Dell Financial

1600.00 Laptop

- What is the interest rate?
- Is their a penalty if I pay it off before the loan is done?
- Would it be smarter to put it on my credit card at 18% interest?

 

1) Depends on your credit rating/worthiness. (as low as 4.99% and could be as high as 26.99%)
2) No
3) Depends on #1.

My response comes as one who has a Dell business credit line.

 

- It Varies...and it can be very high, agreed with RodK.
- No. They will like you for that.
- Yes...Depending on what interest rate they give you.

And, also please be aware, if you apply for a Dell DPA..and are approved..and you use it for a lappy purchase..if you decide to transfer your Dell DPA balance to another Credit Card..Dell DPA will charge you at least $50 to do that. They don't like things like that.

Also, if you do one of the 12 months interest free promos'..be sure to pay it off on or before the end of the 12 months have expired. Because they will *smack* you with all that accrued interest on the date of expiration w/out any hesitation!

Cin

 

I have a DFS credit card account with a CL of $4K, have never used it and probably will never use it. Before Dell shut down their old community forum board I read many complaints about DFS posted by cardholders on that board from payments not getting posted to cardholder accounts to late fees being imposed to accounts where payments had already been received and credited to just plain poor customer service at DFS.

I have an Amex Blue Card which I would use to make a purchase from Dell, my current A.P.R. on my Amex Blue Card is 12.9%, I could then transfer the balance to my MasterCard with my credit union for 2.9% for the life of the balance which is what I would probably do since my Amex Card has no balance transfer promos at this time. I would only consider using DFS as my "last" resort if I had no other financing options.

 

That's what I like about having a business line of credit with Dell. Once you make your purchase the loan is sold and underwritten by CIT Bank so Dell is out of the picture. You get your statement directly from CIT Bank.

 

My DFS account is with CIT Bank which is not to be confused with Citibank, the two banks are not the same. Most of the complaints I read about DFS on Dell's old community board were posts made by owners of Dell computers purchased by cardholders who had DFS accounts with CIT Bank so I take it you like dealing with Dell's CIT Bank? You haven't had any problems with CIT? No lost payments or payment posting problems? No problems with CIT customer service?

 

We use DFS for all of our purchases but pay it off in full as soon as the bill shows up.

We did have one issue about a year ago where someone mailed out a payment a day late and they started charging interest. Apparently, unlike a credit card, once you incur interest charges they keep charging them, even if you pay your bill off in full every month from then on. In order to get the problem to go away we had to have a zero balance for an entire billing cycle.

 

CIT kept charging you interest after your bill was paid in full? That sounds illegal. It was stuff like that that many posted complaints against CIT Bank about. I read in another forum once that CIT Bank didn't have to answer to Dell because CIT Bank was Dell's own bank.

 

Apply for a new credit card with a 0% on purchases deal - you can still find 6, 9 or 12 month offers.
Buy the laptop on that.
Pay the card off before the 0% offer ends.

Interest free loan!!

Thats what I tend to do. Just had loads of work done to the house. Stuck it all on a credit card, and have until June 2010 to pay it all off - interest free

 

The Dell Preferred Account is really only good for special terms if they offer them from time to time. Otherwise the interest rate runs 27-29% which is just insane.

CIT Bank also runs the BillMeLater program and various Preferred Accounts for online retailers and they really don't have a clue. I signed up for a Newegg Preferred Account and they kept declining my transactions the day after I got approved for the account.

 

I agree with you 100% when you state that CIT doesn't have a clue when it comes to billing practices. About 6 years ago I had a previous DFS account with CIT Bank so just to test it out I purchased a 15" beige Viewsonic CRT color monitor online from Dell, I waited almost 2 months to get my first bill and when I got that first bill it listed the online purchase date 5 weeks after I had actually made the purchase.

About a week after I had received the monitor from Dell I contacted Dell to get a RA # so I could return the monitor. I had tracking to track the return to Dell and it took another 2 months before I received another statement showing my return, my return had been credited back to my account 2 days after I actually had purchased it online from Dell. Talk about sloppy accounting, CIT takes the award.

I would certainly not want to owe CIT for a major computer purchase which is the reason I would use another financing source like my MasterCard or my American Express Blue Card if I decided to purchase a new computer from Dell. I don't know how CIT can get by with such sloppy accounting but apparently they can because they're still handling financing for DFS but when you are Dell's own bank I guess you can do as you please.

 

What they were doing was if there were ANY interest charges on the bill then EVERY purchase was subject to finance charges from the date of the purchase. Simply put, they eliminated the grace period. Like I said, I stopped using it for about 60 days so that we'd get a $0 statement and now it's back to normal.

 

I just looked at my bill and am wondering what the $9.95 convenience fee is for?

 

Sounds like you paid your bill online rather than mailing them a check. Don't know if that's something Dell would do, but I have worked with other companies that charge convenience fees for online payments.

 

A $9.95 convenience fee for making a payment online? I've heard of banks charging as much as $14.95 to make a payment by phone but I wasn't aware that some banks charge a convenience fee if you make your payment online. Most banks now will not even return your checks if you mail them a check, they record the payment then destroy the check, DFS does that too I think. I pay 4 credit card bills online each month and not one of them charges me a monthly convenience fee for making my payments online. If they did I'd mail them a check instead. Why make a $10.00 minimum payment online if you're going to be charged a fee of $9.95 to make the payment.

 

If you paid online and elected the *same day payment option* then, there is the $9.95 convenience fee. To avoid that, simply make your payment applicable the next day. That, is what I always do.
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...s/odg/paydpa3?c=us&cs=13&l=en&s=dhs&~lt=popup

Also, if you pay by Automated Phone, there is an applicable $9.95 fee that you will be charged for.
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...s/odg/paydpa3?c=us&cs=13&l=en&s=dhs&~lt=popup

If you pay directly thru a live Rep..there is a $13.95 Service Charge.
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...s/odg/paydpa3?c=us&cs=13&l=en&s=dhs&~lt=popup

It's unfortunate...but that's how Dell works...


Cin

 

Gotta call, because I used online bill pay, and no mention of fee. I paid 2 weeks before due date too...

 

Yes, call...and have information showing when you made the payment availi'!

I would hope that they would show good customer service, and give you a *one time courtesy credit* for the $9.95 charge on your account!

I, would do something like this for a client in a situation like this.

Good luck!


Cin

 

I paid online for same day transaction and the convenience fee was tacked on as mentioned by Cin'. You have to read the agreement prior to clicking on to submit. Only Dell does this on all my online payments. Another thing is credit companies charge you interest once the transaction is made and also start charging you interest once the next billing is in cycle. Once I disputed this with Circuit City because I paid the bill in full in a cycle but got a bill for interest that was accrued in the next billing cycle... very unethical. CC rescinded the charges.