Pay straight out or charge

[linny14]

I am curious. Do you think most people will buy their rings straight out or charge.

My now husband would never have charged a ring and carried a balance. He never ever has carried a balance on a credit card (unlike moi). I do believe (in principal) that you should buy what you can can afford so not to incur interest charges. But, if you pay the balance of the right away or within a few months. I don''t see a big deal with charging. I wanted him to charge the ring (to get the American Express points) but he felt more comfortable with the wire transfer. Must be a psychological thing for him.

 

[Gale]

He might have also received a price break in sending a wire transfer. Many of the online vendors offer a small discount for using this method of payment.

 

[bigbadbuff]

what happens if something goes wrong though? With a cc, you have protection of your interests, wire transfer has zero. I would only do wire if you really, really trusted the seller and wanted to save the difference.

 

[strmrdr]

If you do a wire tranfer to a company in another state and the amount is over $5000 and something happens the fbi will investigate it.
Anyone that tries anything with a wire transfer involved is pretty stupid.
The penalties are less for messing with the credit card companies than a wire transfer in the US.

 

[pyramid]

I once asked a question like this on this board.

One of the replies I got was interesting but requires very strong willpower - not to spend your money on something else.

The poster suggested having the money in full not financing, but then charge the diamond to the credit card, he/she said that the amount of interest you would get from your bank/building society wherever you held your money would be a lot more on a total of say $5000 than the amount of interest your credit card would charge for a month or so, therefore you would pay the credit card and interest but still have made some interest on your original large cash deposit

 

[lmurden]

My friend suggested that we charge it and get cash back from the credit card. He says he charges everthing and gets money back from the credit card. Whatever floats your boat or your wallet.

 

[mehdi76]

This is exactly what I did. I have a Citibank CC that has a points system that can be exchanged for various items from their catalogue. So, I called my local bank, borrowed the $$ at a very reasonable int rate (much less than what the CC would charge me) and then used my CC to pay for the diamond. When the bill comes, I'll pay it in full. I avoid the finance charge AND best of all, I get the points

Mehdi

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On 8/26/2004 4:44:45 PM pyramid wrote:





I once asked a question like this on this board.

One of the replies I got was interesting but requires very strong willpower - not to spend your money on something else.

The poster suggested having the money in full not financing, but then charge the diamond to the credit card, he/she said that the amount of interest you would get from your bank/building society wherever you held your money would be a lot more on a total of say $5000 than the amount of interest your credit card would charge for a month or so, therefore you would pay the credit card and interest but still have made some interest on your original large cash deposit
----------------

 

[moremoremore]

I've been limited to the amex by the man...and my debit card...I can't be trusted to pay anything off so I pay by wire transfer. But I think a cc with zero apr is great too if you pay it off. Strengthens your credit AND gets you a diamond!

 

[yowahking]

Most consumers have no idea how much the credit cards eat into profit. AMex can be as much as 4% of the sale. Sometimes 5% is the profit on a diamond and you would end up with 1%, we don't take Amex for that reason. Others are 1.5% -2%. Most places will give you a break for cash, check, wire, or cashiers check. On a personal note, we often ask when buying something if there is a break, just spend $5,000 on some tile, the place gave us no break, so use the card and get more free miles to Thailand.

 

[moremoremore]

I don't use amex to buy diamonds...every now and then a sweater from Lord and Taylor though! hehehehe

 

[Lynn B]

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...and get more free miles to Thailand.


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Scott,

When are you going to Thailand?! Have you been there before? We are going in November (and to Japan, too) -- and I am soooo excited!!!!!!!!

Lynn

 

[Rank Amateur]

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On 8/26/2004 8:34:51 PM yowahking wrote:

Most consumers have no idea how much the credit cards eat into profit. AMex can be as much as 4% of the sale. Sometimes 5% is the profit on a diamond and you would end up with 1%, we don't take Amex for that reason. Others are 1.5% -2%. Most places will give you a break for cash, check, wire, or cashiers check. On a personal note, we often ask when buying something if there is a break, just spend $5,000 on some tile, the place gave us no break, so use the card and get more free miles to Thailand.
----------------

I use cash when I want to do the vendor a favor. Vendors who irritate me definitely get the CC.

 

[Jennifer5973]

We've been very successful with the 0% interest credit cards over the year for several major purchases, not just jewelry. When we bought our house, we used Sears' then offer for 0% for 12 mos. for all brand new appliances and paid it off by the time the year ended. It takes discipline (and DON'T carry the card in your wallet and continue charging) but it's worked well for us--get what you want now and pay no interest.

As soon as it's paid off, we close the account (we save one long-standing platinum cc for "emergencies" but don't use it). Then, we're flooded with more 0% offers and when we need/want somehting, we open one.

But we have a strict "policy" not to have too many ccs open at once; it's not good to have a ton of credit.

BUT we would never take on interest-bearing debt for jewelry--that I can tell you!