they have a debt to pay with interest because it is passed that interest free period. My best friend is a Personal Finance Advisor, and he tells me all of these stories of these young kids racking up debt because of offers like these.

I would rather put it on my rewards card because I earn 2x points shopping at Apple.com and between 1x upto 15x points shopping at other places and pay that bill off before the end of the month and it is like getting paid to shop. Last month after redeeming my points for a visa gift card it averaged out to be about 3% "interest" over the span of 3 months. There are ways to beat the financial "system" and these offers are not the way to go.

And if you would rather the bank earning you interest using the 0%interest plan, just sock that money away in a CD/savings/money market until you can afford to buy it cash, same principle one is just a better way.

PhoenixMac said:

But the people who finance it probably do not have a comfortable savings account to begin with and think they are going to pay it off before it accrues interest, and then life happens. The car breaks, the house needs repairs, a medical emergency, you name it. Now they have a debt to pay with interest because it is passed that interest free period. My best friend is a Personal Finance Advisor, and he tells me all of these stories of these young kids racking up debt because of offers like these.

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Your first line shows that you aren't seeing what I'm trying to say - To make the money work for you rather than the supplier/bank you have to have it in the first place, you won't earn any interest if you don't so kinda negates the whole purpose

It all boils down to being able to understand where you are financially and what risks you can take (obviously harder for "young kids"). Like with any financial product it has to be considered on a personal basis, other people can't tell you what decision to make as they don't know the facts, I'm just pointing out that it can be used as an advantage (should you be in the position to do so!).

If you have little disposable income buying a $2000 laptop isn't a good idea, even if it is 0% interest!

Ap0ks said:

Your first line shows that you aren't seeing what I'm trying to say - To make the money work for you rather than the supplier/bank you have to have it in the first place, you won't earn any interest if you don't so kinda negates the whole purpose

It all boils down to being able to understand where you are financially and what risks you can take (obviously harder for "young kids"). Like with any financial product it has to be considered on a personal basis, other people can't tell you what decision to make as they don't know the facts, I'm just pointing out that it can be used as an advantage (should you be in the position to do so!).

If you have little disposable income buying a $2000 laptop isn't a good idea, even if it is 0% interest!

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I understand what your saying and its really solid ADVICE.