How is that a bait and switch? When you see ANY 0% ad, they ALWAYS have some kind of disclaimer. Usually a "W.A.C.", "Some may qualify", or "Not all will qualify".

This goes for ALL types of purchases. From TVs, cars, to furniture.

If you can't afford it now. What makes you can afford it later in the same situation.

No bait and switch with me. I purchased a $2000 Toshiba at Best Buy a few years ago with a no payments for 24 months plan. I thought it was great. I paid it off within 10 months -while- enjoying the tv.

It's bait and switch if no one qualifies.

Don't forget that many of those if you don't pay off by the 24 months or whatever will charge you a boatload of back interest.

Also keep a close eye on the 'promotional pay-off balance' if you do this on a Circuit City (Chase) credit card. Since they will apply your payment to any other purchases you made on that card before applying it to the pay-off balance. This also includes finance charges for non-promo purchases for the *current* billing period (next month's statement), not the amount printed on your statement.

They got me with that last one because I paid the 'promotional pay-off balance' only, and not the $5.00 in other finance charges. They did reverse the finance charges for me, but not without a fight. That card is now paid off and frozen in a block of ice.

Article needs to be retitled "Avoid In-Store "Finance Traps" When Buying A(n) **insert product/service here**. Plus we mention bait-and-switch".

Go to Roomstogo.com. Click their "Nothing till 2009". Plain as day "with your Rooms To Go credit card, subject to credit approval."

I have sometimes improved an already good deal by taking advantage of 0% after I've made my best deal. Three years ago I jacked a Dodge dealer down to bare minimum pricing while waving a pre-approved car loan check in his face (giving him no room to play any numbers in the "four square" except price). Then, when we had our price, I asked about their zero percent finance deal. He kinda huffed and puffed like I'd never qualify, but then came back with seven years, same as cash. Sweet.

Dell does the same thing sometimes... you can apply special discount codes and so forth and then take advantage of their retail card 0% specials.

Just pay it all on time, otherwise you're screwed.

@JayDeEm: They got me with that too. It took two months for them to actually correct the problem. It is truly a horrible card.

I wasn't looking for a TV but when a local audio/video store had its yearly sale, I couldn't resist buying a $7500 73" DLP Mitsubishi for $1700!!! They wanted me to take their one year no-finance deal but I paid with AmEx ... deals like that don't come around often.

"Of course, zero-interest deals can be useful if you've got excellent credit, always pay your bills on time, and are certain you'll be able to pay off the set before the grace period ends...but...you might be better off just paying cash up front and seeking out the steepest flat discount you can find"

That seems just silly. If you can afford it and can get an awesome deal as well as have something like 0% interest for a year you should do it. You can put that X amount of money in an investment and have that money work for you then just pay the item off whenever the promotion ends. I've done this plenty of times.
Paying for things in cash is wasting your money. You should at least pay for it on your amex or equivalent card so you can get bonuses for such a high dollar item.

Hmmph.

This article is written for non-Consumerist types. They typical Joe who wants a new TV, can't afford it, but jumps in because he/she thinks the 0% interest is going to save them. Just about every reader of this site is a super-shopper always searching out the best deal. 0% interest is icing on the cake. In this day and age of online banking and autopayments, it's easy to keep payments going w/ little attention.

I've bought ~$5000 of stuff at bestbuy over the years and always used their same as cash deal when they offer it (all my kitchen appliances were bought this way). And like I said before, as a great Consumerist, I did a lot of price comparing and price matching to get the best deal.

Finance your house. Finance your car. Don't finance your TV. Ridiculous.

@BugMeNot2:

Finance your house.

Don't finance your car unless you have to. Why pay more for something that will be worth much less?

Funny thing about those "Financing" plans.. they usually cause your credit score to go down, thereby you pay more interest on your other rates.

I love 0% interest deals--I bought my last refrigerator and just recently a washer and dryer that way. I had the money, but why yank it out of savings and lose all that interest? I'm paying it off month to month, have the money to pay for it in full immediately if need be, but otherwise and have two years to do it--that's awesome.

BTW-The refrigerator was a one year deal and I had it paid off in three months, so no penalties for me.

Years back when I was first married my wife and I bought a couch on a 12 month no interest plan. This was back in the day when a savings account was paying 6% interest. We had the cash to pay it off but felt that we'd be better off earning interest on our money. The couch was paid off in 10 months and for the next 3 years we were bombarded with loan offers from the finance company.

