The True cost of Catalogues buy now pay later credit

By: Credit 4 Everyone0 comments

Next time your at the checkout, Think carefully before you choose BUY NOW PAY LATER

It's easy, you place an order and think nothing more of selecting the Shiny Buy Now Pay Later button, after all, it's an interest free and payment free period.

However, the Sting is in the tail if you don't manage to clear the entire balance before the Buy Now Pay Later period ends.

More popular than ever before

More and more customers are now choosing Buy Now Pay Later and could realise that those deals are actually a lot more expensive than traditional credit cards.

A lot of Catalogue customers don't consider the APR on their account before they place Buy Now Pay Later orders, but that could be a huge mistake.

Catalogues could be as much as three times more expensive than Credit Cards

Catalogue companies can charge as much as three times more than a Credit Card in terms of interest.

So by missing the Buy Now Pay later deadline you could be heading for a lot of interest being added to the account.

Leading Charity says the average cost of Catalogue debts is just under £2000

Debt charity StepChange said that a third of the clients it helped in 2015 had catalogue debts, and that they owed an average of just under £2,000.

Websites including Very.co.uk and SimplyBe.co.uk allow shoppers to spread the cost of goods, but once 0% deals are over the interest rates charged are far higher than those on normal credit cards. Very, which sells everything from clothes and toys to home and electrical items, offers shoppers an interest-free deal on purchases over £50, where the balance must be paid off after a set period of time.

Alternatively, people can take a “spread the cost” payment option. “Take as long as you like,” it says. “Pay at least £5 or 7% of the balance each month, whichever is highest. Interest will be charged at your account rate.

But with a typical APR of 39.9%, a customer borrowing £300 and spreading the cost this way would take four and a half years to repay the debt, repaying a total of £478 – £178 in interest.

If you take out a Buy Now Pay Later deal or have taken one out in the past 12 months, login and check when that deal expires. Do everything you can to clear the balance in full before the interest is added to your account.

Remember, Unlike traditional Credit, Buy now pay later interest is backdated to the date of your order (Called Deferred interest) and this could be very costly.

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