Best Buy

[the_john]

My credit score is also through the roof. Who said not to pay it off within 18 months? Who said not to make $30 a month payments? If you don't have the money don't buy it. But if you have $30 a month and are responsible and will pay on time then buy it. I rather have an interest free loan than no loan at all.

I was speaking in general terms. One of the things I do on the side is to help people budget their finances and you'd be surprised at how many people start off with the same mentality. If you've got the discipline, then more power to you.
Case in point: I recently helped a family that bought a laptop several years ago on one of those plans and ended up missing a payment and got interest charged to their account all the way back to day one. While it initially started out as a low monthly payment, it more than doubled due to the 24% interest rate. They were still paying those minimum payments when they came to me, three years after the original interest-free financing offer had ended. I calculated it out for them and they could have bought four of those laptops with all the money they had shelled out thus far.
Can't beat a no-interest loan. Unless they throw in some dancers.

 

[dmaul1114]

straight cash or don't buy it at all

Then you are better off buying it from Target.

1) Open credit card
2) 5% off
3) Pay in full at the end of the month
4) Close credit card
5) Who is better than you?

Closing credit cards can sometimes hurt your credit score. It's silly for sure, but I've had several financial advisers tell me not to do that kind of thing.

 

[Chriztofor]

straight cash or don't buy it at all

Then you are better off buying it from Target.

1) Open credit card
2) 5% off
3) Pay in full at the end of the month
4) Close credit card
5) Who is better than you?

Closing credit cards can sometimes hurt your credit score. It's silly for sure, but I've had several financial advisers tell me not to do that kind of thing.

Naturally, I can only speak from personal experience, I have opened and closed many credit cards and when it came time to purchase my house, no problems at all, it wasn't even mentioned. Also, opening up a credit card is easy , paying for it is another story. My advice/suggestions are only for people who can afford it, are responsible, and pay their bills on time. It is not for people who think "18 months, that is like a lifetime, it will never come".

 

[the_john]

Closing credit cards can sometimes hurt your credit score. It's silly for sure, but I've had several financial advisers tell me not to do that kind of thing.

Very true. It's because the more available credit you have, the better you look, to a certain limit. Of course, the credit bureaus won't tell you what that limit is. By closing an account, you're changing your debt to available credit ratio in a negative way (increasing the amount of money you owe vs. how much you can borrow on paper) and that will drop your score.

 

[volcanopele]

Going to get mine at Best Buy (not because it is the best, but because it is two blocks away). This is my plan (copied from my facebook status message on this). Please let me know if I need to change this:

My plan is to go into Best Buy on Friday around 11am to return my current iPad that I purchased on February 11. I am a special premier silver member at Best Buy so I have up to 45 days to return purchases there. If there is no line at the time, I will return at 3:30pm to either get in line or hang around waiting for the 5pm iPad2 release time If this goes as planned, I will get the black 64 GB WiFi version.

 

[Fifi1992]

I called bestbuy they said that online orders will happen sometime after Friday. She said just keep checking the website.

 

[SDM44]

Then you are better off buying it from Target.

1) Open credit card
2) 5% off
3) Pay in full at the end of the month
4) Close credit card
5) Who is better than you?

You're better off not closing a credit card. Closing a credit card will actually hurt your credit score, as it will lower your overall DTI ratio. By leaving a credit card open, let's say with a $10k limit, you then have that available to you and that adds to your available credit. When you have a certain amount of debt, that's factored in with your available credit, thus the DTI ratio.

On a side note, it's better to have good debt than bad debt, meaning 30% or less of the limit on your credit card should be all that you're using and paying off. The rest of your cash should stay in the bank. I'm not a financial analyst preaching to you guys about this, but just saying what I recently had to go through with lenders & banks when buying a house. To have a good credit history & score, lenders want to see you have good debt that you're paying on time, but also have enough cash in the bank to be able to pay that debt off at anytime.


I went a little off topic there, but back on topic.... if you plan on paying off the iPad in a few months and using a credit car with no interest, then that's better than dropping $500-$800 right away IMO. Some people need to keep a reserve amount of cash available to them, so it's easier when you can spread those out those payments over a few months. Just don't get lazy and start making too low of payments and drawing it out longer than planned.

 

[anonaboat]

Ok, ok...easy now. Back to the subject (Best Buy). First, I find it hard to believe that they would sell before the "official" release time. Secondly, I, too, plan to push the "buy now" buttom online. But picking it up at the Apple Store might be a real pain...with any luck , the line would go past a BurgerKing and Starbucks...but I doubt it! Why not just spring for the 2-3 day shipping and get it Monday morning? Just a thought. BJ

 

[Chriztofor]

Then you are better off buying it from Target.

1) Open credit card
2) 5% off
3) Pay in full at the end of the month
4) Close credit card
5) Who is better than you?

