Did you purchase or finance your DELL?

Did you purchase or finance your DELL?

 

I went with DPA... Mainly because they offered me 6 months interest free... That allowed me to spread the cost of my laptop across both semesters and make it more affordable .

If you do use that method be very sure you don't miss paying it off!

 

To any Brits or Europeans who've bought with Dell Finance, does Dell allow you to prepay or are you committed to the monthly payments and can't close the loan early?

 

I financed through my company. 0% interest and I paid through Paypal. So I voted for niether.

 

Paid cash money.

 

Credit card all the way.... It was such a good deal I just sprung for it especially after seeing the good remarks on the Vostro in this forum.

 

Used my DPA for my 1330 because they offered me no interest for 12 months!

How could I say no to that?

 

I used my debit card.

I don't plan on ever having a credit card or taking out a loan.
Take that banks.

 

I am not sure how old you are but if you are young I would be impressed to see you get through life without a loan or credit. It would be impressive. Credit is a tool and should be used as such. If used responsibly it can do nothing but help IMO

 

I'm with you man. I never plan on using credit or a loan for something stupid like electronics or clothing.

Only thing I'll ever use it for is purchasing a home and paying for medical school tuition.

 

Credit is fake money that banks invent out of nothing, yet you have to pay back with real money.

It may be old fashioned to live within one's means (keeping the monthly payments within one's means doesn't count), but if there's one thing I want to avoid in life, it's making myself a slave to possessions by agreeing to work to pay them off over X years. My college is fully paid for by grants/scholarships, whenever I buy a car (currently have a bike) I will pay cash, and after I get a job I will live with my parents until I can afford a cheap home, which I will pay for in cash and sell if I want something bigger.

 

i like the cut of your jib.

 

Money in and of itself is something arbritrary created by the government from essentially the same amount of nothing that banks use to create credit...

As was already posted, credit is a tool and like any tool when used right it aids you and doesn't hamper you... A person in your situation isn't making a very wise choice. Since most companies use credit reports to determine if they will hire you or not... Car Insurance companies use it to determine your insurance rate... And a myrid of other companies use it to make determinations about you. Your choice to live wisely, yet old fashioned, are only hampering you.

It would be in your best interest to have a few credit cards and just be sure to pay them all off on time. Doing it that way leads to it being no different than cash and will give you a credit report to reflect that.

 

Used wisely, credit can be a powerful tool that can be used to your advantage. For example, by taking out a mortgage at the right time, I locked in an exceptional rate and was able to afford a house in a more desirable location essentially insulated from most fluctuations in the real estate market. The accumulated value increase alone over the last few years has already exceeded the total cost of borrowing (COB) for the entire amortization period.

While the cheapest house within your means, purchased with cash, is usually the safest choice, it's not necessarily the wisest investment, and the most successful individuals in our society balance minimal risk and maximum return in an intelligent fashion. Even more importantly, a good credit history gives you options and opens doors if and when you need them (and at some point in your life, chances are, you will).

Case in point, having a good credit rating allowed me to get my m1330 on a Dell Financial installment plan offering no interest until 2009 (I have never missed a payment or payoff date of any kind), which is basically free money in my pocket for a 18 months.

Here in Canada, if I take that $2000 and place it in an education fund for my new baby, I net $400 in matching grants from the government (more free money). At the current, conservative annual return on the S&P500/TSX index of about 10%, I make another $400 during the lifespan of my interest-free Dell loan. That's an extra $800 of free money that will basically compound until my kid goes to college, free of charge.

My best friend wanted to take advantage of the same deal too. Unfortunately, although he is extremely responsible and has plenty of assets, his "never" attitude to responsible borrowing over the years meant that he had basically no credit history, and Dell Financial was unable to even approve him for either the loan or no-interest deal.

There are many other examples of how you can take advantage of a system that, admittedly, is often designed to take advantage of you. Debit cards RARELY have rewards attached to them, while credit cards do, to entice you to borrow on them. I use my credit card to buy EVERYTHING - gas, groceries, appliances, you name it - but treat it like a debit card, paid off in full every month. I've earned so many travel points, I haven't paid for a hotel stay in almost ten years.

Read about leverage and credit responsibility. Few people ever got rich by taking on zero risk. Off my soapbox.

 

I bought my Inspiron 5100 in 2003 through DPA. That was great until I realized I was getting reamed with 27% interest!!! (paid that off real quick after that) I just ordered a Vostro 1700 a few weeks ago (got it this week) and paid with my debit card. I paid off my car and student loans last year and got rid of all my credit cards. I just got sick of paying people every month, so now I pay myself every month. It's funny that the previous poster mentioned his friend wanting to use financing through Dell to get a new computer. If he is so responsible, then he would SAVE the money and pay cash with that. (or just use his own credit to buy his friend the laptop!) I figure if someone won't give me financing for a house, then I will go somewhere else. Debt is not good people... I recommend reading Dave Ramsey's - Total Money Makeover book. Some of you who live off credit will just laugh at it and move on, others will try it out and be amazed at how being in debt sucks and do what you can to get out.