If I can't pay cash for stuff I don't buy it. Especially not a for a TV.

Wow, of all the things you can save up for. Besides, its not like you *need* the 2000 dollar tv. There are plenty of new tvs for under 1000 that qualify as "nice, HD tvs"

I did a 0% finance for 12 months on a new PC when I opened a Best Buy card. I divided the balance ($1500 or so) by 12 and paid it off in time.

One thing I DID notice on the statements was an item called, "Deferred Interest," which is what I believe I'd have been hit with had I not paid the balance in full within that 12 months (it was over $100 by the end).

Don't forget about the possibility of having to pay a fee for making an early payment on the balance. Just because you CAN pay it off before interest kicks in doesn't mean you'll get off scot free

I've never had a problem with paying off a 0% by the end of promotional dates along with making the payments on time.

As long as you KNOW you can make the payments each month, the less cash you drop all at once on them is MORE cash that is making you money by collecting interest in your savings account.

So basically, you're getting an even better deal than your 0% financing because you're collecting interest earned on the remainder of what you owe (and is still sitting in the bank) because you decided not to drop a mass chunk of cash at once.

Be careful about the terms of the financing. I had a large sum of money coming in 4 months, but I needed a computer. Dell was offering 3 months interest free (with deferred interest if you don't pay it off in those 3 months), so I figured I'd put it on the credit card at the end of 3 months, and only pay one month's interest on the card.

Forward 3 months later, Dell wouldn't accept a credit card. I never asked because it was unthinkable to me that they wouldn't.

"Of course, zero-interest deals can be useful if you've got excellent credit, always pay your bills on time, and are certain you'll be able to pay off the set before the grace period ends (and if you're not paying hidden mark-ups on the retail price)." And if there is no prepayment penalty, and if you jump though all their little hoops, and if you can see the future, and if you like assuming that the best-case scenario will work out in your favor every time.... then yeah, go for it. Or if you realize how much stupid, unnecessary risk this brings to your life, if you know that in this world of direct deposit and auto-bill-pay that one little snafu over in HR or at the credit union will bring all the dominoes tumbling down, then maybe you'll pay cash and walk out grinning because its payed for and that fool jamming one into the back of his BMW financed it.

There's nothing wrong with using 0% deals. I bought my HDTV last year, split it over 10 months and in the meantime I earned 5-6% interest on the money that I *could* have used to buy it with cash. 0% deals are only dangerous for those people that (as the author states) don't have the money to begin with. If you are using 0% deals to AFFORD the TV, you can't afford it.

Bought a $3500 Sony at Best Buy on 36 month 0/0 about a year ago. It's amazing that there is already about $900 in interest accrued. Too bad I will have it paid off 16 months into a 36 month offer! Boo hoo Best Buy, no finance charges for you. There is no bait nad switch here. People who get screwed by 0% deals are generally lying to themselves when they take on the credit responsibility anyways.

Another disadvantage of these 0% offers is that you can potentially get screwed if, say, the product you bought turns out to be defective in some way. What if that $3000 HDTV craps out after two weeks and you bought it at BestBuy (a store notorious for their anti-consumer practices) using one of their 0% offers? What if you've repeatedly tried to have the tv repaired or exchanged, yet are only given a run around? If you bought the tv using BestBuy's financing, you are subject to their terms and conditions, including binding arbitration if it comes down to that. Theoretically, you could be stuck paying for a tv you can't even use while they jerk you around through the 9 Circles of Customer Service Hell.

No thanks. I'll stick with my Amex.

I just did this at Sam's Club with no payment and no interest on my Philips 47" LCD 1080P HDTV. I really don't see what the problem would be in doing this. As long as I pay the $800 in Sam's Credit in the next 6 months, I'm good to go. I think this article wasn't well thought out.

@Imaginary_Friend: I've actually lived through your hypothetical, although I had much better results than you state. I bought a $1000 Samsung LCD HDTV and an Xbox 360 at Best Buy on a three-year, zero-interest plan. The TV had a dead pixel and Best Buy gave me no problems whatsoever in exchanging it for a new one. Four TVs later (that's another discussion), I finally gave up and asked for a refund. It was given to me without argument. All that's left on that card is the Xbox and it's still on a three-year plan. (That's only important because normal purchases get three months with no interest, not three years.)

I'm a new reader but have seen plenty of horror stories about Best Buy. I really wanted to post a comment because it needs to be said that not every Best Buy experience is a horrible one.