Would you ‘rent’/credit furniture and appliances?

I recently visited a friend’s home who had just moved into her new apartment. She described the difficulty that she faced when trying to find furniture and appliances that she could afford to furnish her home.

The cost for a gas burner ignition range from $60, 000 -$200, 000. depending on the brand and size of the stove. Consumers can settle for smaller stoves with manual ignition which can range from $30,000 – $50,000. A new fridge can also be quite pricey with some brands selling for over $100,000.

Living room and bedroom suites are also not cheap as a quick look in any of the popular furniture stores will attest to the hefty price tag.  The combined cost of both suites could pay for someone to go to private school for a few years.

These prices can be quite daunting for a young professional just starting out in a new home.

So what is the solution?

Some people choose to get the items on ‘hire purchase’. I consider this as ‘renting’  the furniture and appliance because until you finish paying for it then it is the property of the company which sold it to you. If for any reason you suddenly stop paying ‘rent’, then the owners can come for their ‘property’.

This reclaiming of products that were purchased on the ‘renting’ or credit is very traumatic.  Imagine you have been using the appliance for years and you got accustomed to operating it and now it’s gone.

There are cases of course where it suits you to legitimately rent chairs or tables for a function but when it comes to furnishing your own home it might not be the best option.

What makes it worse is that you have lost all the money that you put into paying all these years and you still don’t have the item.

The worst part is when you check up how much money that you had spent could have bought the item several times over, and that really makes me question why anyone would do it in the first place.

Still I understand the lure of paying little or nothing down and getting to take the item home for you and your family to enjoy. However persons who access this pay to own feature offered by stores are usually the ones who suffer as they end of paying twice as much for the item. It would have been much better in my opinion to save your money until you could afford to buy the item at the full price.

So the verdict is in! Will you ‘rent’ or credit your furniture?

Let me hear from you!

Teri Ann Renee Paisley

Gleaner online writer