This was the motivation for my advice. I didn't have a credit card until I married my wife (she added me to hers) because of my parents. My parents were both relatively low-income, so they "augmented" their meager income with credit cards. Every purchase was a discussion of which card they should use based on interest rate, balance, etc. They had excellent credit so they were constantly getting credit offers, each time transferring balances to take advantage of the initial 0% promotions. Not to mention always having nearly new cars with two payments, a house payment, etc. Today they're of retirement age and have nearly nothing, I didn't want to live that life.

This is more than just a computer, it's a lifestyle. Buying things on credit is EASY and provides instant gratification, who doesn't love that? But each purchase reinforces the behavior, and pretty soon you're deeper than you can easily dig out of. I had multiple friends that fell into that black hole when they became of legal age, and I hate to see it happen to anyone. There's a lot of things that I'd love to have, but going without is preferable to carrying a balance on a credit card. Today I have one, it gets paid off every month.

What is the impact of not getting that computer today? Will it impede you in work or school, or does it just mean you have to use a computer you don't like for 3-4 months? You're at the stage of your life where you have to start making adult decisions, and often the easy path isn't the right one. Credit ratings are important but buying things to improve them is a farce, it's simply an easy way to justify buying things with a credit card.

This is just wrong.

If you take a look at a Mac, and spec out a comparably equipped PC laptop, yes, there will be a bit more of a premium paid for the Mac, but it's nowhere near three times. It might be 20%, but no more.

On top of that, if you become an Apple Developer member for a couple hundred bucks, you can save HUGE on the purchase of hardware. Last purchase I made got me 40% off. Nothing to sneeze at. Mind you, they don't usually allow you to finance those purchases.

I've had various laptops for almost 20 years as a consultant, and other than my Tadpole, my Mac laptops have been THE most reliable of the bunch. I've gone through Acer, HP, Dell, Toshiba, Alienware, and others, and find that almost all of their reliability and quality aren't anywhere near what they used to be. Mac is still the best for me, and they're not scrimping on quality.

I know some people treat the whole Mac vs. PC thing as some sort of holy war, but it's just silly. I run Linux, Windows 7 Ultimate, and Mac OSX all at the same time on my 17" MacBook Pro. (8GB of RAM and an SSD). I even did some hard core programming with it in a .NET environment for the last year, and it out performed my desktop. (I was the online architect for the latest Need For Speed World, that you can check out here Need for Speed World - Introduction) My build times were way less than desktops, using Parallels.

A lot of top developers I know and work with also run the same kind of setup, so don't bash Macs unless you've used them, and just want to believe the crap about the price.

I could care less what you use, really... I just know what works (very well) for me.

But then again, this isn't about the laptop he's wanting to buy, it's about doing a zero-interest short term finance of it, and I say "go ahead".

A lot of you sound like he's about to go on a big heroin binge or something, and he's about to fall off the bad-credit cliff... the fact that he's even asking the question in the first place speaks volumes about his headspace and maturity.

And the reality is that his comments about building credit are quite valid. No credit is sometimes just as bad as bad credit.


$0.02 (CDN)

Computers are computers it doesn't matter if it's a dell or a mac the parts all come from china... that being said $600 will get you a pretty decent laptop that will do everything for college just fine. There's always a chance to get a lemon really the only reason to get a mac is to join the hip crowd that think they are gods gift to being cool and tech savy I see these people all the time at my uni and they really irk me. In my opinion macs really don't offer anything that justifies the price. They may not be 3x the price but double the price of a laptop with the the same specs is plausible.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157532 - $429
- bigger screen
- faster bigger hdd
- half the price

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook?afid=p219|GOUS&cid=OAS-US-KWG-SitelinksMac-MacBook - $999
- faster cpu
- better battery

both come with the same amount of ram at the same mhz

Just look through those.
Newegg.com - 600, Laptops / Notebooks, PCs & Laptops

As for the cc I've had a cc for ~3 years now pay the bill in full every month pretty much put everything on the card. Why cancel it? It's only a bad thing if you abuse it.

