Buy now, pay later helped fuel record holiday spending online in 2023, but now that those bills are coming due, consumers aren't sure how they'll pay them.
Weirdly, I got told the opposite. One of my first jobs was at a builder’s merchants, and I was the office lackey for the head accountant. His advice was to always pay off the value of the asset over its lifespan.
I suppose then, it would introduce an additional educational burden of interest rate calculations, depreciation, and all the other exciting things with financial planning, budgeting, and general adulting.
e: from a personal standpoint, it sounds wonderful but I can’t be arsed with juggling everything effectively being turned into a subscription. Unless it’s a 0% finance offer then I’d rather just cough up outright and deal with the financial hole later.
It is a trap because, for a lot of people, money isn’t a number but an on/off switch. You either have enough money to buy something or you don’t instead of being able to understand the short and long term impacts of taking on debt.
Some personal debt can be beneficial, but a lot can lead to major problems.
I agree. I think it’s something that needs far more time on at an early age - whether it’s something integrated into a maths curriculum or something as part of a wider “how to survive in a modern world” courses about taxes, finances, bill payments, wills and death planning etc - all of which are likely massively outside the scope of this post.
I just don’t like the idea of death by a thousand paper cuts - or rather a thousand direct debit entries for Klarna, Very, PayPal Credit, Littlewoods, House of FraserCard, etc. I’d lose track of them too easily.
That said, the last two purchases I took out on finance was an Xbox Series S as it came with two years of Game Pass for a quid more expensive than buying them outright over the same term - and a phone from Very which offered a 20% discount if you ordered it as a new Buy Now Pay Later customer… and the balance was paid a month later.
I save up for a thing so I have the cash, but justify the expense to myself by dividing the enjoyment factor over the time I own and use the thing.
I outright refuse subscriptions, I love geoguessr, and will buy giftcards for a year or two when I have the money, and then not worry about it, if I don’t have the money next time, I will simply let it run out, and wait untill I have money for a gift card.
Don’t have the cash? Don’t get the thing. Best advice my mother ever gave me.
Weirdly, I got told the opposite. One of my first jobs was at a builder’s merchants, and I was the office lackey for the head accountant. His advice was to always pay off the value of the asset over its lifespan.
I suppose then, it would introduce an additional educational burden of interest rate calculations, depreciation, and all the other exciting things with financial planning, budgeting, and general adulting.
e: from a personal standpoint, it sounds wonderful but I can’t be arsed with juggling everything effectively being turned into a subscription. Unless it’s a 0% finance offer then I’d rather just cough up outright and deal with the financial hole later.
I understand this on an intellectual level but simply can’t bring myself to finance anything.
personal debt is a trap I’ve seen too many people get caught by.
It is a trap because, for a lot of people, money isn’t a number but an on/off switch. You either have enough money to buy something or you don’t instead of being able to understand the short and long term impacts of taking on debt.
Some personal debt can be beneficial, but a lot can lead to major problems.
I agree. I think it’s something that needs far more time on at an early age - whether it’s something integrated into a maths curriculum or something as part of a wider “how to survive in a modern world” courses about taxes, finances, bill payments, wills and death planning etc - all of which are likely massively outside the scope of this post.
I just don’t like the idea of death by a thousand paper cuts - or rather a thousand direct debit entries for Klarna, Very, PayPal Credit, Littlewoods, House of FraserCard, etc. I’d lose track of them too easily.
That said, the last two purchases I took out on finance was an Xbox Series S as it came with two years of Game Pass for a quid more expensive than buying them outright over the same term - and a phone from Very which offered a 20% discount if you ordered it as a new Buy Now Pay Later customer… and the balance was paid a month later.
I save up for a thing so I have the cash, but justify the expense to myself by dividing the enjoyment factor over the time I own and use the thing.
I outright refuse subscriptions, I love geoguessr, and will buy giftcards for a year or two when I have the money, and then not worry about it, if I don’t have the money next time, I will simply let it run out, and wait untill I have money for a gift card.