education payment plan for macbook ?

[TechZeke]

You could be right about this estimate but no facts to support it. Anyway if it were true, this is the reason why the U.S. is broke and in trillions of dollars in debt (assuming most of macrumor members are from the United States, not that Europe is in any better situation).

True I have no hard facts, but I know allot of people with macs(I'm in college, there are tons of Macs on campus), and so far I'm the only who actually paid cash for their Mac. In fact, when people find out I paid cash for both my MacBook Pro and iMac, they are amazed and find it taboo. No, I'm not rich, just saved up. Then you have people like my cousin who complains about having a crappy computer or phone but gladly saves up to buy $600 boots she only wore once. With that said, don't be fooled. The vast majority of users on here paid with credit.

Think about it, even if you saved just $50-$75 each month, you could pay cash and upgrade to a new iPhone every year. You have to save even less if you sell the old iPhone online. People just have priorities on what they do with their money.

 

[jjahshik32]

So you are saying you have no job and no means of support and you want your daddy to pay for your computer so YOU can build your credit profile? If this is how I understand it, pretty sad….if I am wrong then my apologies.

I have never financed a computer. I make sure I have the funds available before I spend. Buying a computer on credit with no job is what gets people into financial Hell. They spend money they don't have. Don't know what your major is going to be in college but I hope it is not business. Please take the time to secure a job, and put a portion away each month for a computer. Eventually you will have enough to pay for it. And it will be a good feeling knowing you actually worked for it and it is yours. Don't take my post as being condescending - it is not meant that way.

I remember just out of high school I signed up for a Chase credit card and my credit limit was $300. I used it for gas, food, essentials instead of my debit card and at the end of the month I would just pay the full balance (same as spending cash just using it through credit) and I eventually got my credit limit raised close to 10k.

As my credit limit rose, I used it for bigger purchases. I bought my first Powerbook 17" in 2005 using $2500 in credit but I already had the cash to pay it right off to increase my credit score and limit.

Its sad that the credit system penalizes people from using cash so if you have no activity with your credit card, then your score goes down or they don't raise your limit. I just made sure to have the cash to pay the credit card off when making purchases, so essentially its the same thing as paying cash just that you get to raise your credit score/limit.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Last year's thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1683890/

(I have read this kids posts for the last year and he complains about Apple stuff being too expensive all the time as well as other trivial things)

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I'll let you into a little secret... You don't need a MacBook Pro for college. It is a want, and not a need. Just like you don't need that iPhone, or that Apple Watch.

Don't let your father suffer financially because you want everything in sight. College classes are expensive as it is.

And trust me, a lot of people either stay as much as they can after a lecture to get things done, or they spend the weekends at the computer labs. It's just how it goes.

I paid for my MacBook Pro in cash and I pay for my college tuition in cash.

 

[jjahshik32]

True I have no hard facts, but I know allot of people with macs(I'm in college, there are tons of Macs on campus), and so far I'm the only who actually paid cash for their Mac. In fact, when people find out I paid cash for both my MacBook Pro and iMac, they are amazed and find it taboo. No, I'm not rich, just saved up. Then you have people like my cousin who complains about having a crappy computer or phone but gladly saves up to buy $600 boots she only wore once. With that said, don't be fooled. The vast majority of users on here paid with credit.

Think about it, even if you saved just $50-$75 each month, you could pay cash and upgrade to a new iPhone every year. You have to save even less if you sell the old iPhone online. People just have priorities on what they do with their money.

Yea I know what you mean. I saved up 14 years for my new car that I purchased last June. I put away a couple hundred bucks a month to pay cash for a new car so when the time came I bought what I really wanted. I paid most of it in cash and will have it fully paid off by next June.

I sold my 15" 2011 Macbook Pro and I REALLY didn't want to upgrade right now but after reading about the ATI GPU debacle, I decided to just sell now before I get the issues. I'm very glad that I did and have been looking at the rMbps. I bought the 13" rMbp last week and it was amazing but I decided to return it yesterday. I rather just pocket the cash and put it in the savings as I noticed my iPad 4 gets 90% of my usage and I have a custom built PC rig.

If I break down and miss using a laptop, I may jump on the 15" rMbp close to x-mas time.

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Last year's thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1683890/

(I have read this kids posts for the last year and he complains about Apple stuff being too expensive all the time as well as other trivial things)

----

I'll let you into a little secret... You don't need a MacBook Pro for college. It is a want, and not a need. Just like you don't need that iPhone, or that Apple Watch.

Don't let your father suffer financially because you want everything in sight. College classes are expensive as it is.

And trust me, a lot of people either stay as much as they can after a lecture to get things done, or they spend the weekends at the computer labs. It's just how it goes.

I paid for my MacBook Pro in cash and I pay for my college tuition in cash.

