How long til you pay off current gear?

[donnievaz]

No balances currently and I don't finance with interest but I'll take advantage of 0% interest all day long. That being said, I'm not going out and buying PRS Private stocks on a payment plan, interest or not. Actually I'm not buying them at all. A man must know his limitations...

 

[Ry@n]

You mean you didn't get suckered into the CD club scam where you got like 5-6 for free (or like $.01) upfront, on the premise that you had to buy 3-4 in x-amount of time before you could cancel the subscription? Though I don't think the Pink Floyd catalog was that good, if my recollection serves me correctly. No 'obscured by the clouds'?

It was also entirely possible to manage those CD club offers in a way that was ultimately beneficial. If you were some kind of weirdo who actually liked owning a lot of music, and you put the effort into figuring out how to maximize the deals (because it wasn’t just the 12 for a penny, then buy 6 or whatever at regular price; there were also discounts to be had for buying multiple CDs in subsequent orders while fulfilling that obligation), you could get a decent music collection for a lot less money than if you had bought them all at a retail store.

With those, again, they’re banking on people not paying attention after the initial “deal”… but it was possible and not all that hard to keep that from paying off for them.

 

[Chris Kline]

Goose egg. I pay for all my gear outright. I got myself underwater with credit cards out of college and won't do that again

 

[DCAddy]

I remember reading stories about some of the country/r&b/rockabilly guitarists of the 50s. Most of these guys didn't have a pot to pi** in much less cash for a new Fender or Gibson.
So, they went down to the nearest music dealer, picked out a pro grade instrument, set up a payment plan, and hit the road.
In one particular interview, Scotty Moore laughed about financing a Gibson Super 400.

 

[Gms]

This thread reads kind of like forcing someone to watch Reefer Madness after they tell you they enjoyed a good smoke.

 

[aisling]

It was also entirely possible to manage those CD club offers in a way that was ultimately beneficial. If you were some kind of weirdo who actually liked owning a lot of music, and you put the effort into figuring out how to maximize the deals (because it wasn’t just the 12 for a penny, then buy 6 or whatever at regular price; there were also discounts to be had for buying multiple CDs in subsequent orders while fulfilling that obligation), you could get a decent music collection for a lot less money than if you had bought them all at a retail store.

With those, again, they’re banking on people not paying attention after the initial “deal”… but it was possible and not all that hard to keep that from paying off for them.

totally agree, I really used them to my advantage. I like owning a plastic or vinyl copy of my music, guess my generational divide reveals itself, I still prefer to buy a CD over a download.

 

[destroyerrock]

It's kind of like what's in the mail, only it's how long to pay off current gear so you can order more?

I got 9 months left before any big purchases and damn I'm thinking hard about the next one!

3 year no interest payment plan on my 335, why drop the big bucks all at once if i can get it now and pay less than 100 a month? Plus i will easily have it payed off long before that.

 

[Ry@n]

totally agree, I really used them to my advantage. I like owning a plastic or vinyl copy of my music, guess my generational divide reveals itself, I still prefer to buy a CD over a download.

There was no other option back when these clubs were still in business (and the advent of downloading, then streaming, is obviously what killed them). I suppose for more casual music fans to whom 12 CDs is a lot of CDs, the requirement to then buy more CDs after that could have felt like a “scam”… but it never seemed that way to me. It was just something you had to keep on top of, which I realize could be easy to neglect for someone with a lot of other stuff going on.

 

['63-Strat]

I mean, I get that in theory 0% financing is fine, and if you're actually financially stable, it is. I got into some fairly decent CC trouble in my early 20s that I slowly paid off so I'm firmly in the if I can't pay cash, I don't buy it as far as gear goes camp, lesson learned. I've had fellow musician friends buy all kinds of gear on credit that "should" have been fine but of course sometimes circumstances change and suddenly they were not. Selling all their gear, having their car being repo'd, and moving back into their parents' house level of fail.

But I'm also the kind of guy that makes sure we always have a big enough cushion to cover everything for a year +. So to me getting to where you are living month to month means that you made mistakes a long time ago. It's not about that piece of gear you bought on credit when you had no savings. It's that you didn't correct course *long* before that. None of my business how others do it though.

 

[Stratcries]

I bought a Fender amplifier from AMS for $1305 and 12 monthly pmts.I received the amplifier in a few days and it's been paid off three years now.

 

[aisling]

We all have our own narrative and values around fiscal responsibility and finances, and as long as you are an emotionally intelligent, situationally aware, kind, tolerant, and compassionate human being, it really doesn't matter what side of the discussion you fall. I just find some humor that the ultra rich and wealthy do this all the time. They borrow money and finance their assets (not liabilities, as the appreciation of their assets pays for their liabilities), while the working poor and middle class are left to balance whether to save and purchase, or pay interest charges....

 

[Mr. Brady]

When I hit 50 I plan on doing a reverse mortgage on my home, buying as much gear on credit as I can, maxing out my credit cards on trip to Vegas, putting it all on Black 11, and going out in a blaze of Jim Kelly, Dumble, Trainwreck, 59'Les Paul powered glory while the roulette wheel spins.

 

[DarrellM5]

I currently owe nothing on my gear but I have in the past.

I do occasionally use 0% financing as an inflation hedge. I already budget a certain amount monthly for gear purchases. For example maybe I'd like to buy a $4,000 item. I can save up my monthly gear money for 2 or 3 years and buy the item but it will cost a lot more than 4k at that time. I can lock it in at todays price by using a 0% deal. I'm currently saving up for an expensive guitar that I really wish I had 0% financed a couple years ago since it's price has increased 30% since then. I used to use layaway to protect against price increases.

I always have the cash on hand to pay for the item outright or I don't even contemplate this strategy.

BTW, manufacturers and retailers love 0% deals because the majority of people don't pay them off on time and people tend to buy things they wouldn't have if the deal weren't offered.

 

[Comanche5]

I sold my soul to the devil. Does that count?

 

[gregunit]

I pay cash or don't buy. Keeps me safe and sane

 

[RLP]

Ive never owed money on gear and I never will

This.
Always pay upfront. If I can't, I won't.

 

[Shredtrash]

As a general rule, I don't buy unless I can pay for it up front. There've been some very rare exceptions but I stick to that rule pretty well.

 

[pickleweed]

id also wager to say this place skews a little higher than most economically speaking. bl00z lawyers dont credit.

 

[amstrtatnut]

I just bought a mosky golden horse. I was able to pay the 30 bux in one go.

 

[Silent Sound]

March of 2027 for one, and June of 2030 for the other.

That's when I get my amp transporter and temperature-controlled guitar storage unit paid off. My wife likes to call them our car and our house. She has cute nicknames for everything!

Seriously, I put one guitar on credit card. I had a great paying job put it on GC's store card for 0%. Six months later I lost my job and paying that guitar bill was a self-inflicted nightmare. I found another job soon after, but those unnecessary bills in the meantime put me so far behind, it took me two years to get caught back up.