Rent to own stores, we’ve all heard of them, some of us have items from them, but are they a smart choice? Recently I found an end table set that I liked on a site called Easy Home. I had never looked into one of these sites, and figured I could get a cash in hand price. Boy was I wrong! Easy Home deals in “weekly payments” there are no base prices. Only how much the item will cost you weekly. I had figured the pair of end tables should retail around $149.99 considering they were just press board and pretty simple. With Easy Homes base (which they don’t disclose) and the 29.99% interest the pair would cost me $6 per week for 156 weeks costing me just under $940! With a bit of searching I found a CBC Marketplace investigation where they calculated the base price triple or more of the normal price plus the 29.99% interest. If you took the regular retail and recalculated the excessive base amount they were charging in the compound interest some items were over 500% interest. The real kicker? Some of these items are used! You end paying insane prices on used items. The only good thing I found was you can return the items at any time with no penalty… but i’m sure theres a lot of fine print to that.
While I do understand some people have no credit or means of purchasing these items outright why not go second hand until you can afford a new couch, tv etc? Theres no shame in saving up for a new couch. Or maybe people don’t mind paying insane prices to have something new? Have you purchased items from a rent to own store? What was your experience?
We buy furniture from Easy home. When you go in and sign up you can pay it off when ever you want so take the free delivery and pay them out it is expensive if you only pay the min as it is on your credit card. I recently bought a whole living room set the cost is just over 2000. I got a recling couch and chair, coffee table set,tv stand,lamps and a 46 inch LED tv(tv was upgraded as the didn’t have the 40″ the set was suppose to come with. If I take the three years it would be expensive but, if I pay it off within the next couple months it will be way cheaper than at any other store.I just checked th tv at best buy its 1498.99 I also priced out it is over 1100 and the couch is just under 800. So the price I got the stuff for I will pay for tv and couch.Chair,tv stand,tables and lamps are free if I pay out early And they delivered free I live alost 2 hrs away from the store no one else would deliver for free some stores wouldn’t even deliver.Yes I am paying out early as that is the way to save money. I have bought from them in the past and always been able to pay out early.One perk however is as long as you owe anything on your purchase they will come move it for you for free if you move
should read couch is over 1100 and chair is just under 800 on my past post
For that matter, what’s the big deal about owning ‘new’ stuff anyway? I’ve seen some really nice furniture in second hand stores or at yard sales.
I knew a guy whose parents bought a beta max through a rent-to-own store. They ended up paying $500 for it, & by the time they were done paying it off, the technology was dead & they needed a vcr.
People don’t want to save money, they don’t want to wait. They want everything NOW, & in today’s society, there’s no reason that they have to wait — credit & rent to own make it so people can buy without being able to afford.
I also think a lot of people don’t take the final price into consideration. $6/week sounds like a pittance compared to $150 outright.
Places like easy home become a problem when people loose their jobs especially when they learn to rely on it as a way to furnish their homes, a previous manager of mine, was fired about 7 months ago for stealing. She and hubby and their two kids had been using Easy Home to “rent” over half of they stuff in their home!! Laptops, couches, Tv’s She wasn’t able to find another job and her hubby doesn’t work. Easy Home was quick to come after them for their money and they lost everything.
I cannot see places like this ever being a good idea, it gives a lot of people the illusion that they can afford these things when in reality that can’t. If your in a good financial situation to rent, and then pay off quickly then it works well, but unfortunately many people don’t get the good side of it.
i would never do it.to me those rent to own shoppes are like those payday cash loan places.you end up paying more in the end.you may think you need furniture now but paying through the nose isnt the way to get it.i lived and survived on hand me down until i could afford it cash..i would not recommend these places…
buy within your means..or make more..simple
Those places are such a rip off
One other thing to consider is that your homeowners/tenant insurance policy does not cover these items until the contract is satisfied as they are not actually your property until that last payment is made.
I buy from them for the simple fact is if an appliance breaks down I can get a new one right away you can not go without a fridge, washer or dryer etc also if the product is not new they have shorter terms and they take money off if I am paying full price I always make sure it is new and yes you can take them back at any time with no penalties there is no fine print they even come and pick it up
I have friends who do these, they bought a leather sectional retail for 999 they will end up paying just over 3500, its crazy! and they got one of those 199 dining tables, they will pay 575 in the end! I get wanting nice stuff but i could never do it!
I was raised with the only “acceptable” form of debt being a mortgage. For everything else — furniture, cars, clothes, you name it — if we didn’t have the cash, we didn’t get it. If we needed “new stuff” — as in new to us — our furniture was from the salvation army or hand-me-downs from friends/curbside; there were lots of hand-me-down clothes; we always had used cars. I’m just always surprised that folks are willing to buy stuff for “3 easy payments”.…
These rent-to-own places are the biggest rip offs going. Obscene interest rates and you end up paying 3 or 4 times the normal price of the product if you pay every week for the duration. The problem is that people don’t save and don’t plan ahead and want things right now. The $800 TV that could be bought during a boxing week sale for $500, ends up costing something like $2,500. It’s unfortunate, but it’s usually poor people who end up going for this sort of deal. When it’s $6 a week, it sounds cheap, but not when you’re paying 30% interest. Crazy.
