Dell, DELL FINANCIAL Dell DECEPTIVE Financial Practices - - - NO INTEREST for 12 Months Carol Stream Illinois

This is extremely difficult for me to say because Dell is the first and only company that educated me as a youth on the predatory and greedy practices of lending companies, but I have to agree that you are in the wrong here, not Dell. The terms of the agreement that you signed will clearly state that interest will be charged retroactively at the end of the promotional period if the balance is not paid in full. This is common knowledge at this point. While you clearly were not in the know at the time, you are now. Hopefully it was a lesson learned and you now fully read the terms of any agreement before taking out a line of credit. I recommend taking it one step further though; Throw away your credit cards!

8 years ago Dell raped my financial innocence. It took me 2 months to realize what I had gotten myself into and almost a year to get myself out from underneath their thumbs. And that was only because, and listen carefully here, I had to cut back spending and devote myself to paying off the debt. Since then I have been completely debt free (minus a home I just purchased) and could not be any happier with my financial situation. I genuinely hope that others on this site take heed from stories like these and free themselves from the crushing burden of debt all together. If you can do that, then you won't have to worry about fine print.

What Dell did is nothing different form a 12 months no interest offer at Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowes etc. If you don't pay the balance in 12 months, then all the deffered interest gets added on. It's right in the terms of the account when you opened it.

I recently also opened a Dell Preferred Account. Statements like these make me wish that people who don't understand credit, wouldn't use it. Anyone who has ever used credit, and I say this as an idealist, reads and makes sure that they understand the terms and conditions of a credit line that they open (or should anyway). Allow me to copy and paste the terms of the 12 months no interest promotion from the dell website (this also appears on a multitude of paperwork you get from Dell Financial)...and these terms are EVERYWHERE when you are making your purchase, when you receive your first set of paperwork, and on statements (they even have the exact date that the promotion ends right on the bill!) I can't quite possibly understand how you missed them.


No Interest for 12 months1 on new XPSTM systems is a feature of the Dell Preferred Account and is available to all new and existing qualified customers.

To take advantage of this special offer, you must purchase a new XPS desktop or notebook with your Dell Preferred Account and have adequate available credit. All qualifying purchases between May 1, 2008 and May 28, 2008 must be paid in full by your payment due date in June 2009 or accrued interest will be assessed. Interest accrues from the date of purchase and will be charged to the account if you do not pay your plan balance in full by your payment due date in June 2009. Specific rates and plan features vary for each customer, depending on creditworthiness.

Note the part about "accrued interest will be assessed". Anyone who has a shred of common sense also knows that ANY no interest promotion that you take advantage of (fuirniture, car, etc) ALWAYS has the same or similar terms...if you don't pay the balance in full, the promotion goes away and you are responsible for total back interest.

I don't see the validity of this complaint in any way whatsoever. It's not Dell's responsibility to make sure you read your own paperwork.