Games Workshop Webstore Finance?

[Valkyrion]

I have a vague memory of buying something around the time of 6th edition or dark angels range refresh and the GW webstore checkout offered 'finance' so I clicked it and it went to a 404 page so I ended up paying normally.

Have I imagined this? 

[Emperor Ming]

Cant say I remember GW ever doing finance

[Noserenda]

That feels like a whole legal nightmare for GW

[Grotsmasha]

Best I've got is they accept PayPal, which does Pay in 4.

[Orion]

Going into debt over Warhammer sounds like a bad idea. I don't think that's something GW should make it easier to do.

I can't think of a real reasonable situation for it.

[Wormwoods]

 

3 hours ago, JayJapanB said:

Going into debt over Warhammer sounds like a bad idea. I don't think that's something GW should make it easier to do.

I can't think of a real reasonable situation for it.

 

DEBT

The First 40,000 Years.

[Toxichobbit]

3 hours ago, JayJapanB said:

Going into debt over Warhammer sounds like a bad idea. I don't think that's something GW should make it easier to do.

I can't think of a real reasonable situation for it.

 

Maybe starting a business. I'm thinking something like being a creative (selling painted models online. a YouTube channel or something similar) rather than a store, as a store should be purchasing through a trade account. 

 

But in general though, I 100% agree. Of all the things you could get yourself into debt over, Warhammer, or indeed any hobby, seems like one of the worst reasons.

 

Edit: also mental health - being in a bad state mentally can lead to making questionable financial decisions, either because of a limited grasp on reality or just looking for something to ease the symptoms (comfort buying for example). My sister has bipolar and has, on multiple occasions, done the former. and I've had periods in my life where things have been so dark that I've done the latter.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Toxichobbit

[Orion]

3 hours ago, Toxichobbit said:

 

Maybe starting a business. I'm thinking something like being a creative (selling painted models online. a YouTube channel or something similar) rather than a store, as a store should be purchasing through a trade account. 

 

But in general though, I 100% agree. Of all the things you could get yourself into debt over, Warhammer, or indeed any hobby, seems like one of the worst reasons.

 

Edit: also mental health - being in a bad state mentally can lead to making questionable financial decisions, either because of a limited grasp on reality or just looking for something to ease the symptoms (comfort buying for example). My sister has bipolar and has, on multiple occasions, done the former. and I've had periods in my life where things have been so dark that I've done the latter.

At that level I still really think you should be fronting the money for that stuff yourself. If you can't pay now, why do you think you'll be able to pay later? Especially on something like a YT channel or selling minis. 

 

And yeah, totally agree on the mental health thing.
Just for people in general though. There's a reason why banks spend so much money to push credit cards with "great rewards!" onto people. 
You and all you friends might say you always pay back on time to reap the benefits, but they're obviously making massive profits somewhere. Which is pretty insidious imo. 

[Noserenda]

I mean, they certainly had no problems letting staff order on credit whilst I worked for them, and credit in general is fine if you can handle your finances responsibly, but lending to randoms via your webshop is. As I mentioned above, pretty tightly regulated and therefore not particularly plausible for the amounts gw typically deal in.

[Stitch5000]

The GW webstore probably did have a plug-in for some third-party consumer finance option at some point, and indeed that line of credit will be open to most purchases now, since you can check out using Paypal, who offer their own 0% financing options.

The site probably doesn't offer a direct integration to Klarna, but if you are a Klarna user, you can just create a one-off card for the purchase. 

It really isn't any different to using your credit card or overdraft facility. 

It is highly unlikely that GW would ever indulge in actual lending themselves, but they may integrate a broker. 
 

30 minutes ago, Noserenda said:

I mean, they certainly had no problems letting staff order on credit whilst I worked for them, and credit in general is fine if you can handle your finances responsibly, but lending to randoms via your webshop is. As I mentioned above, pretty tightly regulated and therefore not particularly plausible for the amounts gw typically deal in.

It wasn't "credit" per se, it was more of deferred payment via salary sacrifice. I do agree though... I'm not sure why "finance for models" seems to be such a dirty word. GW aren't selling clinically addictive substances or medicines for dependants.  Y'all are grown-ups and should regulate your finances accordingly!

 

8 hours ago, JayJapanB said:

Going into debt over Warhammer sounds like a bad idea. I don't think that's something GW should make it easier to do.

I can't think of a real reasonable situation for it.

It really isn't any different to getting into debt to pay for any other hobby. Plenty of people finance cars, pushbikes, golf clubs etc etc. otherwise they would never be able to purchase anything they enjoy. If you can;t think of a reasonable situation, you are probably very fortunate in terms of your financial situation. 

[phandaal]

29 minutes ago, Stitch5000 said:

It really isn't any different to getting into debt to pay for any other hobby. Plenty of people finance cars, pushbikes, golf clubs etc etc. otherwise they would never be able to purchase anything they enjoy.

 

None of that stuff sounds like a good idea to go into debt for either. If someone cannot afford to buy the golf clubs they want outright, they should do a layaway program or just get a different set of clubs. (Telling someone what to do with "their" money - horror of horrors!)

 

29 minutes ago, Stitch5000 said:

If you can;t think of a reasonable situation, you are probably very fortunate in terms of your financial situation.

 

Really what it comes down to is some people are good about buying what they can afford, and other people are not. Unfortunately, the latter type of people are the ones who tend to get taken advantage of by financing programs. Hence the legal hurdles in many places.

[Orion]

1 hour ago, Stitch5000 said:

It really isn't any different to getting into debt to pay for any other hobby. Plenty of people finance cars, pushbikes, golf clubs etc etc. otherwise they would never be able to purchase anything they enjoy. If you can;t think of a reasonable situation, you are probably very fortunate in terms of your financial situation. 

