Buyer Beware
Beware - your deal is not with the shop - it is with a finance company. These deals are okay IF you ensure that full payment hits their bank account well before due AND you have registered proof you sent a cheque well in advance if you don't do bank transfer. Its a well known technique (I think scam) to receive cheques and not cash them and then you run into the interest agreement that you can't cancel. Take a look at the likely interest on this if you do not pay in full well in time :
On an item costing £500 if you dont pay off in full.....
Start 36 monthly payments of £25.71. Total amount payable: £925.56. Although APR is not shown this looks like an interest rate of about 45% if you count it as starting from month 12 out of the total of 48. In fact it starts from month 1 and you have deferred payments for a year - I reckon that is still interest of about 30%
Now we are all grown-ups and I have no problem with free credit. But don't assume that they will send you a reminder AND don't send them a cheque - make sure that you get their bank and sort code details and pay in full a few weeks before time runs out if you need evidence for a court case.
The reason they can afford for people to do this and take 0% is that they only need 25% of people who take these deals to not be able to afford to pay in full after a year or FORGET to pay in full and they make a profit - any more and they rake it in.
I'll stop now - great deal if you are careful!
Cheers,
M
