Come Stitch With Me

Sewing machine companies often run 0% financing promotions if you buy a new machine that’s above a certain price point (say $3000 & up). Purchases are made via a special credit card usually offered through Synchrony Bank.

Let’s look at Janome’s current Labor Day promotion.

To summarize:
0% interest for 36 months if you spend above $3,000.00 in a single transaction.
OR
5.99% interest for 72 months if you spend above $6,000.00 in a single transaction.

This offer is for charges made on the Sewing & More Credit Card issued by Synchrony Bank.

Before signing on the dotted line, be sure to read what consumer advocate Clark Howard refers to as the mice type.
The default interest rate on this credit card is 34.99% and the penalty interest rate is 39.99%. This is a HUGE difference from a 0% or 5.99% interest rate for a fixed period of time.

Let’s see what the numbers look like if I were to buy a Janome 9480 with ASR + tax + acrylic table insert to make the total transaction $6,000.00.

Loan Term	Loan Amount	Interest Rate	Monthly Payment	Total Paid
36 months	$6,000.00	Zero/None	$166.67	$6,000.00
36 months	$6,000.00	34.99%/39.99%	TBD	$9,769.76 to $10,390.53
72 months	$6,000.00	5.99%	$99.41	$7,157.45
72 months	$6,000.00	34.99%/39.99%	TBD	$14,416.72 to $15,896.96

The “gotcha” here is that if you fail to make timely payments or pay the full balance off at the end of the special interest term, the credit card company could apply the default interest rate retroactively back to the initial purchase date and/or invoke the penalty interest rate according to the card agreement rules. This means your purchase with higher interest rates applied could potentially cost you anywhere from 50% to 122% more than your original transaction amount. Ask yourself, “Can I make payments according to the schedule to avoid the high interest rates?”.

My personal take:
I’ve been saving up for a new sewing machine. When I’m ready to buy, the current plan is to time the purchase so that it posts to my travel rewards credit card right after the monthly statement drops. I pay my credit card in full every month, so the payment due date for this new charge would be almost two months away. I’ll earn rewards that I can later apply toward my credit card balance.

If my 8900 were to give up the ghost and I need a new machine before having the entire amount saved up, I would be totally fine with the 36 month special offer because: (1) the monthly payments fit my budget and (2) I have no concerns about paying the balance off by the deadline. If (1) and (2) weren’t true, I’d keep saving or consider alternative machines with large throat spaces that are within the amount I have saved.