Anyone else ever rented a tablet or laptop on a per week basis? I'm thinking about renting a tablet from an online shop but I wasn't sure if I would be overcharge in the future or if hidden fees are involve. I check the reviews from the store I would like to rent from and the responses are split down the middle. Some people say the store is reasonable and others say their weekly or monthly rental price gradually increased. Do you have experience with renting an electronic device on a weekly or monthly basis?
Huh, I didn't even know you can do that. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I don't think it's a good idea. I wouldnt be thrilled to use something who knows how many people used before me and did who knows what on. Unless they reformat every time they get the laptop back, I wouldn't trust it at all. Why not just save up the money and buy it instead?
I believe that most of these types of rental companies charge crazy weekly rental rates. You could probably buy a laptop or tablet with a month's worth of rental fees. One chain in California got caught recording people via the webcam. Perhaps you could apply for a credit line from stores that sell laptops like Best Buy, Staples, etc. The monthly payments would be a lot more affordable. Some online stores offer credit lines too like TigerDirect, and Tech Depot. I'm not sure if Newegg offers credit, but it's worth a look.
Unfortunately, I now live in a country where such practical considerations are not available. Here, in one of the poorer countries of Latin America, you can only ever buy a computer. For a lot of people, the only way to buy one, is to get a credit from the bank, or from a loan shark. Needless to say, that the latter often involves a lot of complications. Back in Australia, it was possible to slowly pay off a new computer with weekly installments, which I guess would be regarded as "renting to buy". But the interest was enormous, so that in the end you end up paying up to 40% on top of the original price.
You could try out rent to own, which will cost noticeably more than buying a laptop outright in the long run. However, renting a laptop per week without any hopes of ever owning that device makes absolutely no sense. After maybe 20 weeks of renting a laptop, you could have already purchased one and saved yourself a lot of money. Renting not to own but just for the sake of renting is an even worse proposition than rent to own. It's not recommended.
No, I have only tried renting pc's at internet cafe's, I have never tried renting a pc per se. I agree that it's not really a wise choice to continously rent hardware when you can just save up and buy one for youself. If you must rent a device, set a definite timeframe for it so that you won't spend a lot of money.
I didn't know you could rent out laptops. I would want to because I'd rather own it. If I use something every day I think it justifies spending the money. If you want to only pay a bit at a time you could look into some sort of payment plan or a card with low APR. If I make payments every month I'd want to own it eventually, not give it back.
Rent a laptop only if you intend to use it for a very short time. That way, the cost of renting for one month would be justified because you don't have to pay full-price for it if you had no intention of using the laptop again. But if you need the laptop then it's far much better to save and buy.
I have never experienced renting a laptop or tablet. What I wanted to rent was an LCD projector since it's hard to secure one during my college days and we always had lots of research presentations. Renting actually costs you more than you think. Try to compute all the rents you've paid versus buying a laptop/tab and paying a large amount in one go. You'll be surprised that your accumulated rent payments exceed the amount you paid for your laptop/tab purchase. It's better to buy. There's no time pressure and you can do anything with your laptop/tab as you see fit.
I wouldn't consider it to be honest, I would be too worried about damaging it while it was in my possession, and if you can't afford to buy one then you probably won't be able to pay when/if you damage it. I would rather save up and buy one. To be fair they are MUCH cheaper than they used to be.
I'd consider renting office supplies like computer and laptops if the situation calls for them. Regularly I don't really mind to know where my office equipment come from, but I would feel a bit confused if I was asked to pay for using them later on in the project. If I were to be presented with the option of choosing which computers to use at work only to not get them, I would also not be happy about the agreement. I tend to think that these are options that are not directly related to saving money, but instead it was a way for the office management to make some money on their own. I also tend to want to rent out my office equipment after a project, especially if nobody is going to be re-furbishing them after a short-term contract.
