Should I Use Catalogue Credit?

If we buy from a catalogue, whether online or through a printed catalogue, we will sometimes be offered the option of getting some credit. This means that we may not have to spend all of the money at once, but we could pay it over a series of months or weeks. This has advantages and disadvantages and it is worth considering these before you decide whether it is the right thing for you to do.

Cost

There are a few cost factors that you need to consider. The first is that you will often find that if you spread the payments that you will have to pay interest. This means that you will pay extra for the items compared to how much you would pay if you bought it outright. It is important to compare the costs and work out whether you think that it is worth paying that extra money. You may find that some prices are no different, so if you pay it outright or over a series of months the cost is the same. You may decide that this means that you will not need to consider the cost. However, the cost of the credit will be incorporated into all of the prices. This means that you could still end up paying too much, so make sure that you compare the prices of what you are thinking of buying with what other retailers are charging, so that you can find out whether you are paying more than necessary.

If you do decide to take the credit option, then it is really important to make sure that you are totally aware of how much you will be expected to pay. You need to think about how much you will have to pay each month or week and whether that is an amount that you will be able to afford. Do not take a risk by just assuming that you will be fine, but make sure that you actually work it out. Calculate how much money you normally have left at the end of the month and then you will know whether there will be enough to cover these extra costs.

Convenience

Using credit means that we can often buy something that we would not otherwise be able to afford. Lots of people use this all the time for things like mortgages or student loans which they would just not be able to afford otherwise. However, borrowing money will always have a cost. You have to pay interest and possibly other charges or fess as well. This means that we end up paying more for the item (not always in the case of student loans but they are an exception) and it is worth making sure that we are happy with paying that extra for the convenience of getting the item sooner. It is probably the case that for some items we will be able to wait and save up for the item but for others we will need it right away and so this might be the only way we can afford to buy it.

It is therefore important to make sure that you make a careful decision. There is no doubt that credit can be really at times, but it is also costly. Therefore, we should have a think and decide whether we think that it will provide good value for money or not. This will be an individual decision based on how much value we think that the item will give us and whether we are prepared to pay the extra for it. We should also check to see whether we can get it cheaper elsewhere and also whether, if we borrow the money in an alternative way, we could save money.

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