My sister does this because she likes new furniture. She says was a customer for 2 years with Christmas approaching she was short for a payment. They called her numerous times each day saying they wanted to come and get the stuff.
$900?! Youch! My wallet is aching just thinking about it!
I’m really cheap. All my furniture comes from garage sales — since my mom worked in an antique store when I was a kid I learned all the tips and tricks for finding really bargains for furniture (I recently paid $40 for a wood dresser that most antique stores would sell for $900+!).
I’ll be honest, I don’t even think I could fathom spending $150 on end tables.
That should read “*really good bargains*”!
These places are the furniture equivalent to payday advance stores. They exist for people who are so bad with money that they do not know any better. The people who shop there would be better off buying used off kijiji or craigslist, but seldom have the means to pick things up themselves. It is sad how often low income people are taken advantage of and ripped off.
I tend to agree with Theresa, given that I was on a very low income (below min wage) and on a work permit so couldnt get any more work, I moved to Canada alone and was basically scammed by my landlord who promised me a furnished room. Having to go out and buy a bed when you have NOTHING is extremely difficult, no car, no bank account no steady income. Places like this play on people with low income, and the “poor just get poorer” so to speak.
The kick in the face here is that it tends to be those with tighter budgets who will use these companies, spending far far more of those precious few dollars than they need to. Saving up that monthly cost for a year would usually pay for the same item elsewhere. When it’s needed right away, I can understand the impulse to go the route of easy home, but used is a fabulous and eco-friendly alternative. It’s too bad that many people see that the bargain of used furniture is beneath them. Granted, there are some risks in buying used items (who knows what lurks inside that couch, or how much that appliance has been abused).
Aside from the crazy total cost, I’d rather avoid them (and the majority of furniture stores) due to the quality of furniture. It’s becoming more and more difficult to find solid furniture that will last for decades. Even if they have a protection program that if the product fails to live up to expectations before it is paid off and they will replace it, there is still that negative impact on the environment through wasted resources.
A lot of people on Kijiji will deliver for a small amount (like, $10–20 depending on how far they have to travel), so there’s no reason that anyone should have to resort to a rent-to-own store.
Wow I had no idea what that store was even about!! I have passed by many times and just thought it was a second hand home store. I cannot believe the interest they charge! It’s mind boggling!! I cannot imagine paying the end result of those prices. I feel awful for those who get stuck and do not realize but as a poster commented, he pays it off within months and gets a good deal overall — you just need to be smart about these “deals”. Thanks for sharing this — very interesting!
Did you ever notice that most of these stores are in the porrest area of your region?
In Longueuil, they are located in the Welfare area… Those persons are the one targeted by their marketing… and that’s sad.
Me, Its very very hard to find someone on Kijiji who actually has the means to deliver, where I am from, the main reason people were Kijijing their stuff is because they had no way to get rid of it!
I worked for this particular company for 3+ years. I think they are a great way for lower income people to get things that they need like a couch or a bed. True there are “wants” available there as well but dont we all deserve nice things?
Something to keep in mind is the early buy out option is a great option but remember too that if you went to say the Brick and got a Brick card where you didn pay for 2 years with no interest, but didnt pay your purchase off in that time there interest rate is similar (as are most furniture credit cards) and if you make only minimum payments it would take years to pay off
At a rent to own company the longest term would be 3 years so depending on how you uuse credit its the same without all the benefits
when you are leasing your furniture you ghave covereage for fire flood theft wind lightning and more, if you are dissatisfied you can return it at anytime and you can always upgrade your furniture
depending on your circumstances this might be a good route for you! also sometimes they have sales for cash purchases we had people order things through us for outright purchases all the time — good luck!
How does their return policy work? Could someone stage their home for sale then return the items at minimal cost? Their website really lacks details on their terms and conditions.
About a year ago, our old TV finally died. We were looking to upgrade to an HDTV. Now we didn’t have the cash to just go out and buy one, so we went with easyhome. After about a month, it occured to me — Paying back a microloan through EasyFinancial would be much better altogether than constantly paying Easyhome for the TV. So we took a loan for a few hundred dollars, bought a TV from another store, and had it paid off super quick (mainly from the government of Canada finally getting around to fixing an error they made, but still).
If you do go this way, however, make sure you cancel the prepaid credit card they make you get as soon as you take out all the money — its fees are insane.
it’s not unlike payday loans. when you figure out what the yearly interest is on those it is something like 1000%. buying anything (anything) long term is always a bad investment. by the time you own it outright it has, basically, no value. get what you NEED from kijiji (or live without), save up for a few months, and upgrade if you want to. no interest, no fear of not having the money in the future due to an unforeseen emergency (and they happen, they always happen).
