PSA: No More Free Lunches with MF/GC and 0% Financing

Just spoke with a synchrony agent. This will only apply to future purchases, not if you are already on a zero finance plan. Guess Im not using them anymore.
 
motorboy1 said:
Just spoke with a synchrony agent. This will only apply to future purchases, not if you are already on a zero finance plan. Guess Im not using them anymore.
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But how would you choose? It’s not like there’s multiple company options for no interest promos. It means you’re no longer doing that at GC, MF, Sweetwater and who knows else. Plus as I discovered with other promo purchases, Lazy Boy and the plumbing company that did my water line.
 
skoora said:
But how would you choose? It’s not like there’s multiple company options for no interest promos. It means you’re no longer doing that at GC, MF, Sweetwater and who knows else. Plus as I discovered with other promo purchases, Lazy Boy and the plumbing company that did my water line.
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Hopefully enough people will chose not to finance and they will remove that 2% fee. I just won’t finance thru them anymore, use a different card and pay it off…
 
motorboy1 said:
Hopefully enough people will chose not to finance and they will remove that 2% fee. I just won’t finance thru them anymore, use a different card and pay it off…
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Well, your regular CC is 15-19%. That’s a hell of a lot more than 2%, even if you pay it off in 12 months vs. an 18 month promo. Bottom line is they know they have a lot of musicians by the balls on this.
 
skoora said:
Well, your regular CC is 15-19%. That’s a hell of a lot more than 2%, even if you pay it off in 12 months vs. an 18 month promo. Bottom line is they know they have a lot of musicians by the balls on this.
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Personally, I dont put anything on my credit cards unless I can pay it in full that week. The credit card is just a medium of exchange for convenience.

I actually pay off my credit card every week, always making sure I leave a small balance on the day when the bill rolls over.
 
I just logged onto my Synchrony account, where it lists all my various cards and I can't find any mention anywhere of the 2% fee. Kind of thinking of using my PayPal Credit a big purchase, but a 2% fee will be a deal killer for me.
 
Rick Lee said:
I just logged onto my Synchrony account, where it lists all my various cards and I can't find any mention anywhere of the 2% fee. Kind of thinking of using my PayPal Credit a big purchase, but a 2% fee will be a deal killer for me.
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It was directly on my statement, not in the inbox/notifications. It's likely due to retailers not wanting to take on the extra 2% and are passing it on to the consumer, not the end of the world, but it is what it is. I would guess their actual payout to synchrony is already 10-15%, possibly more. PPCC isn't really a store card, so it's probably a bit harder to get everyone who accepts pp to get on board with anything above the regular going rate of a CC payment/paypal fees, but may change in the future on the consumer end? Either way, at the moment it seems to only effect purchases that are taken out over 18+ months with store cards.
 
dooredge said:
Per my Sweetwater rep, it applies to new transactions only. The 2% won't be retroactively charged.
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Thanks

I used one at sweetwater for studio monitors.

I never would have upgraded were it not 0% because guitars and amps are more fun. I never finance guitars and amps…

Oh the mental leaps we make for gear…
 
Not sure if it's already bee addressed in this thread, but this is due to the Biden administrations elimination of credit card late fees.

This will be on everything you purchase on interest free credit cards going forward. If you need some furniture or something big go get it now.

It'll be effective industry wide by August if I had to guess, but most of the credit card heavy banks will be ready to go in June.
 
This is not applied to any prior balances. It's effective for Synchrony on purchases made after some point in June. The day is basically dependent on when you opened the card, and your statement will say the exact date.
 
I'm probably going to pull the trigger on a Rolex with a card that has a 0% intro APR for 15 mos. In the meantime, I'll sell a watch or two and easily knock it all out in a few mos. But 2% of the purchase price is a non-starter. And that's assuming I can get it from a grey dealer who takes cards and doesn't charge sale tax on out of state buys.
 
I don't like the idea of buying anything I can't pay for up front. Part of that from the hard lessons of terrible decisions when I was younger. With the 0% finance deals, you're still paying for the financing, whether you know it or not. It's built into the markup of whatever it is your buying, and the merchant is then funding the financing with your dollars. That's typically why MF, GC, Sweetwater, and others, don't offer the same financing deals on sale/used/discount items. Even when they do, there's still enough markup to pay the bank for the use of their money. I replaced my HVAC last year, and the contractor offered 0% financing (carried by Synchrony, of course), or I could just pay in full for ~10% off. The whole 0% financing thing is just misdirection for people who are averse to paying interest. You're still taking the pill, they're just wrapping it in cheese and hoping you don't notice it.
 
MusicIsLife said:
I don't like the idea of buying anything I can't pay for up front. Part of that from the hard lessons of terrible decisions when I was younger. With the 0% finance deals, you're still paying for the financing, whether you know it or not. It's built into the markup of whatever it is your buying, and the merchant is then funding the financing with your dollars. That's typically why MF, GC, Sweetwater, and others, don't offer the same financing deals on sale/used/discount items. Even when they do, there's still enough markup to pay the bank for the use of their money. I replaced my HVAC last year, and the contractor offered 0% financing (carried by Synchrony, of course), or I could just pay in full for ~10% off. The whole 0% financing thing is just misdirection for people who are averse to paying interest. You're still taking the pill, they're just wrapping it in cheese and hoping you don't notice it.
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That's only true if the business is willing to give you a discount for paying in full/cash. The guy above talking about getting a Rolex is not getting a discount no matter how he pays. GC has their list of brands that they won't discount, but you still get the free financing on them through Synchrony.

You usually only really see cash discounts in small businesses, or places with longer financing periods on high dollar items like that HVAC or big furniture purchases. In NJ you used to see it in gas stations, but it had to be advertised. Eventually the majority just went to the same price for both cash or card, and it was of course the marked up price.
 
I used to work Amex and I can't count the number of business owners I spoke with who didn't want to use their card for vendor spend because they didn't want their vendors to eat the merchant fees. But if those vendors accepted Amex and didn't give terms for paying cash, then the business owner was paying those fees anyway, as they were built into everyone's price. I'll take a cash discount every single time it's offered, and I'll even let them ship it to me from out of state if that gets the sales tax dropped. But if my money is earning >5% in a CD and the price of something I want is the same with cash or credit at a rate below that which I'm earning, I'm using someone else's money.
 
I totally agree with buying shit you can afford / not financing.
That said, the monitors I bought were 33% off demo units that I got a hell of a decent deal.
The demo was 23% off, I got another 10%, and when I asked if I could do the 0% financing, my rep said sure!

That made it really easy at 0%. At that point, I don’t really care!
 
Shask said:
Personally, I dont put anything on my credit cards unless I can pay it in full that week. The credit card is just a medium of exchange for convenience.

I actually pay off my credit card every week, always making sure I leave a small balance on the day when the bill rolls over.
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This is what AmEx is for. We pay for a lot of stuff with the AmEx and then just pay that in full the next statement period. You get a lot more protection through them and it has other benefits especially if you fly Delta.
 
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