You're gonna have to pay eventually. If people had less instalments to pay, maybe they'd have more savings, and overall more financial security. 

This is one of those cases where the idea that "people should be responsible" is very reductive. It's not like we're talking about a house or daily driver here.

[Noserenda]

See, avoiding borrowing seems like a great idea until you finally need to get a mortgage or something and noone will touch someone without a credit history, sure some people cant handle it, but thats true of nearly everything in society anyway. I fail to see how saving up money is in any way more responsible than just borrowing it and paying it back anyway, except in one of those examples you could be actually doing your hobby that whole time rather than... not.

Having spent a decade of my life dealing with peoples accounts, the vast majority of people use credit perfectly fine, for all sorts of things and its vastly more useful than savings for making specific purchases.

[Orion]

3 minutes ago, Noserenda said:

See, avoiding borrowing seems like a great idea until you finally need to get a mortgage or something and noone will touch someone without a credit history, sure some people cant handle it, but thats true of nearly everything in society anyway. I fail to see how saving up money is in any way more responsible than just borrowing it and paying it back anyway, except in one of those examples you could be actually doing your hobby that whole time rather than... not.

Having spent a decade of my life dealing with peoples accounts, the vast majority of people use credit perfectly fine, for all sorts of things and its vastly more useful than savings for making specific purchases.

Paying rent, bills, income etc. Plenty of ways to prove you can make mortgage payments. 

And saving is 100% more responsible, because you've proved you can by virtue of your savings. "sure some people can't handle it" is really unsympathetic outlook on society. It's the pro gambling mentality. I'm not advocating for padding all the walls, but less minefields would be nice. Particularly when they're not necessary. 

 

I feel like this is gradually shifting from a B&C topic.

[Halandaar]

1 hour ago, JayJapanB said:

If people had less instalments to pay, maybe they'd have more savings, and overall more financial security. 

 

But if they're intent on buying the thing anyway, they'd only have more savings up to the point they spend them on the thing they didn't use instalments to buy in the first place. 

 

Person 1 - Thing costs £300 - buy on Paypal PayIn3 or Klarna for £100 upfront and then 2 monthly instalments of £100

vs

Person 2 - Thing costs £300 - save up £100 every month for 3 months. Buy the thing.

 

Both people have the same amount of money at the start, the same amount of money at the end, the same amount of monthly expenditure and the same amount of overall expenditure. The chance of you earning any worthwhile interest on a balance that small for a period of time that short is basically nil, and these particular finance programs are interest free, so no extra expense incurred by taking the instalments route.

 

Yes obviously whacking a Warlord Titan on a 30-40% APR credit card and taking 2 years to pay it off would be completely stupid, but I'm not convinced that the sort of people who would do that don't have bigger financial issues in the first place.

[Stitch5000]

2 hours ago, phandaal said:

 

None of that stuff sounds like a good idea to go into debt for either. If someone cannot afford to buy the golf clubs they want outright, they should do a layaway program or just get a different set of clubs. (Telling someone what to do with "their" money - horror of horrors!)

 

 

Really what it comes down to is some people are good about buying what they can afford, and other people are not. Unfortunately, the latter type of people are the ones who tend to get taken advantage of by financing programs. Hence the legal hurdles in many places.

 

Really, what it comes down to is that less well off people should be availed with proportional credit options as better off people,

Rich people don't go around buying things outright because it's a dumb option to spend all your money when you can leverage options available to you, and spend somebody else's money if they are offering it. 

Even on a, for example, £200 purchase, it works out better for you to use a Paypal "Pay in 3" scheme, because you then get to keep more of the money for longer. 

I don;t know if you are intending to, but your comments are coming off as quite classist. 

 

1 hour ago, JayJapanB said:

You're gonna have to pay eventually. If people had less instalments to pay, maybe they'd have more savings, and overall more financial security. 

This is one of those cases where the idea that "people should be responsible" is very reductive. It's not like we're talking about a house or daily driver here.

Given how lots of people's finances work, it just works a bunch better to pay for things in instalments... It's exactly the same as saving up, but you actually get to enjoy what you have purchased in that time, plus you are better incentivised to actually budget for that instalment payment. 

For what it is worth, I use short term finance options frequently, to allow me to take advantage of time limited sales, purchasing limited stock/edition items or simply just getting my hands on something NOW rather than waiting 6 months to do so. 

[Halandaar]

34 minutes ago, Stitch5000 said:

For what it is worth, I use short term finance options frequently, to allow me to take advantage of time limited sales, purchasing limited stock/edition items or simply just getting my hands on something NOW rather than waiting 6 months to do so. 

 

This is definitely where this conversation intersects with GW the most; between them only officially telling us the release date of things a week before it happens and the high frequency of things just selling out immediately, sometimes if you don't have the funds (or the credit capacity) to buy there and then, you just miss out forever. You can see why people might use Klarna or similar to turn £50 of unspent monthly hobby budget into £150 of buying power in those circumstances.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Halandaar

[Brother Tyler]

The topic of this discussion was whether or not anyone remembers a "finance" option that appeared at the Games Workshop site at one time. I don't personally recall any such option (not that my recollection means anything in this instance). I just checked the Wayback Machine, but none of the crawls for the GW site returned an instance with a "finance" option (or more often, the crawls didn't return any usable result).

 

As for how individuals should manage their finances, while I'm sure that many of us have good advice, and some of us may even have great advice, I generally don't recommend taking financial advice from individuals whose financial situation you know little or nothing about (and I'm generally leery of trusting anyone's unverified claims on the Internet).

 

If anyone has questions about how to manage their finances, I recommend finding a reputable financial advisor. The Bolter & Chainsword is not the place to solicit or give financial advice.