We purchased our dishwasher and computer at a rent-to-own store. The dishwasher, we ended up paying more than $1000 for, because we paid it over the full term. We purchased our computer at Aaron’s, and paid more than the monthly payment on it, so we paid it off earlier, therefore paying less interest.
I guess I just started out differently–in my first home, I had a sleeping bag and used table and chair, a microwave and a cooler until I could pay for a fridge and later a stove, then a bed. But, advertisements for places like this make it sound like EVERYBODY has the BEST stuff right away and if you don’t…well, your stupid. It is easy to get in to debt today and REALLY hard to get out! If you cannot afford it, don’t rent it. Instead consider buying (low cost) from goodwill or Sallyann. Then when you can afford better, it will not hurt you so much in the wallet!
Sara yes you can use it to stage your house you go in pick what you want pay on your pay days and call them to get it when you are done they deliver set up and take away
While we didn’t go the rent to own route, we did purchase end tables from Aaron’s. They had a set with a coffee table and two end tables — We didn’t need the coffee table, only wanted to purchase 4 end tables…they worked out a deal with us to break up the sets, paid an upfront price rather than the weekly payments, also assembled and offered free same day delivery. We were very happy with our experience. They seemed to be the only place that was willing to work out a deal with us with not wanting to purchase a set with a coffee table…Leon’s, Brick, Sears…no flexibilty.
Hahaha, the only person saying that buying from these places is a good idea is an employee.
Honestly, I think a ‘lower income’ person has more important things to worry about than a $900 couch or a $1500 bed.
Y’know, like rent, food, clothes, transportation, heat, electricity, etc.…
Sure, it may only be a few dollars a week, but that adds up.
Especially when they can get a couch or bed that works just as well as a rent-to-own one for a fraction of the cost off Kijiji, Craigslist, or at a yard sale or second hand store.
Personally, I think these stores should have a price list on each item, showing how much it would cost depending on how long you take to pay it off.
When our TV was in the repair shop we though it would be simple to “rent” one for a couple of weeks. What a PTA.
They also assumed I would not read the contract before I signed and were surprised when I questioned being charged insurance which I clearly initialed in the “declined” box.
When we wanted to return the TV, we were not allowed to bring it back. We had to wait until someone could come pick it up.
Overall not a good impression of their business practices.
It’s a rip off
Yes you can stage we worked with a few stagers and real estate agents alot actually theres a big business in it–
The return policy is great– obviously you cant throw your tv off the dresser and bring it back and be out of your contract, but normal wear and tear on product is not only ok its realistic –within reason
you can “lease to own” anything and bring it back in 2 weeks 3 months whenever– any money you paid into it you “rented” it.
1000% interest rate really? 29.9% but thats full term and like i said check out other furniture credit card interest rates– theres a reason they advertize no interest for 1 year cause at 1 year what you havent paid off they do a 29.9% interest
I wouldnt lease to own my stuff but i would if my washer broke down or my stove and i didnt have the monney to outright purchase one. You can always “rent” one until your next payday etc when you can purchase one
ps im not an employee im a former employee worked there over 2 years ago
Just buy used off Craigslist or Kijiji. I have used both sites with great satisfaction both as a seller and a buyer. I know some folks feel funny to purchase something that was previously owned, but if you have to go the rent to own route you are way better off just buying used. I have even given away perfectly good things that were in excellent condition for free simply because I couldn’t be bothered to deal with selling it at the time. Community sale boards are a better outlet IMO.
Another good option to look at is to go to auctions. Prices can be real cheap or more on the expensive side depending who shows up to bid. I have gotten some really great bargains, such as a queen size bed and the two mattresses for $75.00. This was from a store auction. A six by six carpet went for $10.00– all new. I have also used Kijiji buying/selling, or getting/giving away for free. Never had a problem but it does take some effort and access to a computer and newspaper.
I say that if you don’t have money for furniture, especially after buying a new house, borrow pieces from friends, buy from thrift stores/Craigslist/Kijiji/Freecycle:
http://www.freecycle.org/
It’s much better, not to mention cheaper, than “leasing” furniture…that’s not actually new!
Trena — basically you’re saying it’s a great way for other people to purchase stuff, but you wouldn’t? That sounds real reassuring.
I recently went to the Store in Niagara Falls, ON and one of the posts is correct it is in the lower income part of town. I was interested in a set and initialled all of their insurance coverage but try and cancel any they won’t let you except is states that you do not have to take out the fire,theft etc coverage to lease but yet when you say I don’t want it they tell you otherwise such as you have to have your own insurance coverage but clearly they don’t know what their saying as someone here already stated your own policy doesn’t cover the items as their not yours. I told them also to cancel the $2.99 chg a wk for the membership fee the liability ins is $4.35 a wk and $2.86 a wk for the total protection meaning you can return and exchange no problem but if you don’t have this ins that’s not possible. Try sending an email or phoning the number it has an automated response not to the store their 1– 800 # leave a message they don’t get back to you. I think I should call Market Place see if they want to go back for an update. Don’t do it bottom line thet have soo many extra charges and they talk out the side of their mouths.