I may reiterate some things that have been discussed before. My dad always pays with cash. He taught me that if you can't pay cash for something then you dont really need it then. I tend to agree with this since you feel awesome popping down the correct amount of cash down and walking away without any regret that was the right thing to do since it takes a bit of time to earn that kind of money and you have time to reevaluate the fact that you want it or not.

I bought my wife a 2004 Armada in Dallas 6 months ago, the dealer salesman was pretty surprised when I pulled out an envelope full of cash. Just a used car, but it is sorta fun. It makes the months of saving worthwhile.

Yes, if you are a programmer or engineer or professional audio/video editor or otherwise a high computational user, you may justify a high-performance computer of any brand.

But we're talking about Sid, the pre-pharma college student. Not an engineering student doing finite element analysis on his laptop. So 'NEED' here is a part of what I'm asking Sid to consider. Today's $600 laptop will outperform most $1500 laptops from four years ago, so there's not a ton of logic that says you 'CAN'T' do your essential work on a 'cheap' laptop.

So, if you can get a decent 15.6" laptop for $600 (See LSA's post, and $600 is Sid's cash budget) and a similar spec 15" MacBook Pro starts at $1799, then that would be THREE TIMES as much. Unless my remedial math is wrong, but I did use my HP / Windows calculator, which might be inferior to Apple's.

Don't like that? Okay, compare a base 13" MacBook at $999 to a base to the 15.6" Compaq CQ60 that I paid $288 for at Best Buy this Fall. Still THREE TIMES.

Is there an iMath app I'm missing out on?

Well, the Mac has a faster processor, a larger hard drive, and I think the rest of the difference could be the fee everyone gladly pays to not have to use Vista.

Good point. I believe there is a psychological difference between paying with a credit or debit card and paying with actual dollars. Try it some time.

Banks aren't stupid. They know paying with plastic results in higher spending. The receipt and dollar amount are just numbers. Pay with cash, and you can't escape reality.

As far as the OP is concerned, finance the computer. This nation is built on consumption. If everyone was prudent and patient, the Dow would be sitting at 3k, and tabs would be *****ing about his tiny trust fund. ;) I plink around on a hand-me-down desktop and crusty old Dell laptop, but that's just me.

So a $1600 box from Dell is no better than a $600 machine?

Seems odd on a Porsche forum..

2.4GHz vs 2.2GHz, so you're correct. But the 13" MacBook screen may lose vs 15.6". They both have 250GB 5400rpm SATA drives, so that's equal.

And Windows 7 has been out for a long time now. But if you were so inclined, you could use the Mac OS as others have posted. Or Linux.

Or, compare a $999 MacBook to a $999 PC laptop and tell me the benefits. Other than looking superior to your barrista while you sip latte and search for iJobs.

This does not need to become another Apple vs Windows pissing contest.

The OP question was about using a credit card to buy something he has already determined he wanted or needed.

My first credit card was an American Express Gold card. The real reason I went with Amex was I HAD to pay it off every month. One day I finally realized that if I could pay that card off, it could be a Visa for no annual fee and just pay it off as well. I dropped my Amex card that next time the annual fee was due.

I can't imagine not having a credit card in this world. I use my debit card at least a dozen time a week. Anything I buy on my credit card is paid off each month.

I don't do it to build my credit rating, I do it because it is the smart thing to do.

It's like asking whether a $60K Cummins diesel dually is superior to a $20K Toyota Corolla when commuting alone to work. Is the Cummins superior? Does it matter? Unless you commute with a skidsteer attached, I'm pretty sure you'll get there just fine in your Corolla.

So if Sid could afford to pay cash for the Corolla, or he had to take out a $40K loan on the Cummins (which he really doesn't 'need'), which advice would you give Sid?

This CQ60 is $489 and doesn't get a stellar review:

HP Compaq CQ60-215DX Review - Laptops - CNET Reviews

If you compare apples to apples (or as close as you can) you will pay a premium for the Mac but it isn't 3x or even 2x. Yes, you can get a dirt cheap laptop. If that works for you, great. Personally I beat the snot out of my laptop (it is my only computer), and FinalCutPro, Aperture and Logic are mission-critical apps for me. Hardware is robust, and the software rocks. Plus I have XP installed on it for when I need to run win software. In fact a number of people at work run windows all the time on their Mac laptops since they find the hardware to be superior. And these are game programmers/geeks.

