Good article, and I can definitley see why you like yours. They’ve come a long way, and if I didn’t have a tablet it would be a pretty easy decision to get one. I’ve been considering a Chromebook (mostly because I just love gadgets in general), but since I do have a tablet I can’t figure out what I would really use it…

I actually completely agree with everything you’ve said here :)

I think there was just a miscommunication. Paying it off entirely is not what’s bad. Paying it off entirely is allowed, as you said in the article. It definitely would be bad if they didn’t allow that, that would end up being basically the same as the old two year contracts.

As much as my math oriented brain dislikes that, I do accept that rational. However, that’s only valid in the case of paying off the whole remaining balance (which is an option). Just paying a little more each month leaves you still in debt (just a slightly less amount of debt). If you’re goal is to pay it off 6…

In reference to Verizon financing: “You cannot pay extra towards the balance of your phone each month.”

Yes, technically it uses electricity. But it uses so little electricity that it’s irrelevent. If once a month you use the toaster oven instead of the oven when making something small, you’ve saved far more electricity from that one event than you wasted by having the toaster oven plugged in all month.

Oh man, he’s right, I sure made a huge mistake financing my car. He’s right when he says “never”. Even if you can get a great deal on a loan, financing is terrible. All this ZERO PERCENT debt is really destroying my finances. I definitely should have just paid cash.

If you’re taking a large meal that actually fills your oven, and splitting into like 12 small batches for your toaster oven, then you’re doing it wrong. If you’re only using teh toaster oven for small things, then it’s going to save electricity. And it’s not wasting electricity when not in use, generally they don’t…

True, but you also don’t “need” a stove if you have a fire-pit in the backyard. A toaster oven will quickly more than pay for itself in saved time and electricity when you use it instead of the full size oven for samller things.

An electricity hog? Maybe it uses more than a toaster, but if you’re using your whole oven to reheat stuff, that’s using far more electricity (not to mention time) than using a toaster oven would.

Toaster Oven.

For laundry: “At a few loads a week...” Why are you doing a few loads a week? A weeks worth of clothes can easily fit in one load. One load a week, with an extra one for sheets and towels occasionally, is plenty. You’ll spend far less on laundry if you simply do less loads.

It’s also important to give a reason, and that further increases your chances. I read about a study once that found giving a reason, any reason, even if its not a good reason, can have a big impact. Probably less helpful with things like salary, but with smaller things that people are going to make a quick decision on…

Yeah i jusy piked around on their website, it looks like they made some changes since I bought mine. They also got rid of the part where you can pay off part of it, return your phone, and get an early upgrade. I like keeping my old devices anyways.

You can get the $15 monthly price by bringing your own phone? I didn’t know that, that’s awesome! I thought it was $40 and the only way to get the discount to $15 was to have a phone on Edge. Next time I’ll just buy the phone from the manufacturer instead of through Verizon. I’m probably going to end up getting…

For the iPhone its not free, you pay $50. The plan itself for $40/month is 960 over two years. Get it on edge and you pay a total of $1009 like you said, so $49 for the phone, instead of the $200 on contract.

I’m on Verizon’s Edge thing, which on family plans is a great deal. I pay full retail split into 24 monthly payments (no interest) which is about $23 for my phone. But then Verizon gives me $25 off my plan for having a phone on edge, which means the phone actually is less than free!

He actually did his math wrong, and the lease he mentions in the article is a similar deal, where the total cost of the lease-to-own plan is actually less than the sticker price.

Let me start by saying I agree with your overall point, and do think that a lot of people end up wasting money by leasing when they would have been better off buying, usually because car salesmen make it confusing. However, you appear to have a bit of a math error. You conclude that the lease to-own will cost $623…

So this is for people who don’t have anything better than their phone for a light... But they do have Photoshop. Sounds great.