Bought my rented TV, saved a packet.

Poppy9

I too can remember coin operated TV's. We used to rent our TV from Radio rentals or such like as a child. Had that funny box on the wall away from the TV where you had to change channels. I can also remember having our first colour TV. Rented from the Co-op. Boy was it posh to have a coloured TV. Our next door neighbour was the first to have colour TV so the whole street crowded into her house to watch Princess Ann's wedding!!

krisskross

This is a real blast from the past!!
We rented a TV in the 70's.....it had to go back because we couldn't afford a licence which i think was about £4 a year in those days.

-Elmer-

Renting really does seem a short sighted option nowerdays, particularly with the option if people want it of 12 months interest free credit on many more expensive items.

For example looking at the ogormans website rental prices, if you are a student and paying £13 a month for a washing machine over the three years of your course you will have spent £468 on renting and at the end have nothing to show for it.

Just having a quick look at an Argos catalogue you can buy a brand new washing machine from as little as £170, (for the first 12 months it will be under guarantee, during which time you would have spent £156 renting from ogormans and have nothing to show for it).

If you have bought rather than rented, at the end of your 3 years you are very likely to have a problem free machine which on average will last you another 9 years before needing replacing.

The 28” widescreen TV at £25 a month is even worse, over 3 years that would cost £900, again a quick look at Argos shows you could buy a brand new 28” widescreen TV from as little as £159 which again will probably last about 12 years.

With a rental TV will it even be brand new when they first rent it to you? If not second hand 28” widescreen TV’s are going for about £70 on ebay, equivalent to less that 3 months rent from ogormans.

Poppy9

-Elmer- wrote:

If you have bought rather than rented, at the end of your 3 years you are very likely to have a problem free machine which on average will last you another 9 years before needing replacing.

Not likely with washing machines. My first lasted 10 years (hoover), my second (bosch) 2 years, my 3 (hotpoint) about 3 years, my 4th (Zanussi) is now on it's 3rd year and getting noisy.

roswell

the TV with slots is no "Buy as you view" and more strangly you can buy 3 piece suit`s fridges / freezers / bedroom suits, the more you rent the more you feed your TV. I know someone that had over £300 in there TV when they came to empty it (which they do every 2 months or so) interestingly a freeview box tv and freeview arieal costs £120 a month through them ......... tv probably worth £200 freeview box £30 arial about £20 ..... dont need a maths degree to work out in 3 months you could own those items instead of buying them over a minimum of 1 year....

alikat_3

I did not realise you could still rent a TV etc.

When I was a kid my parents rented a TV off Redifusion? & telly we got kept going wrong & company would take an age to fix in the days when the phone was the telephone box.

Engineers took an age to fix it & same old problem, eventually Dad told them to come & pick up their junk, but they didn't come. So he phoned them & told them if not collected by so & so date TV would be put on the compost heap. Some weeks later they turned up & were sheepishly directed to the compost heap after coming in doors & seeing we had no TV

Snich

When I was a student, we needed a washing machine but I calculated that if I bought one (think it was £180), I could rent it to the other people in the house for less than they would have paid for renting it through a proper company. It got a free three year warranty with it, I earnt 2/3 of the money back through renting and own a washing machine!

Having "priced" everything, I don't think that there is anything worth paying a rental company for - unless it's one of those huge TV plasma screen whatsits, but then I would consider that a non-essential...

Snich x

mintymoneysaver

We actually still rent our TV, i always thought at least we could upgrade quite cheaply, but I'm going to phone them up and see what they offer us after this thread....

jobbingmusician

There used to be info somewhere (Which???) which talked about which items it was best to rent and which to buy, based on average breakdown/servicing costs. I agree with previous poster (ooooo, a new acronym - PP!) that renting a washing machine is probably a good idea for students - depends on the cost though as you could buy a washer for £199 - if you get one with a 2 year parts and labour warranty this is only £8.30 a month cost (to replace the washer every 2 years, I mean, so you always have a full warranty).

I don't suppose Martin would consider doing a sticky on what to rent and what to buy?

snake666

mintymoneysaver wrote:

We actually still rent our TV, i always thought at least we could upgrade quite cheaply, but I'm going to phone them up and see what they offer us after this thread....

let us know what they say
snake