You're better off not closing a credit card. Closing a credit card will actually hurt your credit score, as it will lower your overall DTI ratio. By leaving a credit card open, let's say with a $10k limit, you then have that available to you and that adds to your available credit. When you have a certain amount of debt, that's factored in with your available credit, thus the DTI ratio.

On a side note, it's better to have good debt than bad debt, meaning 30% or less of the limit on your credit card should be all that you're using and paying off. The rest of your cash should stay in the bank. I'm not a financial analyst preaching to you guys about this, but just saying what I recently had to go through with lenders & banks when buying a house. To have a good credit history & score, lenders want to see you have good debt that you're paying on time, but also have enough cash in the bank to be able to pay that debt off at anytime.


I went a little off topic there, but back on topic.... if you plan on paying off the iPad in a few months and using a credit car with no interest, then that's better than dropping $500-$800 right away IMO. Some people need to keep a reserve amount of cash available to them, so it's easier when you can spread those out those payments over a few months. Just don't get lazy and start making too low of payments and drawing it out longer than planned.

Ouch my brain hurts.

 

[leena]

You're better off not closing a credit card. Closing a credit card will actually hurt your credit score, as it will lower your overall DTI ratio. By leaving a credit card open, let's say with a $10k limit, you then have that available to you and that adds to your available credit. When you have a certain amount of debt, that's factored in with your available credit, thus the DTI ratio.

That is assuming that you have debt. If you don't then having more credit could hurt you in the instance of getting a mortgage as you have too much available credit.

I went a little off topic there, but back on topic.... if you plan on paying off the iPad in a few months and using a credit car with no interest, then that's better than dropping $500-$800 right away IMO. Some people need to keep a reserve amount of cash available to them, so it's easier when you can spread those out those payments over a few months. Just don't get lazy and start making too low of payments and drawing it out longer than planned.

And this depends. If you have cash reserves already (ideally everyone would have a short term savings that would equate to a few months of paychecks), then no reason to open a credit card and put a single item on it. Also, if you have a cash rebate card, you could also get cash back for your purchases. This would vary by card but for a $800 purchase, you could get up to $40 back or other rewards. For tiered cards such as Discover, it is more important since cash back is determined by total purchases. I'm not a big fan of Discover myself, I like American express but it all adds up.

 

[Kenworth]

Read somewhere that Retail Stores won't be getting them till September.

Ken

 

[Dark Lazer]

Going to get mine at Best Buy (not because it is the best, but because it is two blocks away). This is my plan (copied from my facebook status message on this). Please let me know if I need to change this:

My plan is to go into Best Buy on Friday around 11am to return my current iPad that I purchased on February 11. I am a special premier silver member at Best Buy so I have up to 45 days to return purchases there. If there is no line at the time, I will return at 3:30pm to either get in line or hang around waiting for the 5pm iPad2 release time If this goes as planned, I will get the black 64 GB WiFi version.

I would advise you to sell the ipad on craigslist or somewhere else asap. What you're planning on doing was my initial idea as well, but if you look on the back of the receipt, it says that if youre a silver rewards card member, it won't work for certain things, such as electronics, and it specifically mentions "ipad". For the iPad, you only have 14 days regardless of your membership.

I'm just trying to save you the trouble of going in on Friday and being turned away. What I did was sell my old iPad on Craigslist for $375 (15 gig wifi ipad). I'll have to dish out some of my own cash, but it's better than paying full price.

 

[qnet]

Ok, ok...easy now. Back to the subject (Best Buy). First, I find it hard to believe that they would sell before the "official" release time. Secondly, I, too, plan to push the "buy now" buttom online. But picking it up at the Apple Store might be a real pain...with any luck , the line would go past a BurgerKing and Starbucks...but I doubt it! Why not just spring for the 2-3 day shipping and get it Monday morning? Just a thought. BJ

That's what I'm going to do. The nearest Apple store to me is always crowded on regular days, let alone on a Ipad 2 launch.

 

[dmaul1114]

I think the free shipping from Apple may be the 2 day shipping anyway.

They say "Fast, free shipping" on their site. I doubt they'd list that if they were using the up to 6 business day standard shipping.

 

[Ipad2Woman]

I sold my iPad first gen yesterday for $300 Cash on Craigslist. I could have sold it for more but wanted to sell it quick. Sure enough, someone called up minutes after the ad posted and he came to pick it up very quickly.

I will be up early at the mall that has a Best Buy, Walmart, Sam's Club and Target. All of those stores will be selling the iPad 2, so I have some good options. My first choice is Best Buy, I will be hovering over BB and find out what they are going to do about lines. First place I'm going to do is head immediately to BB in the morning. I have no problem waiting in line for hours either. I am psyched! I will be calling around though in case one of those stores sells it early!

I will be paying CASH all the way