How to Apply for Furniture Financing
La-Z-Boy Southeast | July 31, 2022
Furniture financing allows you to style your entire room today and pay later. If you’ve considered financing your furniture purchase, you may have questions about your options and the right way to approach the financing process.
At La-Z-Boy Home Furnishings & Décor, approximately 25% of customers finance their furniture purchases. By offering interest-free financing terms, we provide customers the opportunity to purchase the furniture they desire at easily digestible monthly costs without paying more long term.
In this article, we’ll take a look at your furniture financing options. You’ll learn what types of financing are the best approach for purchasing furniture and how to apply for financing.
Ask About Interest-Free Financing
Today, many furniture companies offer interest-free financing as part of a promotional opportunity. Interest-free financing typically ranges from 6 to 72-month terms depending on your credit score. The size of your purchase can also affect the length of your financing terms.
Interest-free financing means you’ll be charged 0% interest on your purchase during the promotional period. However, if a balance remains after the promotional period, you’ll be charged the regular APR interest rate on the remaining balance.
The regular APR interest rate on most credit cards is around 27.99% (rate may vary). This means you could pay a hefty fee on your remaining balance after the promotional period.
Thankfully, the Credit CARD Act requires you must be given the opportunity to pay off the balance before the promotional period expires. And most people are able to pay off their furniture without having to pay any interest.
How to Take Advantage of Interest-Free Financing
When you qualify for interest-free financing, you’ll receive a credit card you need to make payments on. These tips will help you pay off your furniture on-time and avoid a big fee after the promotional period ends.
- Know your monthly payment: Take the amount you spent on your furniture and divide it by your number of interest-free months. For example, you buy $2,500 worth of furniture and have 36 months to pay it off before interest kicks in. $2,500 divided by 36 = $69.45. This is how much you’ll need to pay each month.
- Set up automatic payments: Schedule automatic payments for this amount each month so you don’t pay late or have a balance that can be hit with a high interest rate after your promotional period ends.
- Don’t charge anything else: Use this card solely for your furniture payments. Otherwise, you may not know which portion of your payment is going toward the interest-free furniture purchase.
Following these tips will keep you interest-free and living life comfortably with your new furniture.
At La-Z-Boy Home Furnishings & Décor, you can apply for financing at any of our locations in NC, SC, and GA.
Or you can apply online at your convenience. Once you complete your application, you’ll receive a response instantly.
If you aren’t approved for financing, most furniture stores are able to find an option that works for you.
When to Apply for Interest-Free Financing
Once you find the furniture of your dreams, you can apply for interest-free financing online or in-store. Some stores even have a kiosk where you can input your information.
If you choose to finance furniture for a new home, timing is everything.
It’s important to note you should wait until you’ve closed on your home before you fill out any financing applications. If you’re in the process of buying a home, any financing application you submit could cause your home loan to be denied.
Once you close on your home, it will be important to move quickly on applying for furniture financing before your home loan impacts your overall credit score.
Having a good credit score will give you better and more financing options for your furniture.
3 Tips to Raise Your Credit Score
Increasing and maintaining a high credit score is a goal everyone should have. It helps you get approved for the loan you need. And you’ll also receive a lower interest rate on that loan.
Here are some quick tips to increase your credit score:
- Pay off your existing balance: A high credit card balance will cost you interest and it’ll lower your credit score. Paying off your existing debt (or a chunk of it) is the fastest way to bring your score up.
- Maintain a lower credit utilization rate: Don’t close accounts with long term history or do anything to lose your available credit limit. By closing an account, you’re increasing your credit utilization rate. An increased credit utilization rate is a sign to lenders that you’re using a large amount of your total available credit.
- Correct errors on your credit report: Check your credit report and see if there are any errors. These errors are common and correcting them can quickly raise your credit score.
These are only a few ways to quickly increase your credit score. You can keep your credit score healthy by paying your bills on time and maintaining a low balance.
Decide if Furniture Financing is Right for You
Furniture financing is a popular way to furnish your home. And interest-free is the best way to finance anything, especially furniture.
If you’re considering financing your furniture purchase, it’s important to understand the right process for applying for financing.
More importantly, you should first decide whether or not furniture financing is right for your situation.
We’d be happy to answer the rest of your financing questions at any of our locations in NC, SC, and GA.
In search of some additional furniture buying tips before you complete your purchase? Check out these additional resources:
