Paying £2 a day for a TV sounds cheap doesn't it? Blog Discussion 25 October 2005 at 5:38PM in Martin's blogs & appearances & MoneySavingExpert in the news 29 replies 4.5K views

Former_MSE_Andrea

This is a Chat Forum discussion on Martins 'Paying £2 a day for a TV sounds cheap doesn't it?' blog that you can read here.

seaniboy

Martin in all consideration, I understand what you are saying but £160 for a TV from Sainsburys on benefits is exactly why they buy from high intrest companies, they dont have £160 in the bank to pay it outright

Tesco Asda's etc should allow you to reserve & pay a product up which you can collect on full payment like Cash Converters, the customer gets a new fully warrented product they get the sale its common sense really (but the supermarkets dont want to allocate stock room area)

Maybe you could follow this up with one of the big supermarkets see who is willing to trial it and help protect the vunerable, whilst securing sales

I think ASDA would go for it they class themselves as the cheapest supermarket but dont market themselves to a certain demograph, they want your custom regardless of your income, Tesco however likes your high income = higher sales

My local is Tesco but its dam expensive in comparison, but there is more choice for those who dont give a fook what they are spending, Every Little Helps yeah yeah spend 100.00 get 1% back = £1

highlighter

seaniboy wrote:

Martin in all consideration, I understand what you are saying but £160 for a TV from Sainsburys on benefits is exactly why they buy from high intrest companies, they dont have £160 in the bank to pay it outright

Ok so they cant afford it....well why not go tv free for 3 months whilst putting 2 pound in your own money box (so you dont spend it)..then on day 80 get your self down to the supermarket.

Or for the sake of waiting 80 days people would rather put theselves into thousands of £'s in debt...if so, this is where my empathy stops.

seaniboy

highlighter the logic is right but it dont always come down to that, ok i will come to yours take all your TV's for 80 days see how isolated you feel, putting £2 away in a box is no good if you need say nappies, extra electric tokens as its winter before payday/giro day, inevitably that 80 days becomes more......

seaniboy

PS) I at one point was on benefits through no fault of my own, I needed a new TV as the last one was ready to go after a final repair, £130 paid up at cash converters over 3 months with 3 months warrenty and month 4 it went faulty, back to square 1... risk it again or high finance were my options, i picked niether instead 3 years later I still got the faulty TV as its a niggly fault not a major one but then its still faulty, I wouldnt buy a high value item @ Cash Convo again unless I had a full 1 year gaurntee (but then I will pay over the odds for that item compared to elsewhere as I get the privledge of paying it up before I get it !!)

One of the big nationals will stop this great gap in the market and do something eventually

colin_tomlinson

I used to live in an area where these doorstep lenders were rife. Talking to local residents, none of them had the first clue as to what APR meant. It's ALWAYS a question of how much per week. I sympathise, since it's all well and good to say what's best, but if you can't afford it, it's simply beyond reach.

I did, however, try to convince many that a better route would be to put the money in a jar until they had enough to buy whatever from a more reputable retailer. As seaniboy states, when nappies/electric tokens are needed, money can be retrieved from a jar, but not from a collector/collection box.

I then tried to convince many to use a credit union, since one needs to save only for a few weeks before the money will be lent and then needs to be repaid at minuscule interest.

I fear the problem is we now live in an instant society and the concept of "deferred gratification" (a professional term, despite its suggestive undertones) seems to be disappearing.

highlighter

seaniboy wrote:

highlighter the logic is right but it dont always come down to that, ok i will come to yours take all your TV's for 80 days see how isolated you feel, putting £2 away in a box is no good if you need say nappies, extra electric tokens as its winter before payday/giro day, inevitably that 80 days becomes more......

Fair enough if you cant afford the £2 a day. However if you can/could (not talking about you here), but would rather get into thousands of debt rather than sticking out 80 tv free days for a 28inch tv. I know, no matter how isolated i would feel for 80 days it would be a million times better than being thousands in the red for years all for a tv.

I understand what im saying doesnt go for all-yet i'm sure some people have got themselves into debt this way all because they 'need' a tv and simply dont have the mind set or disciplin to hold off for 3 months.

Dont forget the blog is talking about people who are paying for these 28inch, nice big widescreen tvs.

calleyw

I am sorry but I don't agree with this comment

"OK, a TV is a necessity as are the fridge freezers, cookers and other white goods"

Ummm since when. If you can't afford to buy a new telly how do pay for the TV licence at £126 for this year.

I am not trying to be smug but I don't have a TV by choice. Since I last looked it was not a right to have tv. A lot of people manage fine with out.

Yes I do have internet and I am sure that we will all be saying in a few years time that Broadband connection is necessity. Sorry don't think so.

To me a necessity is such things as roof over my head, food in belly and clothes on my back. Everything else is a luxury. The type of luxuries you have is depedent on how much money you have after the essentials have been paid.

Yours

Calley

colin_tomlinson

calleyw wrote:

To me a necessity is such things as roof over my head, food in belly and clothes on my back. Everything else is a luxury.

Just to clarify, does a cooker and washing machine constitute a necessity? What about a fridge-freezer?

These are all sold by use of a slot-TV by these companies. I believe in the case cited in Watchdog, the chap had a slot-meter fitted to his own TV to pay for a new fridge-freezer!

Amba_Gambla

maybe this is something the government, or a charity should be taking up.

Colin_tomlinson - I think you're right, the guy on watchdog had the box put on his own TV to pay for it. Maybe a charity or the government should offer these boxes to ppl who want to save up for their white goods/tvs etc, and run it at a slight profit, or only to cover costs.

40% apr is disgusting, and should be illegal........

Bobsworlduk

I can see ASDA offering a "Lay Away" scheme in the future. i.e pay up then get the item.

Their parent company Walmart offers this service in its stores.

Even if there was a minimal charge for this service to cover the overheads (database / storage for the items etc) it would still be way better than the £1000's that people are currently paying for interest etc.