 

You misunderstood the story - and credit in and of itself has nothing to do with responsibility. Both my friend and I HAD enough money to easily pay cash outright for our machines - in reality, they wouldn't have put a dent into either of our savings. And at the end of the day, he did pay cash and I took out the Dell Financial interest free loan.

Why? Right now, DFS is carrying the entire cost of my machine - for free - until 2009. Do I have the cash to pay them off right now? Sure. But why would I? For the next 18 months, I'm $2000 richer - and leveraging that "free money" to earn returns. Even if I just dumped that $2k in a high-yield savings account, by end of next year, I would have $2200 - $2000 to give back to DFS, and $200 in my pocket. And there are, of course, investments with far higher annual returns.

Also, just "going somewhere else" to find mortgage financing is a recipe for being gouged. The idea is to borrow smartly so that you both MAKE money AND earn a stellar credit rating. Whether it's a mortgage or car insurance or whatever, companies respect that kind of history and will literally fight among themselves for your business when the time comes, and you win again with absolute rock-bottom rates and the best terms.

The simple fact is that I have "borrowed heavily" ever since I was in college. At the end of the day (and at the end of each loan), not once have I ever ended up paying a lender more money than I ended up making back (through real estate appreciation, investing money from interest-free loans, earning rewards from credit card companies, etc.)

 

I had to use a credit card because even though I got a Dell preferred account with a $4000.00 limit and 19.72% interest rate after going through the entire process including a credit check I could not finance because I am not verifiable.

Dell can not tell my why I am not verifiable or what can cause someone to not be verifiable. I understand this since any clue as to how they verify people would allow people to fake verifiability. But it doesn't make sense to me that I can go through the whole process and be granted such a limit and credit rate, but not be verified. Shouldn't that come up at some point?

 

I like your attitude, and don't mean to criticize, but if you're the kind of person who actually can keep within his means, you're better off using a credit card over a debit card. But only if you can control your spending and not use a CC as a license to go nuts.

I pay off my balance in full each month and never carry month-to-month credit card debt, and I NEVER use debit. I don't even have a Visa or Master Card logo on my ATM card, I am that serious about it.

But absolutely good for you for living within your means. I respect that alot. But doing that can include smart use of credit. Just sayin'.

Edit: I absolutely agree with everything Snowkarver says. Part of being financially intellegent is knowing how to intellegently utilize credit.

 

Not-verifiable means whatever credit reporting agency they used to pull a report on you either didn't have enough or any information on you. I used to get that a bit before when my report was pulled from Experian. It's no longer the case though, but it happens to people occasionally.

 

The above poster speaks the truth. There are countless examples of how to leverage credit to your advantage. For example, as a small business owner, I could take out a DPA, put a $2000 notebook on it, write more than 35% of it off in taxes at the end of the year and sell it 1 month before the full amount is due for less than half what I paid. $2000 - 35% - 45% means I'm paying 20% of the cost of the notebook ($400 in this case) to use it for a year. That's around $30/month for a $2000 laptop that I more or less replace once a year. I could also take that $2000 and invest it for a slight return to further bring down the cost. As long as I pay off the full amount before the end of the 0% interest period, I'm not paying a dime to use their money to reduce my costs.

You're essentially using Dell's money for free as long as you pay it off before the end of the year.

The points made in the above post in regard to lacking credit (versus bad credit) is only too true. I've run into this myself. I refused to take out credit cards when I was younger, although I did take out student loans. I then took out a mortgage on a home and cosigned on two vehicles after graduating. Luckily, the house and two cars brought up my credit scores, however, the type of credit I have built up is high balance and non revolving as opposed to relatively low balance revolving credit such as credit cards. This means that I would have a hard time applying for a credit card even though I have a large mortgage and two car loans on my credit report. I'd need to take out a prepaid credit card to improve that side of my credit.

That's where I would suggest starting out, especially if you are uncomfortable with an actual credit card. It's reported to the credit beaureau's just the same. Capital One and Orchard Bank are a couple off of the top of my head that allow you to dump money into an account before you actually use the credit card. Start out with a low credit limit... maybe $500 and pretty soon you'll have several thousand available to you. What creditors want to see is that you have credit available to you that you either use and pay off immediately or don't use at all. Right now, you probably don't have any available to you and that will significantly affect the interest rates you receive on a home loan or auto loan when the time comes.

Your dedication to avoiding debt is honorable and deserves respect. You can take your wisdom a step further to use the system and it will most likely help you out a great deal in the future. If used correctly, as in the case of purchasing a home that will appreciate in value at a higher rate than the interest rate on the loan to purchase that home, you're making money from nothing. Say my mortgage rate is 6.5%. Not only can I write off that 6.5%, as long as the house appreciates at at least 6.5%, I'm making money from using the mortgage lender's money. My home has appreciated significantly faster than my interest rate and, as such, I've gained quite a bit of equity that I wouldn't have been able to build up if I didn't have the credit to take out the mortgage in the first place.

Use the system, don't get abused by it.

 

I used my DPA because they were offering 12 months interest free on XPS models. So far, I've already accrued about $60.00 interest costs that I won't have to pay otherwise. And yes I'll be paying it off within 12 months