"All of these items are beautiful, unique, and handmade with love. But something else they have in common, is that their color is not in the spectrum. The human mind completes the missing link in the color wheel by mixing red and blue. "So, what does it matter," you ask? Try photographing it! That link is lost in translation, showing in photos more red or more blue. Kudos to those who pin down purple, for it is a finicky and elusive thing."
YourTime to look good and feel good
No payments for a full year!! REALLY???
We've all seen those ads. "No payments for a 90 days" it says, or even "FOR A FULL YEAR" in big bold letters. How many times do the store clerks assure us that we can take that shiny new car, or that big screen TV home, and we don't even have to pay for it for a whole year? And after that ... well you just pay it off in easy monthly installments.
Not so fast.
Most of the time, what they mean when they say "no payments" is simply that.... you don't pay them. However, and this is a big HOWEVER... in most cases your interest continues to accumulate for the year. The fine print can make all the difference.
Say you bought a TV for $500. One year later, you owe the store not $500 but $640.35, because the interest of 25% has been quietly accumulating in the background for the whole year, and was added on month after month. Some deals have "promotional periods", where, for example, you could pay in full within 12 months, and you would only pay the original $500. But in many deals, this is not the case. You don't have to pay for a year, but the interest keeps adding up througout the year. You really have to read the fine print very carefully to see what you are signing up for.
So how did I come up with $640.35 due at the end of the first year? If the interest rate was 25%, and your purchase was for $500, the interest should only be $125, for a total of $625, right? Well, unfortunately, no.
The 25% interest rate is called the nominal interest rate. This is what lenders are forced to disclose to you by law. But behind the scenes there is something else called the effective interest rate, and that is usually higher because the rate could be compounded more frequently than yearly. We won't go into the gory details but here's a tip. If the fine print says the interest is compounded daily or monthly or whatever.... really, anything *but* yearly... it means that what you pay will be higher than the nominal interest rate. More frequent = worse, i.e. daily is worst, weekly is a bit better, monthly even better etc.
So in this case, your $500 purchase, at the end of the year, will cost you $640.35. If you don't pay it all of, it will continue to incur interest, and depending on how long you take to pay it all off, you could end up paying a heck of a lot more than the original $500.
So the bottomline is this. IF you sign up for a deal like this, read the fine print carefully and ask lots of questions. Or, better still ... you know it :-) ... don't sign up for these deals.
Most of the time, what they mean when they say "no payments" is simply that.... you don't pay them. However, and this is a big HOWEVER... in most cases your interest continues to accumulate for the year. The fine print can make all the difference.
Say you bought a TV for $500. One year later, you owe the store not $500 but $640.35, because the interest of 25% has been quietly accumulating in the background for the whole year, and was added on month after month. Some deals have "promotional periods", where, for example, you could pay in full within 12 months, and you would only pay the original $500. But in many deals, this is not the case. You don't have to pay for a year, but the interest keeps adding up througout the year. You really have to read the fine print very carefully to see what you are signing up for.
So how did I come up with $640.35 due at the end of the first year? If the interest rate was 25%, and your purchase was for $500, the interest should only be $125, for a total of $625, right? Well, unfortunately, no.
The 25% interest rate is called the nominal interest rate. This is what lenders are forced to disclose to you by law. But behind the scenes there is something else called the effective interest rate, and that is usually higher because the rate could be compounded more frequently than yearly. We won't go into the gory details but here's a tip. If the fine print says the interest is compounded daily or monthly or whatever.... really, anything *but* yearly... it means that what you pay will be higher than the nominal interest rate. More frequent = worse, i.e. daily is worst, weekly is a bit better, monthly even better etc.
So in this case, your $500 purchase, at the end of the year, will cost you $640.35. If you don't pay it all of, it will continue to incur interest, and depending on how long you take to pay it all off, you could end up paying a heck of a lot more than the original $500.
So the bottomline is this. IF you sign up for a deal like this, read the fine print carefully and ask lots of questions. Or, better still ... you know it :-) ... don't sign up for these deals.
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