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Misleading Consumer Math

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James Robertson

Posts: 29924
Nickname: jarober61
Registered: Jun, 2003

David Buck, Smalltalker at large
Misleading Consumer Math Posted: Oct 12, 2006 4:53 AM
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Original Post: Misleading Consumer Math
Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants
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Scoble doesn't paint the full picture here. Sure, it's easy to get credit in the U.S., and it's easy to buy a lot of expensive stuff. The problem is the debt load you end up building up:

Let me tell you how it works in the US of A. You walk into Best Buy. Ask for a credit application. Fill it out. They approve you for $10,000 on the spot (as long as you’ve paid all your credit card bills on time). You head over to the big screen department, pick out your $4,000 big screen and your $600 Playstation 3, and a $500 HD-DVD drive. Then you pay something like $140 per month in payments.

And the interest rate for these on the spot loans? In the neighborhood of 20%. Sure, you might get 12 months same as cash, but that's a bet the store is making with you - the bet being that you won't actually pay it all off in 12 months. If you don't, that 20% gets applied retroactively to the entire original amount, and then monthly to the revolving balance after that.

Here's a better idea: if you can't afford to spend that money upfront in disposable income (i.e., cash) - then don't. You'll be a whole lot happier at the end of each month when the bills come rolling in.

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