"The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery.”

You mean like using a credit card to pay for your purchase?

I think the poster is asking about something more like an auto loan. 
 

Maybe someone has done the store financing can explain how the qualification, down payment, and other terms work.  Is insurance needed on the instrument?

Oh, for Pete's sakes, no. Just......Stop.

It's prolly unwise to borrow on even a fair investment. You're banjer may continue to go up in price, but your interest on the loan makes the banjer more valuable to you, but not ness. to others.
Investing with borrowed money was a primary cause of the great depression.

Proverbs 22:7 The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is a slave to the lender . That’s the verse of the day… now pick your banjo that you don’t owe on .

Baldwin pianos whatever the business name was bought ODE banjos with a five year non-compete clause.
Mr Ogsbury traveled about and came back in as OME. He had just the right parts and quality. He was also generous to performers providing instruments and levels of sponsorship.

Until that time I believe Baldwin was less inclined to finance and the Baldwin ODE shows a fall in quality, etc.

The hangout market minus the hangers-on is such a great community of builders, collectors, traders, and enthusiasts, that even ingrown nose pickers can get some action.
So kits from Walmart are too low feature, so I hope it becomes less common if at all. Ask the new members

Hope this helps

I'm not sure about banjo purchases, but these point-of-sale/buy-now-pay-later loans are very common.

It seems like a bad idea in general for a discretionary purchase like a banjo. I'm not sure how many people are using them for necessities. In that case it's probably a short term means to an end in a hard situation.

It can work out but most of the time I would not recommend it. It is quite predatory (usually) and will cost you in the long run.

Hey folks, cool it with the antisemitic remarks.

?

Well, I took the plunge a couple of years into my first good salary job, and went to my Credit Union and borrowed $1750 to buy a 1926 Granada conversion from Mandolin Brothers. It was on a Christmas sale.

I had no problem paying it off.

HOWEVER, looking back on the other things I COULD HAVE spent $1750 on, like my new little family with two babies in a too small place (that we owned), a decent car for my then-wife, etc. I probably wouldn't advise any young father to do this. But within a year or so, we bought an actual two story house, and that car for the wife, etc, etc. I understand how I could be criticized on my priorities.

But I still have that wonderful banjo, and I played it A LOT with great pleasure. Funny, even though I borrowed the money to buy it, I immediately spent money out of my paycheck to insure the fool thing!

And I've bought many more, as bluegrass has become my all-consuming hobby/pastime. Never by borrowing money again though.

If the music store offers good enough terms, and you feel you must get the banjo, do what you feel is right, and be prepared to learn if you've made a mistake.

A year or so ago, I used the Paypal pay in 4 to get my Goodtime II for $349 from GC, with no interest- 25% at the time of order, then 25% deducted from my bank account every 2 weeks for 3 more payments. It might not be what you meant by financing, but it worked for me.

" I can see it if it is some holy grail investment-grade deal, but for the average player model, that seems dangerous. Just wondering how common it is."

Among BHO members, from the comments, a few have made payments on a banjo, but most are apparently debt averse and debt free -- no mortgages, no auto loans, no auto leases, no apartment leases, no stocks on margin, no writing a promissory note in the form of a bank check, no credit card charges, no nuttin' where you've agreed to pay somebody later for a service rendered now.

No financial transactions like Wimpy in Popeye:  "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."  

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alex Z

I think the poster is asking about something more like an auto loan.

---

Borrowed money is borrowed money, and you pay to borrow it. In-store financing can be cheaper than what you pay to use credit card money. Sure, we should all pay cash for our discretionary purchases, but is a banjo discretionary or a necessity?  Only you can answer that question.

When I was young I asked several old guys with money to give me a financial tip to live by. My answers were pretty much the same:
- Save and invest 20% of everything you earn.
- Live within your means (at the end of the month all credit cards should be paid in full).
- When making a purchase always buy “value” (Invest a bit more in a good product that will last)
- Use other people’s money, never take money that you have saved. You can easily pay off a short term loan with money you have not yet earned, but it’s hard to replace money you have removed from savings. (You would have to replace the money you removed as well continue saving 20%). The interest earned on investments can often be higher than the interest paid on the loan. Even if it’s not you are still ahead of the game.

I am 75 years old. This advice has served me well.

So….if a person wants to buy a banjo on credit with a short term loan and is comfortable making a few payments, I say go for it.

Affirm is a great way to go…if you don’t mind paying 30% interest and various assorted financing fees.

No banjo is worth putting yourself into financial bind that may never end.

Save up and pay cash for what you can afford.

I think there are two separate issues here.

