Making large purchases like furniture on installment plans is not new, but until recently it wasn’t well known. With Millennials and Generation Z facing a credit crisis thanks to student loan debt, large necessary purchases such as these would otherwise be out of reach.
Installment plans usually aren’t based on credit scores, but rather on your income and ability to pay. Forty-something adults will remember Fingerhut as a prime example of a company offering installment plans.
The most common example of installment plans is lease-to-own furniture stores. Lease-to-own shops offer furniture, appliances, and electronics that you take home and pay for overtime. The downside to these local furniture stores is that if you miss a payment they are likely to come to repossess the items, taking advantage of the opportunity to sell them again and again.
These lease-to-own stores have had other drawbacks, including exorbitant fees. In the past consumers saw these stores as well worth the hassle, cost, and risk, but today there are many more affordable and accessible options.
PayPal has offered a buy now pay later purchase option available with any online retailer that uses their payment processing service. Some of the larger brick-and-mortar furniture stores also offer installment plans, but these are usually based on credit.
It was recently announced that Affirm and Amazon have partnered together to offer to buy now pay later financing for purchases of as little as $50. Of course, even with Affirm, there are some minimum requirements, but this financing is much easier to get than a traditional line of credit while also costing less than traditional lease-to-own agreements.
Even though most people never heard of Affirm until now, it isn’t a new service. In fact, Affirm has been offering installment plans through their retail partners for over nine years. The fact that Amazon has chosen it as their installment plan partner gives even more credibility to the service.
Furniture stores have been using Affirm for a long time. Online furniture stores, specifically, utilize Affirm and similar installment programs and have since their inception. Providing installment plans is one way that online furniture retailers have distinguished themselves from brick and mortar furniture stores.
With large corporations like Amazon partnering with Affirm’s installment programs, you might wonder why anyone would still shop at onestop bedrooms and other online furniture stores. In addition to years of working with Affirm, online furniture stores still offer the best deals on furniture prices, clearance products, and free delivery.
While it can still be smart to start your interior design search on Amazon if you’re not sure what type of furniture you want, you should take your top sources and search for the best prices. Make sure that you look for hidden charges that might not show up before checkouts, such as delivery, shipping, and handling, service charges, or finance charges on installment plans.
