Discussions

We are looking at making a purchase at a furniture store. If we were to get their store credit card, we would have 9 months to pay with no interest, and no admin fees. Sounds great, but I wonder, if we were to buy $3000 worth of things, and pay it off in full in month 8, would the 7 months with no payment negatively affect my credit score? I was told no by the salesman, but it just seems to me that if I owe $3000 and don't make payments, my score would go down each month. Anyone know for sure? My credit is excellent and I'd hate to hurt it.

just make sure you pay it all off on time i have done this on several times but if you dont look out because of the way they calculate the interest charges all most like a loan shark. as long as it is paid off this wont effect your credit if paid off this will help build credit. any way thats my 2cents worth

Perhaps you're worried that the $3000 credit limit on the new credit card will affect your score. I suppose you could cancel the store credit card after it's paid off.  
 
If you have $3000 dollars in the bank perhaps buy it with your regular credit card, collect the airmiles and pay it off immediately.  
 
The "insurance" the furniture store will try to sell is a scam as well.

My understanding is...  
1. Not paying monthly won’t affect your score. Late payments will - late being after the entire balance is due, according to the terms of your card.  
2. Having a maxed out loan DOES affect your credit score, but I’m not sure how much weight is given to this. Owing $3000 out of a $3000 limit “looks bad” whereas owing $1200 on a $3000 limit looks better as you’ve been extended credit and are obviously paying it off. You may want to keep this in mind if applying for more credit while paying this off.

Credit scores are a tricky thing. Now, I don't know 100% of everything about them, so take this with a grain of salt.  
 
The others are pretty much correct. On your credit report, it will indicate if you "paid as agreed", so if you sign a credit contract for no payments for 9 months, even if you paid everything off in the 9th month (or sooner) you're "paying as agreed". Paying early doesn't generally impact your score.  
 
(edit to add: So no, not paying anything during that 9 month period won't impact your score, because you're "paying as agreed" in that case too.)  
 
But depending on your credit situation, yes, obtaining new credit *can* negatively impact your score, especially if you recently obtained other new credit (bought a car or applied for a credit card, for example, or if you plan to do either of those in the near future). However, paying off the credit will, in the end, help your score so the trade-off would be worth it. So it kinda depends on your situation and what your goals are, credit-wise. If you already have several credit vehicles and are paying them as agreed, it might not be worth the "hit" you'll take obtaining new credit, especially like others have pointed out if you're maxing it out.  
 
But then, as I'm THAT type of person (lol, sorry), I have to ask... if you can pay off $3000 in 7 months, why not simply wait 7 months and save up the cash? In the long run, that may serve you better, and you're not exposing yourself to the risk that "something" might happen in the next 9 months that will make you miss the payment deadline and then you're paying a ton on interest. Again, like others have said, they're counting on you doing that. Also, usually these deals have 1. admin charges, etc, so it's in fact not "free" financing, and 2. the financing cost is built into the price. Paying cash, you can sometimes negociate a better deal.  
 
Edited by Abbysmum, 2019-05-13 10:14:56

if you can afford to pay off at end of agreameant why not figurer out what the paymeant would be monthly and pay that amount even though its not due till end of contract this shows making paymeant on your credit score

How does someone go about finding out what their credit score is ?

Your credit score you have to pay for generally. It's a number that manifests how you interact with credit, but how it's calculated is proprietary and can differ depending on who is doing the calculating.  
 
Your credit report, however, is free once per year. There are two credit reporting agencies in Canada, TransUnion and Equifax. If you go to their websites, there are instructions on how to obtain your free credit report. Those "instant" credit reports you need to pay for, but I recently did my TransUnion one and I got it by mail in less than a week.

I have a free subs:cription with credit Karma, went through the free trial and cancelled it. It still sends me updates on my credit score every 7 days and it has not effected my credit score, so far since march I went from a 839 to a 853.