On the financing side, I would be very cautious. Banjos can bring a lot of joy, but large interest payments can bring a lot of sadness. I bought a new banjo and took a real hit on the price when I later sold it used. I think of this similarly to other sunk costs (interest/depreciation). Since then, I’ve learned that my money goes a lot farther in the used market, even after paying for a good setup.

That said, I can imagine a narrow situation where stretching a little could make sense. If someone starts on a very low-end banjo, like a bottle-cap banjo from a pawn shop, with a bad setup, they might come away thinking banjo is much harder or harsher than it really needs to be. In that case, getting into a solid, playable instrument and paying it off quickly could be the difference between sticking with the instrument and giving up.

So I’d be wary of financing a “dream banjo,” but I can understand financing a reasonable, playable banjo if the terms are good, the buyer can pay it off quickly, and the alternative is fighting an instrument that makes learning miserable.

Personally, it's hard for me to imagine purchasing a musical instrument so expensive that I would need additional financing (beyond my personal credit card). A $2000 banjo may arguably be 10x better than a $200 banjo, but a $20000 banjo is not 10x better than a $2000 one. At that point, you are paying for a collector's/luxury item -- fine if you can afford to buy it outright, but not worth paying interest on if you can't.

you have been searching you whole adult life for this particular banjo ...
and by chance you walk into a pawn shop and there it is ,, out of the blue.
THE banjo,,,, pawn shop knows what it is too.. he grins and says ,,,
"tell ya what , i'll take 22,000 for it today,,, we both know its worth more "

you start sweating and wondering where am i going to get the dough ?????

thats when that little devil on your shoulder starts whispering ,,man you gotta have it
that is your banjo ,,,, go borrow the money,,,,, you can pay it back easy ........

game over

This is year 2026.  Whether to pay with future earnings or go without is not some type of moral or life coaching decision.  Maybe it was for a tenant farmer in the 1850s, given that farmer's circumstances.   Present day, it is a financial decision that considers the person's own assessment of the future, including the stability of that assessment.  

We don't go homeless for 30 years until we save up enough cash to buy a house.

Someone decides to buy a banjo on time so they can continue to fund their IRA every month?  Or go without the banjo because they'd have to give up something else?   Or decides another banjo doesn't fit in with their life's plans, even if they have the cash now?   Or decides that a banjo now is a higher priority than some other thing and they'll give up the other thing?  That's their evaluation and decision.

I live by the rule: if I can't pay cash for it, I don't want it.

(Your house doesn't count - shelter is an essential item. It's up to you if you prefer to buy or rent. But again, if you can't afford the mortgage or the rent, find something you can afford. Unless you live in the States, in which case... good luck with that)

It's the same principle -- can't pay cash now, so I'll borrow it because the shelter means more to me now than a debt over 30 years.

Once we talk about mortgage payments or rent payments, it's the same principle as banjo payments -- "I can't afford to pay the entire cost now, but I can afford to pay the monthly payment."   It's not that the buyer cannot afford the monthly payment.

So I think that is the question that the poster has:  If I can afford the monthly payments but cannot afford to pay the entire price now, how often is this done by members of the BHO?

From the responses, very few BHO members have done this for banjos.  From the perspective of the music store, it may be much more common,  but for a different set of customers, such as younger people needing a sound system for their new band.   There are reputable music stores that offer financing.

So I guess I'm a failure, because I have financed instruments before, but not a banjo.

A used bassoon can be $20,000 and new ones can be well over $50,000. And these aren't fancy, historic instruments either. They're just standard, professional level bassoons. So yes, I have financed them before. As a teacher, I don't have that kind of money laying around. But, I've really enjoyed all the boomer financial advice.

If somebody really wants  a particular banjo, can afford the monthly payments but can't afford or is unwilling to pay the full price upfront, then just finance it. Not all of us treat our instruments as investments. My bassoons, saxophones, and banjo are worth a little bit less every day. 

quote:

---

Originally posted by 1935tb-11

you have been searching you whole adult life for this particular banjo ...
and by chance you walk into a pawn shop and there it is ,, out of the blue.
THE banjo,,,, pawn shop knows what it is too.. he grins and says ,,,
"tell ya what , i'll take 22,000 for it today,,, we both know its worth more "

you start sweating and wondering where am i going to get the dough ?????

thats when that little devil on your shoulder starts whispering ,,man you gotta have it
that is your banjo ,,,, go borrow the money,,,,, you can pay it back easy ........

game over

---

Totally true! The main pressure in a situation like that is that feeling of time. You don't want someone else to get it before you and you want that deal that is only for today. Sadly, it is actually quite a common tactic nowadays. I have seen Amazon products show free delivery for a certain amount of time or last in stock; when checked on another device, however, it shows the free delivery for longer or that it has more in stock! I have always been told when buying non-essential items, "If you are not sure if you can afford to spend so much, imagine it were two times the price!".