Interest Free Periods with Deferred Payments and Price Discounts are another two types of On Sale Deals offered by Harvey Norman and many other retailers. The strategies for price negation for these types of deals are slightly different. We will cover both of these On Sale Deals and explain the best strategies for price negotiation if you prefer to pay by cash or almost cash (credit cards).
Interest Free Periods plus Deferred Payments
This type of deal is similar as the Interest Free Period, except the fact that you will get extra number of months with no payments. During this kind of On Sale Deal the prices are the most inflated and will be way higher than comparable offers in competing retailer stores. The difference is a price or a hidden interest you have to pay for both differed payments privilege and interest free period. The space for negotiating prices if paying by cash or credit card is the highest of all. Here is the rule to apply for calculating possible discount you can get:
Rule of thumb #2: Take half the number of interest free months and add the number of deferred payments months.
So, for example, if there are 18 months of deferred payments and further 18 months interest free period (that is total 36 months interest free months) then the calculation is: 36 / 2 + 18 = 36% discount. Or in case of 6 months deferred payments and further 18 months interest free, the calculation will be 24 / 2 + 6 = 18% discount.
Warning
As good as these deals may seem they are equally dangerous. Statistically the highest numbers of people default on these kind of deals. During the initial deferred period people forget to budget for the repayments waiting on the horizon or get themselves into too many deals like that and when the repayments kick in, suddenly they find it impossible to keep up with them. So be very careful with these types of deals!
Big Price Discounts
From time to time Harvey Normal offers big discounts on their products. Usually they offer way higher discounts on their furniture than electronics. It’s because the margins are generally much lower in the electronic market.
With discounted prices there is obviously not a huge space for further price reductions. However, you still should be able to negotiate some discount, in most cases at least 5%. If you are a good negotiator and persistent then you may get even up to 10% off already discounted prices. The best strategy that works in these cases is to empower your self with quotes from their competitors. These days with smart phones and mobile internet access it shouldn’t be a big problem. Once I was able to negotiate 13% discount during 12 months interest free deal with one of the other retailers. Using rule of thumb #1, I should have been able to get just 6% but using quotes from another retail store I managed to get further 7%.
Conclusion
Empower yourselves with arguments, facts and negotiate hard! Do it not only in Harvey Norman but in all other similar stores as well. The ticket prices are only an indication of what the retailer wants, not what the market things. So use them only as a starting point, learn strategies for every type of On Sale Deal and if the salesmen won’t be accommodating, go to another store. You are the customers, your cash rules!