Thread: Layaway replacing store charge cards

I've heard a lot of talk lately about lawaways coming back. Didn't those completely disappear for a while I know K-Mart is doing them for the holiday season and they have gotten some press coverage for re-introducing it. Is this good? Bad? Okay? I guess if you don't have credit it's a cool option.

I would say that is a good thing. It will keep buyers in check by putting it on lawaway instead of the old charge card. From what I know about it the payments they make earn interest and they can withdraw the money any time and forfeit the purchase. That sounds fair to me.

It's adapting for the times. Now that terms for credit have been strengthened stores are using this as a means to market to the same customers that would finance their purchases with a sub-prime store card. It is similar to the old television infomercial which will tout a product in terms of so many easy payments of so many dollars. Lawaway is a payment plan and not credit but we are seeing a comeback the payment plan marketing scheme of monthly payments also. Consumers do not realize the premium they are paying when they finance purchases using the merchant's credit. I received a catalog in the mail from a company called Fingerhut which doesn't appear to sell an item for more than $100 within the catalog but instead of listing the price, it is listed as "as low as $2.99 a month" or "as low as "$9.99 a month" and that is for products that are rather cheap to begin with. It's only when you read the fine print and see the price you realize it is 100%, 200% or more than what you would pay at a discount retailer.

They say history repeats I guess!

After the 1929 crash credit dried up like this and then that generation died and everyone forgot so they started buying everything on credit today and PRESTO! that takes us to today and now a worse crash than than that one!

Do us Americans ever learn?

Fresh, I know of that company Fingerhut you are talking about and it is a total rip. It's a lot like the rent-to-own furniture centers and those bargain basement computers you see advertised on late night TV, I think the company is called Blue Hippo, where they give you a junky computer for a monthly payment withdrawn from your savings. When buyers use methods like these they will end up paying at least double and probably much, much more.