I looked into using this type of service to pay for a modest purchase. A luxury of sorts. Something I had the cash for, but felt weird about paying all $600 or so for. I thought, maybe an interest free loan would be cool?
So i start to pay for the thing with klarna or whatever. And I see it’s only a six week loan. Wait, my credit card is a free six week loan (give or take). Wtf. I’d have to pay the thing off faster than just using a credit card.
I’ve used similar services to this in the past; not because I couldn’t afford something up front - but because I wanted to amortise the purchase across a pretty short (8 week) period.
Why not just use a credit card? I did. As a semi-regular user of the service, it was set up in such a way that it would bill the first 25% of my purchase after 2 weeks, and again every 2 weeks after that.
So not only was I getting an additional interest-free time stacking the 2 week period with my CC’s billing cycle; but I was earning loyalty/rewards points with both programs simultaneously.
I looked into using this type of service to pay for a modest purchase. A luxury of sorts. Something I had the cash for, but felt weird about paying all $600 or so for. I thought, maybe an interest free loan would be cool?
So i start to pay for the thing with klarna or whatever. And I see it’s only a six week loan. Wait, my credit card is a free six week loan (give or take). Wtf. I’d have to pay the thing off faster than just using a credit card.
I talked myself out of buying whatever it was.
Six weeks seems very short, all the services I’ve seen are three payments over three months.
PayPal pay in 4 is 6 weeks. It splits into 4 payments, 1 due now, 1 after 2 weeks, one after 4 weeks and one after 6 weeks
I’ve used similar services to this in the past; not because I couldn’t afford something up front - but because I wanted to amortise the purchase across a pretty short (8 week) period.
Why not just use a credit card? I did. As a semi-regular user of the service, it was set up in such a way that it would bill the first 25% of my purchase after 2 weeks, and again every 2 weeks after that.
So not only was I getting an additional interest-free time stacking the 2 week period with my CC’s billing cycle; but I was earning loyalty/rewards points with both programs simultaneously.