It pays to pay cash. I wanted to share this story from a few months back.
When my signing bonus was disbursed to me, I had allocated a portion of it to purchasing a washer and dryer for my apartment. I had hookups, but the machines weren't included. To rent them it was $25/month with a three month minimum. Heck no! There were plenty of used ones on Craigslist, but it was going to be a hassle to find help to move them into my second floor apartment and then install them. Not to mention, they could wind up not working and then I'd be back at step one and be out the money for them. I was sick of hauling my laundry over to the apartment's laundry room, so I was looking forward to this.
Anyways, back to my story: I decided that my budget for both the washer and dryer together would be $650. Me and C went to Best Buy one Saturday afternoon, and when the appliance specialist came up to me, I flashed the cash and said "I have $650 and I want to leave today having purchased a washer and dryer with delivery, installation, and sales tax included in that price." She went and got her manager, and they conferred together for about 10 minutes. At that point, they came back to get us.
The manager brought me over to the register, where on the screen, he was changing prices on things line by line. He changed the washer and dryer prices, comped us the hoses for them (so they cost nothing) and also included the plugs. He also scheduled my delivery date--the following Saturday. When all was said and done, the price for everything was $648.
Dave Ramsey is absolutely right: for big ticket items, paying cash is absolutely the way to go. I got a huge discount (they were on clearance for $700 anyway, plus normally you have to pay for the plugs, hoses, installation, etc). All said and done, I saved about $100. I said what I wanted and stated the price, and they matched it. There was no haggling needed and no high pressure tactics to "buy now and finance on a Best Buy account!"
When I'm debt free, I look forward to doing this to buy an HDTV. That will be a wonderful day. :D
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wow that worked? at a best buy?? what state do u live in? i would never even have thought about it
ReplyDeleteI don't want to say what state, haha. I'm trying to keep myself as anonymous as possible. But...Dave Ramsey advocates using cash for big purchases whenever possible and apparently 9 time out of 10, it works. =)
ReplyDeleteThat is so awesome! I put a link to your blog on my favorites list. I love reading your posts and look forward to reading more! I'm a single mom in my late twenties. Its always neat to get more ideas on how to save money.
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