The "fanboi/mysitque" upcharge is less than some people think. Quality does cost money...

Boooo.

Seriously, I don't think it's an issue of MAc vs. PC, but more of a case of justifying the cost. And unfortunately, like most things, when you look at it from a completely objective and logical point of view, there is little reason to purchase a more expensive version of a product.
But if we all did that, this would be a Toyota forum.

I make all of my purchases with a credit card, and I pay it off each month, and since I get cash back rewards with this card I end up getting $500-$800 back each year. I think the OP has exhibited a good amount of maturity, and should have no problem using a credit card to buy whatever compurter he wants.

Here's a link from when Best Buy sold them for under $300:

15.6" Compaq CQ60-615DX Presario Intel Celeron Laptop on sale at the lowest and best deal price!

Here's a similar Toshiba you can buy TODAY at Best Buy for $299:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+Satellite+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Celeron%26%23174%3B+Processor+/+15.6%22+Display+/+2GB+Memory+/+250GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1261751.p?skuId=1261751&id=1218244146938

Again if you NEED the extra processing power because it significantly impacts your professional work throughput, or simply cannot run the software, then by all means buy a more powerful computer. Just like buying a big diesel truck. But if all you're doing is visiting Pelican and Facebook and writing papers, you don't likely need the MacDaddy computer.

Which, to the point, means he can afford to pay CASH and avoid the credit topic altogether.....

As Todd says so eloquently, YMMV

hmmm... my Dell was over $3200. Does that mean its' quality is twice as high as a $1600 macbook? :cool:

We all see what's going on here. --a young adult wants the billet machined bobble . . . and wants it NOW! ...and it has to be NEW!

This is an emotional buy. ...not a pragmatic decision.

...will he be burned by the decision? - likely that he'll survive it just fine. But, c'mon, call it what it is.

Watch it...you'll be told to grow up...;)

I find it quite hilarious how people get such a hard-on over the PC/Mac thing... especially when it's not even the original poster's question. And it's always the guys who've never had one, or used one, or actually compared the two FOR THEMSELVES that scream the loudest about not getting a Mac.

And they always bring up the "hipster/cool/barrista" comments in their arguments. Really, it's more telling about them than anything... it's like some skinny dude in a turtleneck pissed in their latte or something. Crazy.

(And that whole Cummins vs Honda thing was WAY out of left field, and made no sense... and hell, I drive a Cummins!)

Again, I've used both, a lot, over the past 20 or so years, and my recommendation is to buy the Mac.

Especially for the student who can't afford such things as software or repairs. There's more to laptop ownership than just the initial purchase.

I am currently in my office looking over at a pile of 3 laptops from the last 2 years that are fried or faulty; Toshiba, Dell, and Acer. And these ones aren't the cheap ones. I can't think of one that was less than $2k. I've talked to the guys who repair them, and they say the same thing. Quality on the classic name brands is going to ****, but Apple isn't. Hell, I still have my last 3 MacBook Pros, working 100%, no problems. They've been replaced because of hardware performance, not failures.

The one thing that a frugal student can't afford to deal with is repairs. I will still say that the quality and longevity of a Mac, especially when being toted around in a backpack all the time, will be better than most PC's. Especially the current crop of cheap ones.

And the suite of software, and the default OS tools/etc, will give you way more use than an out-of-the-box PC. As a student, you should be able to get an educational discount on the purchase, and they usually throw in iLife and iWork as part of the sale. That's all you need.

Really, the only solid reason I've seen students going for a PC is for gaming, where they need the high-level hardware and Windows.


To reiterate, I personally could care less what you use... Mac or PC, makes no difference to me. I know what I have, and use, and am quite happy with it.

Whatever you buy, I just hope it works out for you, and you're happy with it.

And as the past owner of a DP-935, and current owner of a 911 race car, I can tell you that some of the best purchase decisions you make in life aren't about being frugal, or "intelligent". It's about buying something you want, because you want it.

Just because Miatas are cheaper to race, doesn't mean I want to race one, ya know?

It's hard to make that argument on a forum where people drive 180HP cars that get their doors blown off by modern Kia SUVs at a similar price point.