Credit Card Same As Cash

Over the years same as cash purchases has become very popular. Same as cash offers come from appliance, computer, furniture and home improvement stores. What you need to review with these offers is how soon do you have to start making payments.

I have seen offers where payments are deferred for up to two years. Many people think this is great since you don't have to make any payments for two whole years. However, interest is building on the balance.

For example you purchase a new furniture set from you local furniture store for $1,500. The offer states NO payments for two years. The only problem is the interest rate is probably 19.99% or higher. What this means to you the consumer is that you better pay off that entire $1,500 before that 24th month. If not, the new balance will be $1,500 plus the accrued interest. This can quite significant if you haven't made any payments the previous two years.

With deferring your payments for two years the local furniture store or actually the finance company is hoping you won't pay off the balance in two years. The interest charged is how the finance company will earn their money.

The second type of same as cash offer would be no interest for two years as long as you make a monthly payment. How this offers differs from the first is that some type of minimum payment is required to continue the offer. If you happen to miss a payment the offer may no longer be valid. Whether or not missing a payment will cause such a scenario is based on the company. Always read the fine print.

The monthly payment requirement is actually a good feature since you are required to build some type of payment in your budget. Over the same as cash offer you would be lowering your balance. Just like the first offer the interest will continue to accrue on the unpaid balance.

Same as cash offers are very good ways to save some money on finance charges, but you must have knowledge of what happens after the offer expires. If you happen not to pay off the entire balance by the end of the offer period the accrued interest will be added to your balance.

Let's use the same $1,500 I used previously. Suppose you paid only $1,300 on the $1,500 after the two years. According to most same as cash offers ALL the interest built up over the previous 24 months is added to the remaining balance of $200. This amount can be pretty large and the reason why the finance company made the offer in the first place.

The finance company realizes a certain will pay off the entire balance and some will not. You need to make sure you are not one of the one's left with a balance. To make sure this does not happen to you definitely should divide your balance by the number of months you received the same as cash offer and subtract two months. For example the offer is for 24 months you would divide your balance by 22 months. The reason should be obvious. You don't want to come to the 24 month with a large balance still due.

I hope this helps you when you are looking at making a purchase of a new TV, computer or furniture.



Visit http://www.debtstrength.comor