Advisory : Payment Method - Cash or Credit Card or Instalment Plan

[Oceanklassik]

Hahaha... u go parkway dun even intend to look at TV in te end oso bought one TV remember ? Hope to ride in ur new car bro .

[Wenda]

Well, not necessarily true based on your 2 stories. I still think that the relation between you and the dealer count more than just method of payment to determine the final price. Not saying that paying cash/credit card will always be the same price but just that it won't differ much I think.

[Andrew Tay]

Well, not necessarily true based on your 2 stories. I still think that the relation between you and the dealer count more than just method of payment to determine the final price. Not saying that paying cash/credit card will always be the same price but just that it won't differ much I think.

dun forget when u use credit card to pay for watches....u can accumulate points from all this purchase too.

when i use my amex card at THG....it is 10 x bonus points and i have use those points to redeem a digital camera and recently, i use the points to redeem 400 bucks of food voucher for tung lok restaurant.

if i pay cash.....i dun think i can accumulate points to get all those free stuff from credit card company.

that is why i want to discuss this topic....and let those people who think that using cash can get a good deal out of this.

[rh1667]

Personally, I have been using Credit card for my watch purchase.
Whenever i ask if there is any further discount if i use cash, the answer is no.
So...use CC and earn the points so that can use it to redeem food or shopping voucher....indirect discount mah....

[seiko.citizen]

cash for me, since i have no relationship with any AD. But if the AD offer me same price for cash/credit, i will then choose credit (rewards reason, 55days interest free, etc.)

[exxondus]

I will use CASH if can cheaper. Else if same price, then CC installment plan

[Nooch]

CC installment if cash is same price..get points.

[edsonchan]

Andrew.. I work in a company that deals with huge amount of money as well.. Certainly comparable to THG or Cortina relating to your stories.

We worked the sae way as well... There is no difference in the price whether or not the consumer is using Cash, Credit Card or 0% installment plans....

First of all, all the banks are competing with each other as well.. Our merchant bank is giving us a very very low merchant fee - let's say it is close to 1%

For installment plans, it is still less than 2%....

To ensure that the merchant fee stays like this, we need to clock a certain amount every work year. When the banks reviews, they will let us know if we are eligible to maintain that kind of merchant fee or to increase our merchant fee in the event if we did not meet the min amount. Therefore, customers who are using credit card in my company kind of help in a way as well.

Most company like this do not want to give that 1 - 2% as a discount mainly because it sounds too petty.. Dealing with cash has a risk on its own as well..

Most of the pre-owned shops tends to use cash to get their goods from their suppliers. And when they sell the item, they prefer cash. To add on, they are almost certain to be charge the 'normal close to 2%' merchant fee when their customer pay using CC. Therefore, they offer that few percent discount for people who are paying in cash. Cash is king can be applied to these shops..

Hope this is clear enough.

[edsonchan]

To add on to my previous post.

When we calculate our selling price, we take the 2% merchant fee into consideration.. In another words, our selling price might sometimes be a litttle higher than smaller companies.

There are also exceptional cases - these are mainly for very low profit margin items where the selling price is controlled throughout the industry.
We don't say "there is a discount if you use cash', we say there is an additional 2% if you use credit card.

[Andrew Tay]

To add on to my previous post.

When we calculate our selling price, we take the 2% merchant fee into consideration.. In another words, our selling price might sometimes be a litttle higher than smaller companies.

There are also exceptional cases - these are mainly for very low profit margin items where the selling price is controlled throughout the industry.
We don't say "there is a discount if you use cash', we say there is an additional 2% if you use credit card.

hi jason....noted with thanks.

the main point i want to drive in this thread is that.....in most cases.....using credit card or paying by cash does not make a difference at most ADs. but using credit card is a better choice cos we can collect points thru this purchase....esp using amex for THG.....i have redeemed a free camera and more than 700 bucks of food vouchers so far...cos using amex to buy my glasshutte original as well as my panerai 233 from them.

[dominique_kwok]

Andrew I agree with you. I bought two rollies from THG and well since the mode of payment did not matter, i paid for my sub nd in installments, chalking up points at the same time.

Lately, I have noticed that ADs are more willing to offer installment plans at no additional charges. That helps a lot for you do not feel the damage immediately.

[edsonchan]

hi jason....noted with thanks.

the main point i want to drive in this thread is that.....in most cases.....using credit card or paying by cash does not make a difference at most ADs. but using credit card is a better choice cos we can collect points thru this purchase....esp using amex for THG.....i have redeemed a free camera and more than 700 bucks of food vouchers so far...cos using amex to buy my glasshutte original as well as my panerai 233 from them.

Yup Andrew, that is a very good and accurate point.

You are definitely not a penny wise, pound foolish person.

[Andrew Tay]

thanks to dominique and jason.

to conclude, those who plan to use interest free instalment plan to buy a watch....do take note that u must clear all the outstanding balance in full every month....do not carry over the outstanding balance and make only mininum payment. then it defeat the purpose of taking advantage of this payment plan and let the bank suck your hard earn money.

good day ahead and see u at THG's office next week, jason.

[triton]

not all brands(models) of watches have the same discount structure. i have also mentioned before, different customers are offered different discount structure. if i buy 40k worth of watches from AD a year, the discount i get is probably X, if i buy 400k worth of watches from the same AD, im sure my discount will be X+Y. how much discount the SE wants to offer to customer depends on the relationship between both as well.

not all retailers will pass on savings on cash purchases to customers. it depends on the company itself. company A may choose to offer additional discount up to ~3% to customer for product I if paid in cash while company B may choose not to offer the similar discount to customer for the same product even if cash payment. this is because operating costs are different. business policies are different.

recently i made an inquiry for a tag heuer. if it is card payment, it is about 25%, if it is cash, it might be slightly better discount. so i can definitely see the difference in using cash and credit card. if i ask for a rolex, discount is fixed regardless of cash or credit cards.

i agree that credit card offers points which allows the card holder to redeem points for various types of products. take for example, if we just look @ amex dollar to points $1.60 = 2 points. *ignore the X10 as i dont want to complicate calculation.* this is also the same as 1 point = $0.80

so let's look @ a 233 purchase @ $16500 *estimate for AD price assuming you are their A-list customer* this would get you 20625 points.

looking @ the amex catalog for a sony DSC-WX1(cost ~$460), it requires 90700 points. this means it needs a card member to spend $72560 or in other words, need to buy about 4 pam 233 @ $16500. how many of us can do so? also if u equate $460 to 90700, it means 1 pt is acutally $0.005. we buy 1 point for $0.80 but when we redeem, it is worth $0.005. so who is in the winning position?

if i were to use cash to buy a BNIB 233 from PI, it would cost me $14500. difference in savings of ~$2000. i can buy another 4 cameras(sony DSC-WX1), or buy 1 camera(sony DSC-WX1), spend 700 @ tung lok, i still got spare cash of ~$800.

bottom line is if my AD tells me no difference in cash or card, i pay card. this is because if you are in business, cash flow is important. if there is a difference i pay cash.

i would be more concern when i want to buy a particular watch and my AD offer me 28% regardless of payment mode but my friend who buys watches of value lower than me can get 28% discount and pays lower if cash payment.

[kenkelvin]

so many things to lean. thanks to all for all the valuable inputs