Sounds like good old fashioned balloon payment plan. My Mom bought both her Trans Ams in the 70s on them. They're good if you have the financial discipline to save up for the final payment.
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Best Buy's 'Upgrade+' Program Lets Customers Get a New Mac Laptop Every Three Years With Monthly Financing
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What a pathetic answer.
It's not about "computer getting crap". It's not about desperately needing to upgrade in 3 years.
Which means a smart person can sell the device and then pay Bestbuy half the price to clear their debt and then go get a brand new device again, rinse repeat?
Smart people will see the good in this deal and take advantage.
Or you can sell it on ebay and pay off the balance. This is not a bad plan, still using my 2016 Macbook Pro that works great. Now I am thinking it may be time to sell it and get on this plan. My only question now will be how will repairs work?
It depends on how you're selling it. The trade-in value according to Apple, for my 16" 2019 MBP is about the same as what would be "forgiven" or the final payment for the 14" MBP in their example - $440
Uh, I don't think you understood me or the original post at all. The point is, you DON'T need to upgrade a computer every three years. You may WANT to, but you don't NEED to. If your computer can't do what you need it to after only 3 years, you bought the wrong computer to begin with.
I also don't know what you mean about "computer getting crap."
Well that is a pretty specific example where my heuristic is not true but I don’t think we’re going to have another architecture change 3 years from now that dramatically improves low-end (for Apple) performance. In general one needs not update a computer every 3 years anymore.
Or things changed? In three years you might be working on larger images in photoshop or Lightroom for example.
Or tech improved so much it makes it worth it. I upgraded from my $5,000 2019 iMac to the M1 Mac mini when it came out. So I replaced it in just a little over one year since it cut my video editing time way down. And that’s going from 128GB of RAM down to 16 on the mini. M1 Max 16” MacBook Pro and M1 Ultra Mac Studio continued to provide time savings. If the encoders are significantly better in the M2 or M3 Max/Ultra I’ll be upgrading again. Time is money! Faster I can export my projects the better.
But I don’t think anyone needs to do anything. I can still use a 2010 Mac Pro for my video editing. Where are we getting need from?
From what I see, this isn't any different than Apple's iPhone program, which so many here love and live by. I think it is much better to save for the purchase until one can pay in full.
For a professionals or work, that's a different story. I understand that.
The "Need" part of it was from a different poster - I'm arguing most people (again not professionals) confuse "need" with "want." Chances are, 3 years later, most people could get along just fine with the computer they had.
I went through the process of checking out with an M1 Max 16-inch just to see what the prices are. Now I have pretty good credit (850's) and they came back with a 26.9% interest term. So doing the math with what the monthly payments would be at the end of the term I would of already paid more for the Macbook than if I would of either bought it outright or used a low-interest credit card and that's not including the final buyout at the end. It reminds me of Affirm and its predatory tactics.
Wait I thought this program was interest free?
Nope, In fact, I just looked at it again and it's showing a normal APR of 30% with a promotional APR of 26.99%.
Well this is garbage then, I wasn't going to do it anyway but that's insanely high interest for someone with great credit like yourself.
Yea its extremely predatory IMO. The other thing is you can pay off the balance early, however you can NOT upgrade until month 37 and it will not allow you to create a new loan. So let's say I do this today, and pay it off next week, I still have to wait for 37 months before I can redo the program again which is highly stupid if you ask me. And the best thing is even if the computer goes on sale, the program will only work at MSRP of the device so you cant even be able to take part of any price reductions.
EDIT: god-darn, previous commenters have said that it adds a 25+% or even 30% interest rate. So, yes, in that case total utter garbage.
—— ORIGINAL COMMENT ——
I don’t get the big ordeal, sounds like a solid plan… skip 5 Starbucks lattes a month or a couple of cigarette packs for those that smoke, or a couple of beers for those that drink and use that to pay your monthly high quality more-than-enough-for-your-needs computer costs.
And instead of parting ways of $999 TODAY, part ways along 36 months (still $999). Inflation will more than take care of some of that so it’s even less than $999 by the end.
What gives? What am I missing? Why should I pay $999 TODAY (even if o have them) instead of later 0% interest?
—— ORIGINAL COMMENT ——
I don’t get the big ordeal, sounds like a solid plan… skip 5 Starbucks lattes a month or a couple of cigarette packs for those that smoke, or a couple of beers for those that drink and use that to pay your monthly high quality more-than-enough-for-your-needs computer costs.
And instead of parting ways of $999 TODAY, part ways along 36 months (still $999). Inflation will more than take care of some of that so it’s even less than $999 by the end.
What gives? What am I missing? Why should I pay $999 TODAY (even if o have them) instead of later 0% interest?
Well apparently the 0% interest isn't being offered as much as it should be. Look above, someone with an 850 credit score (excellent) was offered an APR around 30%. The terms say it can be from 0%-30% based on credit. If an 850 rating got around 30%, who exactly is getting 0%?
Yeah, agreed, edited my comment too late before your reply. Agreed that it’s insane and misleading… the monthly payments and the final pay (as advertised in the article) where round and sound, wasn’t expecting such a slap added on checkout.
It did sound too good to be true if I’m honest.
My mom successfully runs their large business on a Mac that’s 4 years old. I know because I bought it. Please describe the desperate need to upgrade after 3 years? I have friends that still edit video on an intel i7 MacBook Pro… so be specific on that desperation. Maybe choose your words more carefully. Pathetic and desperately are some pretty strong words.
Are they adjusting things? I'm not getting anything from the Upgrade+ program when I do an "add and check eligibility"
Edit: just got an eligibility check button, but didn't notice until too late it had the wrong address. Promo APR was 11.99%
Edit: just got an eligibility check button, but didn't notice until too late it had the wrong address. Promo APR was 11.99%
How are you supposed to transfer your data from one Mac to the next if you choose to return the Mac for a new one? iOS makes this dead simple, but not MacOS.
Doesn't Migration Assistant do this? I haven't purchased a new Mac in several years, but as I recall, it worked fine for me.
Migration Assistant is dead simple. You can also backup the old machine, then restore it to the new Mac. You’ll be offered to transfer your data during the new Mac setup walkthrough.