Remembering the days of Hire Purchase

Many many moons ago I was a young mum living in a 3 bedroom brick build in a new estate just south of Christchurch NZ. Surrounded by farms and bordered by a railway line, it was a small community of young families. I naively thought that the paddocks out yonder were lovely pastoral scenes with cows and sheep, but found out that the building with smoke pouring out was actually an abattoir.

However, I was really grateful to have a place to call our own, together with my then husband and two small kids. We made it as as cosy as possible, but I yearned for a few mod cons, primarily an automatic washing machine. Now I had stoically endured a wringer machine which caught my hair in the wringer, and also the wringer would burst apart when I threaded through a heavy wet sheet or towel. So, when a friend had a new washing machine, I was enthralled at her semi automatic machine that did it all. She told me about a miracle called HP. Hire purchase. Hubby and I discussed and signed up at the electrical appliance store in town and our new miracle machine was delivered.

Now, my parents warned us about buying things on credit and living beyond our means (they saved and paid cash for everything) but in spite of their warnings of a dire fate in the debtor’s prison, we paid it off regularly without any problem. I think the secret was that I am a good budgeter, and we also had only one item to pay off at a time.

I was hooked. Once we had the washing machine paid off, we got a proper fridge. It was wonderful and I paid it off with the family allowance payment. Next it was a chest freezer to store all of the abattoir factory door sales in.

Finally it was a proper lounge suite to replace the hard old chesterfield I had been given by my parents instead of going to the tip. It certainly made life easier having a few good mod cons to make my life easier with little children.

But like all good things, I had a few friends who decided to buy it all at once on HP. And of course they found it hard to keep up with the payments. One or two even lost their treasured appliance as it was returned to the store.

Like most pay as you go systems, I know you have to live within your means. I don’t need any big shiny new appliances and have an emergency stash in case the fridge dies, but the emergence of several paying platforms makes purchasing easier. But like the olden days, I only do one or two small things at a time, and they take out the four fortnightly payments and I pay before the end of the month so I don’t pay interest.

I have heard that we seniors are some of the most avid online shoppers around. It certainly makes life easier, and if its free post, then you’re doing well. I still spend locally but some items cheaper and more variety online. It seems to be the way of the future. How do you all feel about Hire Purchase, Time payment and Pay as you Go. Is it a convenience or is it a trap?