Valve reveals official payment plan for vive ($66/mo) , prices for the tracker + new strap ($99) - Polidicks

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;51883067]This isnt a house or a car. This is early VR technology.[/QUOTE] That doesn't invalidate "$66/mo is much more manageable than $750 upfront" though

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;51883067]This isnt a house or a car. This is early VR technology.[/QUOTE] If I can afford a thing I want one way but not another, why shouldn't I be able to buy it just because RenegadeCop on Facepunch said so? The reason I don't want to drop $750 on a VR headset is that as an adult with two cars, a house note, several pets and a sizable collection of guns and antiques (all things that continue costing money over time) I don't want to cut into emergency savings for something I'm not entirely sure if I will like or will work well on my computer, but I get paid enough monthly to make $66/mo easily. That's called responsibility.

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;51883067]This isnt a house or a car. This is early VR technology.[/QUOTE] Okay, that doesn't matter though. It's still a fairly sizeable investment. If someone wants it, but can't afford it outright at that point in time this provides them a reasonably priced means of getting a Vive. Acquiring debt in a managed way is almost vital to actually functioning in society. Lenders for any actually large, life changing purchases will not even look your way unless you have proof that you pay debts off on time.

Just squirrel away money; who knows, by the time you can buy one there might be a better model released.

[QUOTE=chernisreal?;51882864]Payment plans are for people who live above their means. If you do not have $750 in your bank account you cannot afford a vive.[/QUOTE] I disagree with this statement so much. Having $750 in your bank account is all well and good, but it pisses me off to no end when I have to go and put that down in it's entirety, which gets me no boost to my credit score. I'm much happier now that I have credit cards because I know I can afford it, I can put it down on my CC, and then pay it off normally, or opt to pay off over the course of 2 or 3 months. If you're smart with your finances, there's nothing wrong with spreading the cost over a period of months, especially if it comes with 0 interest. Following your logic, people nowadays wouldn't be able to afford jack shit since it would be "living above their means". We'd not be able to get a decent television or a car that won't break down every 2 weeks following your logic. [editline]27th February 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Svinnik;51882906]I disagree, it's a great way to build credit. For example, I have several items that I can pay for with cash but I'm currently looking for a credit card so I can build my credit score up by paying off the card in full every month.[/QUOTE] Agreed. I started off with the shittiest of the shit credit card that they only give away to people with awful credit scores (I had an awful credit score cause I'm a full-time student with no credit history as no one wants to touch me). Got given a 500 quid limit, over the course of 6 months, that's now 2400 limit. I still pay my bill off in full every month and have never once accrued interest. This opened the door for me to get a nice credit card with my regular bank that gave me a promotional offer of 0 interest for the first 12 months, and I've been able to buy nice things on it and the 12 months just passed and guess what? I'd fully paid off my card. Worst feeling I ever had was going and buying a laptop at full price, knowing it would do jack shit for my credit score. The shop (PCWorld) wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole as I was a full time student and bursaries don't count as income. So despite me having a decent credit score, a history showing I pay off my debts, and telling them I could outright buy the laptop there and then, they didn't do anything for me. The manager agreed the system was fucked, but said it wasn't up to him. I could be a shithead when it comes to money, working in KFC, with a history of not paying off debts, and they'd be more willing to accept me for credit as I had a job. But if you're a student and not working, you're basically dead to credit agencies.

Valve has nothing to do with this payment plan. Wrong title

If it's a no interest deal, then I don't see any issues with doing this if you actually remember to stay diligent and pay it off every month. $65/month is definitely less of a financial burden in the short term than dumping $750 all at once. I'd take advantage of this, but I have no room for a Vive, and I'd rather wait for the new controllers to come out first. Also, LG is apparently coming out with a SteamVR headset now, so who knows? That might be less expensive.

[QUOTE=chernisreal?;51882864]Payment plans are for people who live above their means. If you do not have $750 in your bank account you cannot afford a vive.[/QUOTE] Lol good luck buying a house/decent car or getting a good education without a "payment plan". When you enter the real world lemme know how your view changes.

[QUOTE=F.X Clampazzo;51883690]Lol good luck buying a house/decent car[/QUOTE] You've missed the point, which wasn't arguing over financing in [I]general[/I], it was poking at financing for something that costs - in the grand scheme of things - very little. Anyone with a full time job [I]should[/I] be able to afford things under 1000 in at least 6 months and trying to point out that you can't reasonably afford something that literally costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars doesn't defeat or even come close to debating what was said. Saving 100K for a fucking house is completely absurd, saving 800 for an enthusiast [I]toy[/I] is not.

