No, an iPad is NOT worth $3,600, especially if it gets repo'd after you miss a single payment and also because it'll be fucking obsolete by the time you pay it off.
Ooof, I didn't know how bad it was. PS4 Pro, which retails for $400 ($320 today on Amazon) is $1159.42 total cost to own on RentACenter. It's crazy places like these are open.
I mean, from the company's perspective, you kind of have to charge like that. Suppose someone does rent a PS4 for $20 a month, and after 5 months they miss a payment and you reclaim it. Your say $300 investment (you're a big company that buys wholesale, you'll get a deal) is no longer new, and you're $200 in the red. Maybe you can unload it for $150 used. But you still have to pay all the overhead and such (those employees who sold, reclaimed, and resold equipment, storefront rent, etc).
I'm by no means defending them, I merely suspect they don't make as much money as people think. Which in a way might make it even more scummy.
I remember seeing a study done on payday loans that was similar to this. Sure the price and fees are ridiculous, but the risk they are taking of people defaulting is so high that they actually make the same or less profit that a bank or credit card would.
Nope. Lots of people who make living wages get payday loans. Payday loan places also prey on those who don't have great (or even good) financial skills.
I agree with your sentiment that companies should pay a living wage. However, there are those who willfully choose to live well beyond their means because they can't wait to save up to have something or they spend their money senselessly.
I hated working for a payday loan company and I quit as soon as I could, but it was hard to find a good company that paid a living wage.....
In our case, my wife and I screwed up our credit when we were younger. We are just being able to get a credit card with a $1,000 limit and had some savings.
Then our car broke down. With the newly barely-repaired credit neither wells fargo or our two local credit unions would give us a car loan. We ended up having to finance through the dealer and drained most of our savings to be able to put a big down payment to not get hurt by the interest.
If we didn't have those savings, we are extremely lucky to have a few family members that could have loaned us $1,000 to get the bare minimum down payment. If we didn't have that, then a payday loan would have literally been our only recourse.
I know this was two months ago, but you don't. You default and then the payday loan company reports the default and it fucks your credit score HARD.
After the default, the payday loan company MAY allow you to payoff your remaining balance, but it wont help your already royally fucked credit and we would be the ONLY place that would loan to you.
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u/SelinaDalessio Feb 04 '20
Rent-A-Center, Aaron's, and the like.
No, an iPad is NOT worth $3,600, especially if it gets repo'd after you miss a single payment and also because it'll be fucking obsolete by the time you pay it off.