Home Budgeting Getting Something New: Renting vs. Buying

Getting Something New: Renting vs. Buying

Getting Something New: Renting vs. Buying

When it comes to buying something for your home, you have the option of renting or buying a particular item. Each approach comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Renting an item allows you to offset the expense of paying the purchase price for an item; however, it’s no different than renting a car or a tuxedo. Regardless of how much money you pay, you will never own the item. You have to be careful with the items you rent because they’re someone else’s property. If you damage the items you rent in any way, you will have to pay the cost to replace or repair the item. You’re going to be careful with items you own, but not as cautious as you need to be when you have the property of a stranger. The only difference between purchasing an item on credit and renting is that no matter how much you pay to rent an item, you will never own it. At some point, when you purchase an item on credit, the full balance is paid off and you have no obligation to the company you purchased it from. In the case of renting, you have an obligation to the company that owns the item you’re renting for as long as you want to use it.

One advantage of renting is that you get to figure out whether you want to keep an item long-term. This becomes especially important when you’re dealing with big-ticket, high-dollar items. Most stores won’t allow you to return an item that costs a lot of money unless it has some sort of defect. Some of them only give you store credit even in those situations. You have to put up quite a stink to get a store to take back a high-priced item and refund your money. The requirements for when you can return an item have become more rigid over the years. You don’t have the option to try out an item unless you received it as a gift. Even then you have to have a receipt and a solid reason as to why you are returning it. Without either you’re left with an item you don’t want and little recourse if you want to return it. Businesses do not want to lose out on the potential profits they receive from high-dollar merchandise.

Another great option you can do if you can’t afford to purchase an item but don’t want to rent the product without getting to keep it you can go to a company like Rent A Center. They allow you to make weekly payments and then after a certain amount of payments the product is yours. This is a great option for many people that need items but can’t afford them otherwise.

Purchasing the item is the way to go for people who are too worried about ruining someone else’s property. You have to make sure you know what you want before you decide to purchase something. In buying an item, the chance you have to return it is remote, depending on its price. Lower-priced items can be returned within a certain timeframe, no question asked. Expensive merchandise will require you to jump through hoops to get it back to where you found it. Each approach is advantageous to a certain group of people. You should consider each one a picks out the route that will work the best for you.

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