# Downside of borrowing to buy a computer. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 4, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876 "2012-05-04T14:39:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/21 "2012-05-05T05:02:08Z")
I’ve had my Sony - i3-350M, 4Gb, a graphics card (probably) - for 2 years and (with the risk of jinxing myself) so far have had no problems that CCleaner and a can of pressurized air haven’t fixed. I think having 64bit Windows 7 (& Essentials Security) and keeping bloatware to a minimum has benefited much more than it being a Sony, but it looks pretty :p. I’m under the impression most parts are made in the same place regardless of which brand they’re put in, so I’d go for a local store that would have no quibbles fixing under warranty. Also I’d pay cash because the interest saved in a year is tiny, compared to the bother of having to remember to pay them back in 11.5 months. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/22 "2012-05-05T05:52:15Z")
Financing through the manufacturer (such as Dell) is a “store” credit card-type deal. The interest rate is nasty. When buying a car, interest rates are much lower than store cards, and negotiable. The “one year free interest” has all the drawbacks as mentioned above. PLUS, the statement you get will be just like a store credit card statement, with “minimum payment” shown. It is the nature of the human animal to want to pay the minimum payment. That is NOT the payment you need to make if you want to pay it off in a year’s time. They aren’t gonna show you THAT. They want you to make the minimum payment, so it takes you fifteen years to pay it off, at 29.99% interest. If you bank online, you can set it up so that payments are made automatically, for the amount YOU designate. That way, you can take the amount of the laptop (plus any other charges like shipping, handling, tax–and don’t mess with the maintenance agreement!) divided by 12, and make sure you pay the thing off in twelve months. Good luck. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/23 "2012-05-05T15:58:30Z")
All of these credit “offers” are for similar reasons. Discover “gave” me $150 for charging a thousand dollars per month in February, March, and April. At first blush, you would wonder how they could afford such a thing. But think of how many people would buy things (and not pay the balance in full) that they wouldn’t otherwise buy because, “Hey, it’s free money.” So, they lose $150 from me, but they make it up many times over in interest fees and late charges from others. And yeah, even with everyone paying off the computer within the 12 month period, you will still be buying a more expensive computer than you could otherwise pay cash for. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/24 "2012-05-05T22:27:28Z")
It’s true I’ve had some bad luck with Sony’s, including my present laptop that has an interminent problem with the display going dark and touchpad wonkiness, but I’ve heard bad things about Toshiba too and their designs are boring. What I want is a 15" laptop with a backlit numeric keyboard that hopefully doesn’t look like some office drone brought it home from work. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/25 "2012-05-05T22:51:39Z")
I’d recommend looking at an [Ultrabook](http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/sponsors-of-tomorrow/ultrabook.html), which are thin and light notebook computers that look a lot like an Apple Macbook Air system. They are available from several manufacturers. (The name is a trademark of Intel.) However, I don’t think you’re going to find separate numeric keypads in them. (I’m not sure why you want one, as they mean that the system has to be really wide. Plus you can always get a separate USB or wireless numeric keypad.) Edited to add, [here](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/technology/personaltech/a-review-of-ultrabooks-sleek-sexy-and-oh-so-pc.html) is a review of several of them from the New York Times. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/26 "2012-05-07T19:12:58Z")
> [@Mdcastleman](#): > > …and so I don’t have that much money tied up at once. If you’ve made a commitment to repay a certain amount, the money IS effectively tied up. The only big difference is that if you fail to pay on time you get whacked with severe finance charges. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/27 "2012-05-08T00:10:24Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > If you’ve made a commitment to repay a certain amount, the money IS effectively tied up. The only big difference is that if you fail to pay on time you get whacked with severe finance charges. No, that is not the only difference. Assuming he has some sort of money market account, putting the money he would have paid to the store in it now would earn a little bit of interest, and still be available. Second, though we have low inflation, we still have inflation. Money spent today is relatively more valuable than the money he will be spending in a year. Assuming one will pay the money back on time - not that hard to do - getting a 0% loan is a win - assuming of course we are not in a deflationary period. That some people are not responsible enough to take proper advantage of it does not mean it is a bad deal for those who are responsible enough. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/28 "2012-05-08T00:12:44Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > All of these credit “offers” are for similar reasons. Discover “gave” me $150 for charging a thousand dollars per month in February, March, and April. At first blush, you would wonder how they could afford such a thing. > > But think of how many people would buy things (and not pay the balance in full) that they wouldn’t otherwise buy because, “Hey, it’s free money.” So, they lose $150 from me, but they make it up many times over in interest fees and late charges from others. Sure - but that doesn’t make Discover a bad deal for those of us who never pay interest. Though we had money in the bank to write a check, we charged whatever we could of our massive home improvements on Discover, paid it all back immediately, and had enough cash back to go to New Orleans for Christmas. I assure you that how we paid for it had nothing to do with how much we spent. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/29 "2012-05-08T00:17:25Z")
> [@Mdcastleman](#): > > It’s true I’ve had some bad luck with Sony’s, including my present laptop that has an interminent problem with the display going dark and touchpad wonkiness, but I’ve heard bad things about Toshiba too and their designs are boring. What I want is a 15" laptop with a backlit numeric keyboard that hopefully doesn’t look like some office drone brought it home from work. I’ve pretty much settled on Toshibas and have had good luck, but I can’t deny that they are boring. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a laptop with a numeric keypad. There must be some programs out there to map a portion of your normal keypad to a numeric one. My wife has hers in a docking station with a normal USB keyboard, but she mostly uses it in her office at home. Are you really going to use a numeric keypad enough to make it necessary? ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/30 "2012-05-08T01:06:00Z")
For that matter, if you want a numpad but won’t actually use it every day, you can get a USB numpad. I’ve got one myself, and for a time I’d use it maybe once a week for some spreadsheet data entry. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/31 "2012-05-08T01:15:40Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > And yeah, even with everyone paying off the computer within the 12 month period, you will still be buying a more expensive computer than you could otherwise pay cash for. That was not my experience. I shopped around, and bought a Toshiba laptop from Newegg on 0% plan that was very competetive. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/32 "2012-05-08T01:17:37Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > … that is not the only difference. Right. But it is the only big difference - as I indicated (and your comments seem to agree). ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/33 "2012-05-08T01:19:26Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > if you want a numpad but won’t actually use it every day, you can get a USB numpad. Or a full USB keyboard with numeric keypad (widely available and cheap). ---
**Author:** ![Enigma42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/87869e/32.png) [@Enigma42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enigma42)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876/34 "2012-05-09T13:04:56Z")
> [@Mdcastleman](#): > > For around $100 each I could 1)Go from a Core i3 to a Core i5, 2) Go from the integrated HD3000 graphics to a discrete Radeon 6630M, 3) Go from 4 GB ram to 8GB. Any of these upgrade worthwhile? I’m kind of torn between getting a base model and just paying for it, or financing a deluxe model that will take longer to become obsolete. The CPU upgrade might make sense, but the other two don’t in your situation. The GPU won’t do much for you if you don’t play games, although it can accelerate Google Earth a little bit. Still, not worth the expense. RAM in particular is almost always a rip-off when you buy it as an upgrade with a new computer. I recently bought Sony VAIO S series laptop and similarly it was a little over $100 to upgrade from 4 to 8 GB of RAM through Sony. Instead, I bought a new module of the appropriate type for $19 and installed it myself in about 5 minutes. Just make sure that the laptop you buy had an open slot for an additional RAM module and you’re all set. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downside-of-borrowing-to-buy-a-computer/620876.md?page=1)