Business charging and taking 2% net
Aug 9, 2010 | 7:36 am
#16
Join Date: Aug 2006
Programs: "all" airlines and hotels
Posts: 94
As an individual (not b2b), I have found it difficult to impossible to negotiate cash discounts. For me, the typical example is a purchase like furniture, where they have a sale that says 2 years free financing. Clearly it is not completely free - someone is paying. Yet an offer to pay cash today has always been met with a response of - you are welcome to pay cash, but the price is the same. Silly.
Aug 9, 2010 | 9:52 am
#17
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 143
As an individual (not b2b), I have found it difficult to impossible to negotiate cash discounts. For me, the typical example is a purchase like furniture, where they have a sale that says 2 years free financing. Clearly it is not completely free - someone is paying. Yet an offer to pay cash today has always been met with a response of - you are welcome to pay cash, but the price is the same. Silly.
It's not silly for the financing company, either, because many people will not be savvy enough/able to pay the whole thing off within the 0% window, so they end up paying the somewhat ridiculous normal interest rate, which is often in the double digits.
The only loser here, really, is the poor and/or uneducated and/or undisciplined customer that ends up subsidizing everybody else (kind of like rewards credit cards in general, actually).