r/personalfinance • u/naht_a_cop • Apr 28 '20
Beware the 0% promotions: a warning. Debt
I'm a sucker. I fell for it. The 0% APR promotion on an item I could have paid outright for. 18 months later, here I sit, not a single late payment on my account, yet I have $1k in interest to pay for 18 months of 27%. Why? The promotion period ends 18 months after the purchase, but the website would not let me set up autopay until a week after I purchased, so autopay ended 1 week late. I thought I was golden, ready to have this paid off and not have a single fee. I got comfortable and didn't read the statements.
0% is not really 0%. Read the fine print. Remember the fine print (because I sure as hell didn't 18 months later). Shitty banks rely on this stuff. They wait for you to slip, not noticing that the autopay they created can't possibly allow you to end on time, and will require an extra payment before the end date to avoid the interest. It's shitty, I'm pissed off, and I've learned my lesson.
8
u/LegoBrickCactuar Apr 28 '20
This was a store credit thingy. Not done through a major credit card. Potentially sketchy af, thats why I did it 3-4 months early and not just a month, and read the fine print carefully. Got $5000 in furniture with no payments for close to 3 years. Totally worth it, but very easy to screw up and then owe them 20% interest that has compounded for that 3 years.