Monday 31 March 2014

Pay Weekly Blinds

Pay Weekly Blinds
Looking for pay weekly blinds? You might want to think again and here's why.

It's really tempting when balancing a budget to look at offers that supply blinds on pay monthly or pay weekly terms. It's especially tempting when the offer that you've seen states "interest free credit" or 0% interest! 

Are Pay Weekly Blinds Good Value?

In short no, and this is why. Pay weekly blinds, carpets, laminate flooring and other home improvements that you see offered on an interest free basis are generally offered by companies that set up as brokers. This is how it works. 

The broker approaches a company that sells and fits blinds. It works out a deal, for arguments sake lets say the deal is 3 vertical blinds fitted for £95. The broker then does a deal with an independent money lending organisation, usually one that has door collectors. These door collectors have to be paid and the lending company expect a decent return on their money. So, for arguments sake, lets say that the lender wants £200 Pound back for every £100 that they lend out, this is so that they can pay their door collectors, make a profit and also factor in an allowance for bad debtors. 

Naturally the broker want's to earn money from the deal too. He will generally employ canvass teams who will walk the streets knocking on doors. Chances are, in addition to selling blinds on a pay weekly basis, he will also be offering other similar deals such as pay weekly laminate flooring or carpets, Pay weekly burglar alarms etc. Usually things that aren't as portable as a TV or games console.

The broker will be paying the canvasser to produce leads. In addition he will likely be paying a commission to a salesperson who will sign the deal up. So lets look at the math. 

Cost of blinds fitted             £95.00

Canvassers' Commission     £25.00

Salesmans' Commission      £80.00

Brokers Fee (profit)             £200.00

Total Cost of Blinds            £400.00

Interest to Loan Company  £400.00

Total repayable                   £800.00

With some creative accounting in terms of invoicing taking place between broker and the finance company, this can be made to look like an interest free loan. 

Are You Still Looking For Pay Weekly Blinds?

You can see with the example above that pay weekly blinds aren't good value. The blind company who would fit your blinds will be charging just £95, with the rest of the money going in fees, commissions and interest. The facility of paying weekly or monthly exists and it is legal but it doesn't offer good value. You end up paying 8 times more than you would if you saved for a few weeks and then bought direct. 

You could save even more money if you could fit them yourself, Take a look at these vertical blind offers from Just Blinds who are offering 3 vertical blinds for just £72. The equivalent of just a few repayments if you were to choose the pay monthly or weekly option. 

Hopefully this has given you a reason to avoid pay weekly blind offers and opened your eyes to the good value deals that are out there if you save for a few weeks and pay upfront instead.