Should You Finance Your Renovation?

If yoursquo;re looking to finance your renovation, yoursquo;ve got options there, too. Sure, you can take out a home equity line against your home once it appreciates in value, but yoursquo;ll have to pay interest. What if there was another option?

There is: zero interest credit at Home Depot and Lowersquo;s.

Move into a new home and hate your floors, your fridge, or your kitchen countertops? With credit from Home Depot or Lowersquo;s, you can finance your updates, breaking the cost into more doable monthly payments. So is it for you? Letrsquo;s find out by examining the pros and cons also, you can check out the different Home Depot programs here and compare the offerings at Home Depot and Lowersquo;s here.

Pro: A new kitchen

Or new floors or a new bathroom or anything your home is dying for. If you donrsquo;t have another viable option for doing the renovations you need, this could be the answer. The amount of credit you are offered, the length of the term, and the corresponding monthly payments will obviously vary.

Pro: No interest

Interest makes what you purchase more expensive, which can make it take longer to pay offmdash;especially if yoursquo;re only make the minimum payment every month. Remove the interest and you havehellip;

Pro: More manageable payments

You may not want to shell out several thousand dollars for Quartz countertops, but a 200 monthly paymenthellip;that doesnrsquo;t sound so bad, right?

Con: More money going out

Of course, yoursquo;re probably not thrilled about committing to more money going out every monthmdash;especially since you may not be totally sure yet whether or not yoursquo;ll have discretionary funds left over at the end of the monthmdash;but are you more or less thrilled about those horrid countertops?

Pro: No need to save

If yoursquo;re the type that hates to wait and loves instant gratification, this will definitely be exciting.

Con: Delayed gratification feels good, too

Then again, it does feel good to set a goal and achieve it.

Con: Heavy-duty interest if you make a mistake

The biggest downside to no-interest credit offerings like these is the punishment involved if you donrsquo;t make good on your responsibilities. Miss one payment or make it late, and yoursquo;re busted. Not only will you immediately incur interest at whatever rate they pre-warned you about when you opened your account and it can be obnoxiously high, but interest will also now be owed back to the initial credit amount. Your monthly payment will jump dramatically, making it challenging to even get the balance paid off.