Tabularasa

Hi Everyone

Long title I know but I wanted to be clear what this is about.

I am new to Canada (1 month in Ottawa) and we had to have a fire sale of our electronics before we left the UK so I need to replace a lot of things without the ready money to do it all at once. We will have to build up over time, but want to get a few items to start us off.

I have a job already and my first payslip and my credit file now exists as I have a credit card from my bank. Does anyone have an experience of who would lend to someone like me on 0% over 12 or 24 months for example? I want to be careful not to apply all over the place and kill my credit file so early.

Thanks!

Siouxie

What is it you need to buy? Some things you can pick up cheaply (or even 2nd hand), others are often provided on the purchase of a house (part of the sale agreement) / rental of an apartment etc., - so you may not need to spend a great deal initially..

There are a few places that offer interest free purchase.. provided you make all the payments before the end date.

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/about/b...a5f527f63859b7
https://www.thebrick.com/pages/financing
This weekend only - up to 3 years interest free: https://www.leons.ca/
https://www.ctfs.com/content/ctfs/en...financing.html

Do keep in mind that every 'check' on your credit score/rating can impact it.. depending if it's a 'hard' check or a 'soft' check... so better to get everything at one place.
https://www.creditkarma.com/advice/i...edit-inquiries

Tabularasa

Thanks Siouxie,

it’s just TVs and kitchen items - maybe a PC if the numbers make sense.

I'm interested in your second hand comment. Which places/websites are are more reliable (outside of ebay)?

Piff Poff

Kijiji is the biggest online classifieds. You could also try places like Aaron's or Easy home.

Siouxie

Kitchen items - go to Walmart or Canadian Tire for a cheap microwave / kettle / coffee machine / toaster etc.. Walmart are also reasonable for tv's - as are Costco.

kijiji.ca or facebook marketplace are both ok for 2nd hand items - with no guarantees, of course. You could also look at buy and sell groups on FB: https://www.facebook.com/search/grou...0sell%20ottawa

Then there are 'free pages' - such as https://www.freecycle.org/ or varage.com or some of the 'charity' type places such as https://habitatgo.com/restore/
Other.. for computer.. https://www.thepcroom.ca/ you could also look to see if there is a company that sells refurbished donated computers with the proceeds going to charity (I got my all in one for less than 1/3rd of the price of new that way).

Hope that is of use

Mordko

Here are the free financing thresholds for Best Buy. https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/about/b...a5f527f63859b7. But they charge and “admin fee” so its not actually free.

Source is another shop specializing in computers and TVs, also offers “free” financing.

There are apps which list deals for any product you need across various shops, eg FLIPP.

Tabularasa

Thanks everyone!

BristolUK

Those places scare me. Possibly there's some variation across Canada and I realise they make the regular payments sound enticing but this is a typical comparison from a previous post about TVs.
The prices may be different now but I've done so many comparisons over the years on like for like items. Maybe they think people look at the ads and think $2160 isn't bad compared to $1575 if I'm paying over two years and just hope they don't know they can get it for $400.

But if you have got a credit card, even paying off minimal amounts works out cheaper than those companies. And if you can afford the $90 monthly the debt's gone in a quarter of the time.

Random laptop from EasyHome. Special offer, save $2 a week. $27 weekly x 104 weeks = $2808.
A better one (new) is $900 on NewEgg, Staples and Costco. Usually something equivalent, new and on offer at BestBuy for at least $100 less
Refurbished equivalents anything between 3 and 12 month warranty for $400-$500.

scrubbedexpat091

Yeah Easy Home really gets people on the interest, and I would buy used before going to them for anything their money lending side Easy Financial is bad too, you will repay usually double what was lent, but for some people they are the only options, mostly lower income groups that traditional lenders ignore, so these easy home/financial places fill the gap, but they really do take advantage of people.

Piff Poff

Yeah, I personally wouldn't touch them with a barge pole unless I only wanted to rent furniture for a month or two, I know people that have done this. You just give the stuff back.

dbd33

I tried to do this when I wanted to stage a house, maybe 10 years ago. It didn't work because EasyHome assumes their customers don't have a credit rating and so have no provision to check for one. Instead they ask for personal references from Canadians. I don't know any Canadians.

Their financing terms are like the pay day loan firms. Better to sit on the floor.

scrubbedexpat091

Well they basically are the same, except with appliances and furniture.

Easy Home & Easy Financial are both owned by the same company, except Easy Financial provides cash through personal loans at 34.99%, home equity loans at 19.99%, Auto Loans starting at 24.99%.

These companies exist to provide services to people who have no other financing options due to bad credit or simply low income, those traditional lenders wont loan to.

Even payday places are in on personal loans now and not only that they will double loan people, so people can get the installment loan, and a payday loan at the same time even.

Even some traditional lenders have gotten in on the action, Van City provides small no credit check loans now, they based it on how much you get deposited into the account each month. except Van City does offer a lower interest rate at 19% fixed interest.

Some say ban them, but then you end up with illegal loan sharks, at least these legalized loan sharks have some regulation and wont break knee caps.

Tabularasa

Thanks!