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Best Buy's 'Upgrade+' Program Lets Customers Get a New Mac Laptop Every Three Years With Monthly Financing

flapctech said:
Read the faq

“This Line of Credit offers an interest rate of 0% APR to 29.99% APR for 36 months,*"See disclosure" based on creditworthiness as determined by Citizens Pay.”
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Wow 30%! I hope no one actually purchases at a rate higher than zero.
 
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I think this is a great idea for financing (at 0% APR of course!) brand new Mac computers (meaning no discounts available yet). I don't think it's a good idea when financing some of the older (or outgoing) models since discounts are bundled with the one-time cash option.
 
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 said:
It's a good option to have for students to get through college tho. Many don't have the funds right away to pay off the new Mac. Especially the fact, Apple will be raising the prices for the new upcoming Mac's in the future.
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Yea and it's 0%. Question is how hard is it to get approved, especially with minimal credit. Only sneaky thing to me is that last payment to eek you into returning or upgrading instead of keeping. I'm sure you could get more with a real trade or selling than the last payment.

EDIT: Apparently it's not always zero, but they conveniently don't mention that in the article >:
(
 
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JayMysterio said:
The problem with that though is that the markup / break on "electronics" at stores like BB is painfully small. It's why they don't have more sales more often to undercut the manufacturer. They need to find ways to "undercut" or compete with other resellers. One way to move units is early discounts like Adorama & such, or in this case use supposed convenience.

So in this case the item may cost you $10 to buy. Best Buy may get it at $9, along with other resellers. To insure that BB can move their units compared to a B&H or Adorama, they will cook up such plans as this to encourage a customer to buy with them over another.

When I was in retail it was explained to me that it isn't the product itself where profit is made, it's in other sales made while the customer is in store or begins to frequent the store. So in the case of printers ( at that time the store manager claimed they only made $15 on a printer. It's a reason why things like Apple products are often NOT included in discounts, because the discount eats what little profit there is ), printers were not the sales driver, but paper for the printer was. In video game consoles it isn't the early console where the company makes the money but the games & peripherals. For Apple products I imagine it's the same with sales people offering that a case maybe needed, a cover a protection plan, and so on.
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Or the color ink that the printer keeps crying about even though it asked and we picked B&W printing.
 
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nims said:
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.
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Exactly, I'd never give back my phone to clear the installments. I can pay them off and get a much better carrier trade in deal; even better for the ones who don't mind selling it.
 
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applicious84 said:
It seems pretty similar to most no-interest financing programs.

It looks like the big catch is if one can or can't afford to make that final large payment. Would they effectively be forced to upgrade or lose their laptop? I can't totally tell, but that wouldn't be a great position to be in.

Otherwise, that's not too dissimilar from what most people do with their phones, and no-interest financing is really not a bad thing. Imagine buying a home that way!

Finally, it just gives you another option at the end. I really don't see getting a no-interest loan as a bad deal or financially irresponsible.


OK, it seems that this is only reasonable if there is no discount on the original product. So this really is not so great. Especially since you can get this with no-interest financing, including the discount, over 24 months.

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Of course nothing in the article of the variable rate. All the examples they list come out to near 0 if you do the match
 
mannyvel said:
0 percent financing with a rollover option? There's no reason not to do this. You can pay up front, but it's better for you (due to inflation) to pay over time because each $$ is worth less next month.

The thing is, my machines last for 7 years. But 3 year rollovers? That'd be OK too.

They're assuming people will miss a payment. If you don't, then this is gold. I'm in.
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What's BS is it's not always 0, but they don't mention that in the article
 
hallsofmontezum said:
So for the 14" that's $1559 over 36 months and you don't get to keep the machine unless you pay the full $1999. Or, you can buy it at the current sale price of $1599 right now from Best Buy and keep it.
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That final payment for the top tier is more than some laptops cost
 
ProfessionalFan said:
And it’s in fact rarely 0 apparently since someone with an 850 score got an APR near 30
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I dont understand what up with these banks either denying or giving low limits/high APR to high credit scores. Constantly read that with Apple Card too. Seems it wouid just be better for them to use the BB card since that would be deferred interest. Can you even pay off the MacBook early?
 
I am very excited about this program. I want to be able to (for an affordable monthly payment) upgrade my Mac every 3 years so I always have pretty modern hardware. I know this program isn't for everyone but for me, it is pretty sweet.
 
ProfessionalFan said:
Right. This is more designed for people who can't pay $1999 or $1599 right now but can pay it over time.
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So, in effect, that ‘free’ financing over 36 months costs you 20% of the item price. Since you have to pay the ’full’ $1999 vs $1599. Not a great deal…

EDIT: And…I just saw everyone’s posts who noticed what I didn’t which is that there IS an interest charge [in addition to paying ‘full price’ - in this case 20% more]— and the interest charge can vary from 0 to 30%; and likely most people will be offered the usurious 30% rate. Truly a terrible deal. Honestly, these kinds of rates should be illegal.

If you want some kind of installment plan, there are so many other ACTUAL zero-interest deals. Screw this bank, and also BB for their deceptive practices towards their customers.

This IS the kind of offering that seeks to take advantage of the least well aware (financially speaking) of consumers. What the banking (grifter) industry calls ‘sub-prime,’ consumers, meaning those short on cash, and often with less than stellar credit.
 
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This isn't just for students nor just macbooks If your credit is good it has zero interest I'm looking at a an Imac 24" and the payments are low and at the end of the lease the computers only 3 years old and you make the last payment wich would be a couple of hundred but that's just the remaining principal ....I don't know it doesn't sound bad ,If you finance it thru apple or someplace else you'll be paying over a 100.00 a month .
 
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I just got an imac 24 on this program 0% interest and you can set the monthly payments to what you want only stipulation is if you want to upgrade you have to wait the 36 months citizens pay is part of citizens bank which is my bank so it's a good choice for some ,,,
 
It’s always going to be cheaper just to buy upfront, credit has to be paid for somehow. They don’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts…
 
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