[QUOTE=27X;51882891]He's also right.[/QUOTE] I guess only the rich should own cars or homes or phones or go to college. Stupid poor people living above their means amirite If you have a stable income and you can easily come up with $66/month of disposable cash there's literally nothing wrong with doing this. The only difference is you get the Vive now instead of after setting aside cash for a year. Also, even if I had $750 in my bank account, I'd rather keep that in savings and do the financing plan anyway than dump a whole lump sum of cash at once.

[QUOTE=F.X Clampazzo;51883690]Lol good luck buying a house/decent car or getting a good education without a "payment plan". When you enter the real world lemme know how your view changes.[/QUOTE] i assume he's referring to payment plans on entertainment devices and other "wants." there are a surprising number of people that get a ps4 from rent-a-center.

[QUOTE=27X;51882891]He's also right.[/QUOTE] not at all. budgets let you afford these things.

I actually use 0% credit cards over 24 months as presents. I've no problem paying a flat £100 over 24 months if I get something I like. Did it once before and was offered a £2k credit card over a lunch break, spent like £700 on that over 2 years then got a £3.5k card and spent like £1500 on that. The most recent offer I got was £10k at 0% on purchases for 36 months lol, and with a reputable bank. Was real tempting but I stuck with the £3.5k and got a new PC. A tip if you need it is to just phone the credit department of a bank, explain you already have an account (even if its just a basic saving account) Tell them you want a credit card and be fucking reasonable with the amount, if they cant help you say you'll want to also close your bank account with them at the same time. Credit cards are basically products the banks want to sell them and hope you fuck up, they'll bend the standard offers to get you signed up. Use it to build credit. Trust me, get it going now and it wont be used against you when you go for a mortgage later on. One more thing, dont use a retail outlets finance service just go to a fucking bank and get a regular 0% credit card for purchases.

With zero interest, there's really no compelling reason [I]not[/I] to finance it, if it better suits your financial situation. Personally speaking, I try to maximize my cashflow, so I would choose to purchase it outright before financing it, but a zero interest payment plan has no major drawbacks.

I am 100% self sufficient without any help from my parents. I pay my own rent, pay my own bills, make monthly car payments, pay for gas for the said car, pay for health & car insurance on my own... you get the idea. These are all monthly costs and I would much rather lump large purchases into a monthly cost. Since income is consistent over time, it ends up being easier for me to budget around monthly costs, because it's trivially easy to compare total monthly income versus total monthly expenses. It's also nice because they are consistent, so you know exactly what to expect each month, and if you budget properly you can still have a healthy savings account too. There is objectively no negative aspect of a zero interest financing plan for large purchases, and I don't know about you guys but I would prefer to have more buying options than less. Now personally, I'm not sure I want to actually buy a Vive, even with a payment plan. I'm waiting for the VR market to mature a little bit anyway. Never buy first gen hardware. Plus I'm already financing my laptop with a similar zero interest plan so I don't really want to double up on the monthly tech finance thing.

Visa Debit cards don't build credit history (at least in the UK they don't). I set myself a budget and funnel all my cash flow through my credit cards, then pay off in full every month. It's done fucking miracles for my credit score and history. I got one of those scary bottom-of-the-barrel credit cards that have a disgusting 44.9% APR. It scared me so much when I first got it and I barely used it. But then when I used my brain and told myself that shit doesn't matter as long as I pay off in full what I owe, it's been awesome. Banks are now trying to throw their shit at me but I refuse cause I don't need more than the two credit cards I have (the shit 44.9% APR and a better 19% APR one). It gives banks and credit agencies solid proof that you can manage your finances and pay back what you owe in a timely manner. Relying on CC's for emergencies and accruing interest is actually worse than using CC's in day-to-day things (groceries, gas, utilities, rent), cause you're basically throwing that money into a blackhole with nothing to show for it. Best thing I ever did was take my parents advice and transfer all my day-to-day and monthly shit to my CC's and now I'm happy as fuck cause I've got a damn good credit score for a 24 year old student.

[QUOTE=chernisreal?;51882864]Payment plans are for people who live above their means. If you do not have $750 in your bank account you cannot afford a vive.[/QUOTE] ah, so I should never buy a house because I can't pay for it upright, correct?

[QUOTE=QuinnithXD;51884342]ah, so I should never buy a house because I can't pay for it upright, correct?[/QUOTE] Nah, he said people were taking extremes of the argument. Houses / cars are required things. But for a VR Headset, you technically don't need to take out a payment plan, cause he considers it a "toy", which it technically is. But that being said, fuck that noise. If I have the choice of saving up for 6 months to get it, or buying it today and knowing I can afford the monthly costs, why not take it out today? Especially if I'm smart and don't go and do that with other stuff too (a TV the next week, a Nintendo Switch the week after, so before I know it I've got all these monthly payments I can't keep up with). If you're financially savvy and aren't retarded, taking out a payment plan on the vive (or anything, for that matter, even a fucking waifu pillow) is your prerogative. Ain't no one gonna tell me I'm financially stupid for taking a payment plan out on something I want, especially if I know I have the means to pay it off.

but uh when does this start? I don't see anything other than paying with paypal credit on their site in terms of financing.

