I just heard another commercial that bothers me. Have you heard about the companies that don’t want your money for what they are selling for a certain period? Most of these offers are for delayed interest payments.

Cindy and I enjoy these offers of no interest payments until a future date. What you may not know is that many of these contracts state that the interest is only waived if you pay off the debt before the specified date. We use this to our advantage.

We accept the free interest period and divide out the total cost of our purchase, so it is paid off before interest is accrued. This is an easy way to establish credit when you have had problems or are new to being a responsible adult.

Sometimes these offers include a credit card that you can continue to use. Do not fall victim to this trap. The issue with credit cards is that they do not expire like individual loans. After the limited date offer expires, you may only have 30 days to clear your account to prevent being charged interest.

This is the concept of getting you to take out a charge card at stores. Our first Discover card was issued to us when we made a purchase at the Battlefield Mall Sears store. Recently, we were given a Home Depot card on a similar type of deal.

We had a plan to clear up this cost within the allotted months. No, it and the Lowe’s card are in the lock box and kept until this type of offer comes again for another purchase. Stop and think for just a minute before you pay cash that is in savings when this type of offer is available.

If something happens and you need to use those savings for purchases that do not have this kind of deal, they will still be available. Being an adult is great, isn’t it. The commercials I was talking about at the beginning of this column are from vendors that act like they are benevolent.

Everyone must earn a living, whether you sell products or services or produce advertising like commercials. We do have a capitalistic economy, and buying and selling things is a legitimate way of making a living.

They are just good at marketing, but not as good as those companies that tell you openly that you will pay more if you do not pay it off entirely by the end of the offer. This is simply their tactic of choice. Honesty is the best policy. I’ve lived my life by this motto, and I still endorse it.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger