Buy now Pay later - Opinions/Advice?

I have made two big purchases off OCUK 1 on classic finance and 1 on BNPL. In both cases I paid off monthly ( just about to complete my BNPL final payment next week ! - interest due to kick in in May ) I am planning to buy a new rig and will use BNPL again as easy for me and have savings to fall back on if things go pete tong. I also make money in my spare time doing matched betting which clears a few hundred every month on top of my full time wage. £29 to borrow £1000 or thereabouts is a pretty good deal for me.

It sounds to me OP like you know you're ok so I would say I have had no problem with it
 
You have to look at I from a survival point of view. Is it something you need or something you want. If it's something you want then its best to save your money up and buy the item out right. You feel a much bigger sense of achievement when you have saved your own money up for the item you want.

I tend to have a savings only account at a bank (With no access from the internet) that I set up a standing order to each month which helps as the effort to go to the bank and withdraw the money manually usually stops me spending it on impulse buy's.

The only thing I did recently was purchase a Macbook Pro on 0% finance. I looked at my options and as a web designer knew that having a mobile computer I could work on my projects while travelling. This meant that I got my work done quicker which then allowed me to pay the macbook off in the new few months and now having that macbook is turning a profit for me.

If the case was that I wanted a new Gaming PC I would not take up the 0% finance option as I would not profit from having the latest hardware in any way. With most things you will find that you are not missing out on anything by having to wait and save and by the time you have saved the money there is usually a newer/faster option available to you at the same price as your original option.
 
butterchurch said:
I've looked through it quite a lot and it seems viable for me as I don't want to get rid of my whole wage in one go, I'd rather get it and pay it off within two months when I then can afford to use a whole months paycheck.

Agreed it's very sceptical as who knows what might happen with debt etc but I'm confident that in two months time I can pay it off. I just don't want to use a whole months paycheck in one go when I need a computer and money.
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Well you could have course split your wage in to 2 chunks or something that way you can effectively "save up" the needed funds without using a full wage in one go. It would just mean waiting a 2-3 months and you wouldn't have the finance hanging over you either.

Stoner81.
 
I would go with getting a Credit Card that has a decent term of no interest ie 19 Months.

then pay it off each month?

I have done this with anything I buy say it costs £1000 split that over each month ensuring you pay it off ie: more than the minimum and you’d be able to afford it no problem

That’s if you are eligible to get a credit card :)
 
butterchurch said:
In my case it'll be £700 for a computer - £70 deposit so I'll have £630 to pay in 12 months without having to pay interest. If I pay off that £630 before the 12 months period ends I only get charged a £29 admin fee.
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I've done this many times so it's all down to if you know you can pay it all back within 12 months and only you know that.
My toy last year was a £750 cycle on Interest Free over 36 months and it will be paid off soon.
It is around £18/month if I carry on with the payments.
 
Job security is your number 1 factor, followed by if you lose your job can you still pay it and is it really really worth it, better off getting 3 months salary saved up behind you then start thinking about toys.
 
I use this facility quite regularly. I have done it twice with ocuk and once with another high Street tech store.

I just divide the amount owed by the interest free period and put that much into a savings account each month. Then I pay the whole thing off.

It's actually an easy way to build your credit rating (currently saving for a mortgage so this is fairly important to me), and it means you can buy stuff right now. I did impulse buy a 4k TV last month though, so it's a double edged sword!

Obviously you should be sure that you can afford to repay it in that time period because otherwise the interest is horrendous
 
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I took 2 months to build my new computer, i earn a very good wage and could have bought it out right, so what i done was, thought ive done without this for so long, another 2 months wont make a difference, so given im paid fornightly, i set myself a budget of around 200, and then bought a few items at a time, so eahc time i was able to asseble more each time, which made it handy for in progress photos 2. now my system is complete
 
Semple said:
Normally these types of finance deals are abused by people who already have the money to buy said item, but would rather pay the small admin fee and keep hold of their money for 12 months/length of agreement.

Unless you have most of the money already to pay all out, you need to think about how much you'd need to put aside each month. I.e. a £1200 computer on 12 months BNPL, would mean putting aside £100 a month. If that's something easily achievable by you, then sure go for it. But if you know there's several months where you'd struggle to put that £100 aside, then this probably will not end well.
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How is that abused?
 
I got stung with credit badly many times when I was younger but since becoming an old fart I have used buy now pay later a number of times without issue and paid full amount by the due date.

Just make sure you can afford it.
 
These things are great until the bill lands on your doormat. Its like monopoly money "oh I can buy this and that! Great! Whoopee!"

Then the bill arrives and its "OMG how the hell can I pay this!" Which is when the finance options kick in. Which is what they're relying on, you not being able to pay off in one lump so they earn a small fortune in interest charges as you pay it off monthly.

It can work if you budget properly and you have enough discipline to save enough to pay off the lump sum if and when, if not.. its a slippery slope into debt.
 
Just make sure you do save the money to pay it off after a year , several years ago I was in pc world and got a laptop for about£800 on the pay in 12 months thing.
Of course by the end of the 12 months I had not saved a penny but got a letter from some finance company to say that I could pay over 3 years , cost £1800 in the end.
 
leemk said:
Just make sure you do save the money to pay it off after a year , several years ago I was in pc world and got a laptop for about£800 on the pay in 12 months thing.
Of course by the end of the 12 months I had not saved a penny but got a letter from some finance company to say that I could pay over 3 years , cost £1800 in the end.
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Ouch but this is what they hope for.
 
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