The big thing that some people miss is that this is a loan. They will do a credit check, and it will appear in your credit file. Sometimes at the end of the process you essentially have a credit card or line of credit with that vendor, because they don't close the line after the last payment is made.

That initial credit check will impact a persons credit score. While the loan is being paid off the required monthly payments will count against their available credit.

You may not want to do this if you know in the near or mid term you are going to be getting a new mortgage, or a car loan; and these negatives will complicate you getting the loan you want.

This is in addition to the sneaky way some of these plans hit you with a penalty rate if you miss a payment, or require you to pay all the forgiven interest if there is a balance at the end of the term.

Do the math. See how much interest you can save with you plan to pay extra on your mortgage. Many years ago some people suggested to use a home equity loan to buy a car. I did the math and realized the higher rate of the home equity loan even with it being deductible meant I would save $30. Not $30 a month, but $30 over the entire 36 months. It wasn't worth the credit check or extra paperwork.

Yes, there are circumstances, including perhaps yours, where taking the “0% financing” option is a bad idea.

Generally, the fine print of these types of arrangements include a snarl: The interest accrues, but is forgiven at the end. However, if you are late on any payment, the 0% deal goes away, and they add in all of that interest that has been secretly accruing. You, of course, pay your bills on-time, but things happen: you might forget to sign a check, or you lose track of the date, or your account number changes and you forget to update your automatic payment. Any of these could result in a large financial loss.

On the other hand, what are you gaining by delaying the payment? You are earning next to nothing on your money in the bank.

In this situation, there isn’t really much financial benefit to waiting four years to pay it all off, and a big risk of unexpected interest and fee charges if you take their offer. My advice to you is to just pay it in full now, and enjoy your new furniture worry-free.

IF YOU MISS ONE PAYMENT...

they make you pay ALL the interest.

That's the trick.

Presuming you're qualified for the 0% promotion, and understand that this is a loan and under what circumstances you could still be liable for the interest (as outlined in other questions) , one huge thing for me would be:

Am I actually getting the best price by accepting the 0%?

I don't know if this is common in other places outside of the USA, but here a lot of times there will be multiple promotions:

• One will be a 0% promotion as you're describing.
• The other, sometimes in smaller or more confusing font, might be a discount if you're paying in full.

In your example of the £2000 purchase, this would be something like £2000 with 0% interest for X period of time or £100 (or maybe even £200) off the purchase if it's paid in full up-front in the store, instead of financing .

So, if you had all the money now, you could actually get a better detail, without opening a new loan, having to worry about certain circumstances that might end up causing you to pay interest, and ultimately get a better out of pocket price.

One point to consider is that when savings interest used to be higher, there was much more to be gained from taking out a 0% payment plan as you could stash the cash you'd otherwise have spent into a high interest savings account and then withdraw the money as you needed it to pay off the plan. Radically oversimplifying the point, in essence it might pay you to take the 0% plan.

Nowadays, with savings interest rates so low, there is much less merit to having a 0% plan if you can just afford to pay the balance in cash from the outset. The administrative overhead of managing the debt might outweigh the convenience of spreading the cost and even cost you and do your credit rating damage if you fail to make the payments on time.

In addition all other possible issues (small print issues, raising prices before offering 0% APR etc.) that others have mentioned, there is also an elephant in the room - using this promotion as a trick played on your mind to get you to buy something right there and right now instead of thinking about if it is worth to you (and in majority of cases - spoiler alert - end up not buying it).

Useful way to combat this mind tricks and trying to find out if it is really a good deal for you, is trying to reverse the situation in your mind - If you had that furniture in your house right now, and some passerby asked you if you want to sell it for $2000 hard cash right now; would you accept the offer? If your answer is anything but solid "no way!" then that piece of furniture is most definitely not a good deal and you should not buy it, never mind if it is 0% APR or 90% off or 500 GBP rebate or whatever other marketing gimmick.

(Oh, And if money has ever been a problem or you ever bought a stuff you didn't really need; another good way to combat such Jedi mind tricks is never go shopping before writing down what you need to buy, and what is the maximum price you're willing to pay for it, and then refusing to buy any "great deal" that is not meeting that written down criteria.)

I have been offered 0% interest several times for large purchases. In almost every instance when I pressed they would give me a better price if I paid cash.

The OP is not in this situation because he/she has already purchased the items. Next time ask for a discount rather than taking the 0%.

Also, the other posters are correct: They will try to trick you into missing payment and then charge you all the interest retroactively. Don't under estimate how aggressive they will be trying to retroactively charge you the interest.