I don't have any concept of why anyone is calling this stupid. I assume you didn't read. It's 0 interest. Why wouldn't you do this? In every sense this is a better way to afford it for the vast majority of people. 0 interest means the cost doesn't grow. Personally, this would let me pay for it monthly for 6 months or so and then I would just lump sum the rest off because that's a far more affordable way to afford a 1200$ device in Canada. Yeah, I could afford that but it would actually be really, really, really stupid to drop 1200$ at once. It would be far smarter to save it on a monthly payment plan [B]especially[/B] with no interest.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;51884524]I don't have any concept of why anyone is calling this stupid. I assume you didn't read. It's 0 interest. Why wouldn't you do this? In every sense this is a better way to afford it for the vast majority of people. 0 interest means the cost doesn't grow. Personally, this would let me pay for it monthly for 6 months or so and then I would just lump sum the rest off because that's a far more affordable way to afford a 1200$ device in Canada. Yeah, I could afford that but it would actually be really, really, really stupid to drop 1200$ at once. It would be far smarter to save it on a monthly payment plan [B]especially[/B] with no interest.[/QUOTE] I guess they're saying that despite it being 0 interest, you can never be sure of what the future holds. So in those 12 months, you might lose your job, or hit a hard month, and then you're screwed cause you can't make the $66 monthly payment. Hence the argument that it's financially smarter to outright buy it instead of taking payment plans out on stuff that aren't fundamental to your existence.

[QUOTE=chernisreal?;51882917] I financed a $36,000 truck with 4% interest[/QUOTE] Living above your means right here, bud.

[QUOTE=gk99;51884666]Living above your means right here, bud.[/QUOTE] I make enough to pay for it? I put $4000 down.

[QUOTE=chernisreal?;51882917]You're also charged interest so you end up paying more overall? I'm not saying financing isn't a good thing, it absolutely is.. but for a Vive?? I financed a $36,000 truck with 4% interest because [B]there is literally no other fuel efficient option in the used price bracket. [/B]But a Vive??[/QUOTE] I saw gk99's post, had a mighty solid chuckle at the zinger, then came back and read this post again more seriously. Emphasis mine, good lord, you have no idea what you're saying do you.

I'm new to this shstem - So if, like any other payment plan purchase, I fail to make the installments, they repo the headset to recover the money? Because if that happens, I feel like there's probably a good bargain in repo'd VR headsets (which will eventually happen because some people make terrible decisions)

[QUOTE=snookypookums;51884695]I'm new to this shstem - So if, like any other payment plan purchase, I fail to make the installments, they repo the headset to recover the money? Because if that happens, I feel like there's probably a good bargain in repo'd VR headsets (which will eventually happen because some people make terrible decisions)[/QUOTE] I doubt it'd be like that. They wouldn't repo the headset, too much hassle for too small a price. Most likely scenario would be they add interest for the remaining months. There's probably a clause in the contract that states missing a repayment will enable interest. It's how it works on my credit card for my complimentary 12 month 0 interest shit. If I miss a repayment, they enable interest on whatever amount of money I owe, which can royally fuck you up.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;51884064]With zero interest, there's really no compelling reason [I]not[/I] to finance it, if it better suits your financial situation. Personally speaking, I try to maximize my cashflow, so I would choose to purchase it outright before financing it, but a zero interest payment plan has no major drawbacks.[/QUOTE] Plot twist: There's a 90000% interest rate on the remaining $7 after the first 12 months. :v:

[QUOTE=chernisreal?;51884674]I make enough to pay for it? I put $4000 down.[/QUOTE] And I make enough to buy a Vive straight-up and not miss the money, but I'm still going to pick the option that gives me a lot more security in the short term, as would anyone else with a brain.

[QUOTE=chernisreal?;51882864]Payment plans are for people who live above their means. If you do not have $750 in your bank account you cannot afford a vive.[/QUOTE] I mean, personally I agree that payment plans are lame and you should just wait to buy something when you can actually afford it, but a payment plan is still undeniably a great business tactic to get more people on your platform and supporting VR. Whether its financially responsible or not is completely irrelevant. [editline]28th February 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Adius Shadow;51883038]Or you could just have a bit of restraint and wait for them to inevitably dip in price. The amount of people dropping $$$$ on a vive + new PC just to play all those tech demos is pretty sad.[/QUOTE] So sad that people make enough money to enjoy hobbies :(

[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;51884675]I saw gk99's post, had a mighty solid chuckle at the zinger, then came back and read this post again more seriously. Emphasis mine, good lord, you have no idea what you're saying do you.[/QUOTE] Find used pickup truck that gets 27mpg hway?