[gergles]

It's incredibly difficult to figure out how much it costs, because none of the rent-to-own websites will give you a price. Instead, it's all bespoke, so that they can rip you off for the largest possible amount.

Example: "Aaron’s shopping cart is a little different than other web sites. You will of course get a guaranteed low price on everything you choose, but you won’t see pricing or payment info here on Aarons.com. So, you will only begin the process of purchasing or starting a new lease with our shopping cart. If you take 5 minutes now with the easy, 4 step shopping cart process, your local Aaron’s store will contact you ASAP and provide you local pricing and availability and help you take delivery in as little as one day."

Based on the one advertised price I was easily able to find [1], they're charging about a 400% markup, over retail. This would be equivalent to a loan at about 157% APR.

[1]: http://www6.rentacenter.com/Rent-A-Center-Home.html - the $24.99 a week "RAC Pack" - for 126 weeks, total payments $3148.74 for a Samsung PN51E450 and a Samsung HW-E450, total retail price on amazon: $737.94 ($547.99 for TV + $189.95 for soundbar)

[Karunamon]

>It's incredibly difficult to figure out how much it costs, because none of the rent-to-own websites will give you a price.

Pricing is different per-location too.

Depending on what you're using these outfits for, it can work out (he that's well paid is will satisfied and all that..), but for the most part, you're paying a lot of extra money for the privilege of getting a pretty decent replacement plan (both Aarons and RAC to my knowledge will replace broken appliances/electronics/furniture while on lease) and spreading the total payments due across a large period.

Whether that's worth it or not to you will depend on the person, really. I'd hardly classify them as predatory, or skeevy, or even really a rip off, just very, very expensive.

Actually looking through the article, all of the companies involved in this clusterf*ck are companies I've never heard of. None of the big names, at least.

[Evbn]

Very expensive and only purchased by people who cannot afford it == skeevy.

[dawernik]

I wonder if they don't publish pricing to avoid scrutiny similar to cash advance or payday lending. Whole thing should be hammered by the FTC.

So i get spied on and get hit with a 157% APR. That's brutal.

[jasomill]

So the same as paying back a $450 phone subsidy in 24 monthly payments of around $60.

[batiudrami]

Nope, because if you pay the $450 extra up front, you have the handset and no phone service. People underestimate the cost of providing good phone coverage - in the past year Vodafone (AU) spent $1 billion upgrading their network, which only really covers the 15 biggest cities in Australia, and their coverage and data speeds are still trash.

[dasil003]

Well the US has 15 times as many people as AU for similar landmass, so I give AU a bit more of a free pass for high prices. US however is terribly uncompetitive with the rest of the world.

In the UK for instance I definitely save money by buying my own handset. I use mostly data on my phone and pay £10 ($16) / month for my service. Contrast with the US where I was forced to have an $80/package to get any combination of voice/texts/data for my unlocked phone.

Even if I was taking the subsidy like a good American I would still be getting shafted to the tune of $1000 over a 2-year contract.

[josephlord]

In the UK it is pretty borderline if you need a couple of hundred minutes plus the data. You are probably looking at more like £16 per month.

On that basis the iPhone 5 comes out a little cheaper on contract with Three over 2 years (£37/month + £90 upfront for 32GB) plus the free interest on the best deals although you can pay a couple of hundred more over the time with other providers.

For the iPhone 5 the 2 year cost is about £1000 including service for a full offer but only a few limited SIM only deals are much cheaper. Your deal would still be £840 for data only and a 32GB phone even if the prices don't go up.

[ljf]

Several down-votes? Odd not seen problems before with people singing the praises of suppliers the like - I don't work for these guys, just think they have a pretty amazing good deal, and was following up to the numbers that had been given above... anyway -

In the UK you should check out http://giffgaff.com/ - £10 a month for unlimited internet, unlimited SMS and 250 minutes of calls (mobile or landland, and free to other GiffGaff numbers) - not a bad deal at all. Runs on the o2 network, so pretty reliable.

£120 for 2 years is an amazing deal, and if you can buy your iphone 5 (or other mobile) on an interest free credit card, then you can make a very nice saving - £649 for 2 years service and the 16g iphone 5 (£529 from Apple).

My girlfriend just did this, but is paying off the phone at £50 a month (on a 0% card) so will be clear in 10 months, with just £10 a month to pay.

Also, it's just a rolling 30 day notice period - no 2 year contract.

[dasil003]

Yeah I don't need hundreds of minutes, I use maybe 50 mins a month on average, but I use data and texts every day. I also don't have an iPhone, I have a Galaxy Nexus for another chunk of savings.

Admittedly the deals aren't as bad in the states if you are maximizing your usage of the plan, but for my use case it's a total rip off, as are the UK contracts to a lesser extent (because of competition).

[Dylan16807]

Normally a subsidized plan won't cost more than $10-$20 extra.

[zzleeper]

I'm guessing its much more than 400%. After all, the stores that don't post their prices online (most of them) are probably the more expensive ones