I would also like to know how this promo works as I did the same thing. I don't want to pay ANY interest charges.

Well I'm not an expert on this but considering the name of the promotion, "no interest for 12 months" probably means that you still have monthly bills to pay for the laptop but no interest is charged for the first twelve months. The money that you're paying for the first 12 months is paying off on the laptop entirely and not on any interest. No interest for 12 months doesn't mean you don't have to pay a cent for the first 12 months... it just means there's no interest incurred in that time.

 

But I'm just using my own personal judgement.

This is a hardware forumn, not a finance forumn.

 

The Dell terms clearly say 'No Interest for 12 Months'.  It says nothing about 'No Payment & No Interest for 12 Months'.

I purchased a laptop from Best Buy about 5 years ago, with no interest for 12 months. That meant I had 12 months to pay off the computer or I would have to pay a years interest. In other words, if the computer cost you 1200.00  no interest, if you pay if off prior to 12 months you pay no interest. If you don't they hit you with all the back interest. Read the fine print. Good Luck.........but pay it off in 12 months.

 

 

• All New XPS Desktops and Laptops are eligible!
• Pay your plan balance in full by your payment due date in September 2009 and you'll pay no interest at all1.
• All additional products in your cart at the time you purchase a new XPS system will also qualify for the No Interest for 12 Months promotion.

Good Luck.............

All of you were pretty close.  A check of the offer's fine print states that "minimum payments are required" in the Dell Preferred Account web page.  The minimum payment amount seems to be about 3% of the total, and if that is calculated on the remaining balance, payments should be a bit less each month, and total about 1/3 of the initial balance of $1560.  It's still a good deal, and Dell is fairly straight up about the requirements.  A good learning experience, I suppose.... 

Is your balance accrueing interest?

Yes, the unpaid balance is accruing interest.  If you bought an XPS under this plan, look at your statement, plus read the XPS promo fine print.  In my statement, there is a column "promo plan deferred finance charges" of $2.60, works out to about 40 days interest on my current unpaid balance.  I presume they keep a running total of finance charges on the unpaid balance so you know where you stand all along (probably required due to fair credit reporting laws).  There is also a "balance subject to finance charge" column, which is 0 in this case. I asked Dell customer support via email this question: if I pay the minimum payment each month by the due date and the remaining balance by the promo expiration date (Aug 2009), will I avoid all finance charges?  I expect that answer to be "yes".  If I don't get an answer, I will pay the minimum payment by the due date (next week) and see what happens on the next statment.  When I called Dell customer support right after I got the bill, the rep said the minimum payment would be "adjusted" each month.  That usually means "increased", but I believe if it's a consistent % of the unpaid balance, it will go down slightly (about $1) each month.    Credit sure is 2-edged sword if there ever was one! 

Let me know what they say. Sounds to me like we have to keep track of what we pay over the 12 months.

 Pay it all within the 12 month period, and DO NOT be late. If you read the fine print, the interest free offer is negated if you miss a payment, and the interest rate will jump to something phenomenal like 29% if you pay late. Interest also continues to accrue during your 12 month period and will be added to your unpaid balance at that time. NEVER par just the minimum pmt ammount. If you do, you'll end up with a balance at the end of the promo period. Double the minimum pmt if you can, or even triple it if you dont want to get hit with some healthy finance charges later on.