Anyone used Bill Me Later?

The catch is that a % of those people who use it won't pay off the bill within six months and have to pay interest.

 

I have used Bill Me Later quite a bit, especially when I purchase something from buy.com. I also used it to purchase a pricey video camera and used the 6 month no financing offer. There were no associated fees. It works just like a credit card and you can pay online via their web site.

 

I thought I had my computer purchase paid off in full by the 6-month period, but there was some extra $19 bucks or something left (on a $1200 purchase mind you), and lo and behold, they nailed me for $90 bucks interest. My own fault I guess, but be forewarned, they will not budge on such things, when a lot of companies will when it is something arguably unreasonable. For that reason, I told them that I would make it my mission to tell as many people as I could to stay away from them.

So, my advice is, don't use them. Take it for what it's worth.

 

Might as well just get a new credit card with at least a 6 month offer since that's basically what it boils down to.

 

I'd do it if I had a clear plan to pay it off before the interest kicks in.

 

Any time I have one of those X month 0% interest offers, I make sure it is paid off at least 2-3 weeks prior to the expiration. At that point, I can see if there was something I missed and ensure that it is down to 0 prior to the expiration.

 

0% interest deals are awesome if you pay them off on time. But retailers count on the many that don't.

If everyone used their head and always fully paid these before 6 months, these deals would disappear.

 

I've used them for purchases from NewEgg and Apple. Never had a problem, and as long as you pay it off in the allotted amount of time, no interest.

 

I do that everytime with my credit card .

 

It's not like they tricked you. They're in this to make money. They take the risk of lending out money and 6 months later you pay everything on time... and they don't make money off of it. On the other hand, when you don't pay they make their money as agreed by both parties.

 

Some of those 0% interest deals make you pay a fee. Happened to me with Best Buy back when I was in college. Saw that they were working some fee in there and simply paid it all off immediately. Didn't investigate it, but it wasn't a mistake, they worked some weird % charge in there.