Beat Finance Companies Skunk Drunk On Their Own Kool-Aid

(Photo: Istockphoto)

ABC finance company called early this morning to inform us that we were late on our first payment for a recent furniture purchase. We apologized for the late payment and explained that we thought that the terms included no payments for 12 months because we planned to pay it off in full in June.

Step 1:

Understand the terms of your finance agreements before you sign it.

The terms of the agreement are the standard No Finance Charges for 12 months! Awesome Right? But for some reason I thought it read No Finance Charges AND No Payments for 12 months. My mistake. So I asked the CSR for the promotion termination date to which he replied November 28. I asked him to divide the payments equally so that it would be paid off by that date if not by the 1st.

Step 2:

When utilizing a No Finance Charges for 12 months!/12 Months Same as Cash promotion divide the payments by the months allotted and pay it off within that time, ideally sooner.

After requesting that he divide the payments equally and set up each check for that amount through the final payoff amount he remarked that I was smart to do this because most people do not. He said they just pay the minimum which in this case was 1/3 of the payment needed to avoid finance charges at the end of 12 months. I told him that my goal was to beat them at their own game. “Smart woman”, he said.

He proceeded to set up the payments for the first 6 checks and then I would need to call back at the end of June in order to continue. Not so fast buddy. Since every bill I have is automatic I figured yet another way to beat him at his game. I asked him how much of the balance would be paid off by June and then asked him to divide the result by 4 which would take me into November. He gave me the final number and I told him that I would set it up in my Bill Pay system through my bank.

Step 3:

Make every bill you pay automatic.

DO NOT FORGET TO DO THIS! June is a long ways off so I know that if I don’t do this now then I’ll forget.

He remarked again at how so many people lack the ability to think forward when taking advantage of these promotions and end up paying an absurd amount in finance charges just because its such a low amount. I confirmed each payment and wrote down my confirmation numbers in my notebook and thanked him for alerting me to this oversight. He thanked me for thinking ahead and then went on to remove the late fee and said that it wouldn’t be reported to the credit bureau. Woo hoo!

Step 4:

Never pay just the minimum payment required. Paying the minimum payment is a joke and you’ll get no where fast doing that.

Step 5:

Get organized. There’s nothing like beating the finances companies at their own game using their money! Its sweet! But only if you organize your information to know when each promotion ends, check in with the bank/finance company once every 3 months to make sure everything is on schedule and voila, you’ve beat them at their own game.

Let’s Review:

1. Understand the terms of your finance agreements before you sign it
2. When utilizing a No Finance Charges for 12 months!/12 Months Same as Cash promotion divide the payments by the months allotted and pay it off within that time, ideally sooner.
3. Make every bill you pay automatic.
   
4. Only take on a promotion like this if you know that you’re able to make the monthly payments needed to avoid finance charges.
5. Get organized. Beat them at their own game. Set it and check up on it just to make sure the payments are going as scheduled.

Tip: Only take on a promotion like this if you know that you’re able to make the monthly payments needed to avoid finance charges.

Checkmate bishes!

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