Wait, so does this mean that he's already bought a Macbook Pro last Dec and now wanting to upgrade..? Or is he just trolling everyone?

 

[Kohkane]

Last year's thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1683890/

(I have read this kids posts for the last year and he complains about Apple stuff being too expensive all the time as well as other trivial things)

----

I'll let you into a little secret... You don't need a MacBook Pro for college. It is a want, and not a need. Just like you don't need that iPhone, or that Apple Watch.

Don't let your father suffer financially because you want everything in sight. College classes are expensive as it is.

And trust me, a lot of people either stay as much as they can after a lecture to get things done, or they spend the weekends at the computer labs. It's just how it goes.

I paid for my MacBook Pro in cash and I pay for my college tuition in cash.

Uhm what,
I have no idea what college you're currently at, but most people do not stay after a lecture or spend the weekends at computers labs. Most people do not have time for that. A laptop may not be a necessity but it makes your life far easier in college. After a lecture most people have a another class to go too (or maybe I'm the only college student with back to back classes) and most of the time you're lucky to have it set up in a way that allows you not to at least have 2 or 3 classes in one day.

I don't see why people are so against him financing the laptop. Credit Cards can actually be very beneficial and work in your favor (cash back wise) if you use them correctly.

 

[jjahshik32]

Uhm what,
I have no idea what college you're currently at, but most people do not stay after a lecture or spend the weekends at computers labs. Most people do not have time for that. A laptop may not be a necessity but it makes your life far easier in college. After a lecture most people have a another class to go too (or maybe I'm the only college student with back to back classes) and most of the time you're lucky to have it set up in a way that allows you not to at least have 2 or 3 classes in one day.

I don't see why people are so against him financing the laptop. Credit Cards can actually be very beneficial and work in your favor (cash back wise) if you use them correctly.

I guess it was when the OP mentioned that he'd be paying it off in the range of 1-4 years. That's crazy because most cars that are in the $17k-25k range are financed that long or longer.

I'd understand if you financed and paid it off in a few months to 6 or something but to stretch out a $1000 within the span of 1-4 years is too long. My impression is if it takes you that long to pay off a $1000, I think that you shouldn't be buying it in the first place.

As for the laptop debate, it really depends on your major. If you're in engineering or other technology related major, yea it would be really helpful to have a laptop whenever you need it for specific applications. But majority of the time, you're taking notes with a piece of paper and pen/pencil.

Other than that you use your laptop for comfort to surf the net on facebook or look at other non related school activities and imo actually more of a distraction during class. If you really need to use a computer and usually its related to printing something, you can always swing by the lab/library. Even with the back to back courses, you'd have your work already done before class and I dont see any reason to have a laptop 95% of the time. But then again, if you really wanted to take notes on your computer, you could do it with a $200 netbook with microsoft word. The same goes with the need to check something online or via email, you could do it on your smart phone these days (iPhone?).

The only course that I can think of through college that I really needed a laptop was probably in a programming class. But even then we had computers in that room that we used.

 

[capathy21]

Uhm what, I don't see why people are so against him financing the laptop. Credit Cards can actually be very beneficial and work in your favor (cash back wise) if you use them correctly.

Exactly. They are all playing the self righteous "I pay for everything in cash" card. For those that have enough money to do that, great. I hate to tell them that most people who enjoy nice things do it by financing those things. That does not mean that those people don't pay these things off. You can use credit cards responsibly and have things that you may not be able to pay cash for. If the OP's father wants to buy him a Mac and pay on it monthly, who cares? He will help build the OP's credit (If it's in the OP's name) and also be able to give his son something nice for college.

My mom financed my first laptop when I was in high school. The cheapest laptop you could buy at that time was at least $1,000 (shows my age). It took her 2 and a half years to pay it off but it was the only way she could afford to get me one. She was an adult, she wanted to do it for me. She knew she would pay interest but she felt it was worth it for me to have a tool to help me succeed in school.

No one is paying for college with cash unless they have rich parents or are on scholarship. Even the cheapest public universities are $3,000 plus a semester these days. Unless someone has a good job already, they aren't paying cash for school on top of fully supporting themselves.

 

[terraphantm]

Has anyone bought a macbook that way ?
I am in college so I want to build credit and the same time have the macbook without paying $1300 right away. It's easier for my dad to get it that way but I don't have a job yet but he has enough money to pay monthly for 1-4 years.

Who here has financed a macbook ?

1-4 years is a big range. Even 1 year is too long to finance something as little as $1300 IMO.. but it's not terrible. 4 years would be way too long.

Usually I just divide the price over the interest free period and set up a recurring payment (and even that is mostly because I feel to maximize the value of any deal I get, not necessarily because I can't afford to pay off the laptop in cash)

 

[Jets737]

Apple student discounts

What re the student discounts ?