Snap Finance provides lease-to-purchase financing. You can buy goods ranging from computers to furniture to tires. Your purchase is considered a lease, but you get to take the item home immediately. At the end of the lease term, you’ll own your item outright.
While their process is easy and flexible, getting financing can be a costly decision. This Snap Finance review will explain how their services work and help you decide whether Snap is right for you.
Snap Finance
Snap Finance will finance purchases for people new to credit or those with bad credit. This is a highly accessible form of financing but the costs may be high.
There’s a pattern of customer reviews describing extremely high costs, often involving payments over double the cost of the original purchase.
Pros
Quick online application
No collateral
Bad credit borrowers are approved
Same-day decision and approval
Choose your own local retailer
100-day payment option to pay off your balance faster
Payments auto-debit from your checking account (which can help avoid late fees)
Cons
No transparent fee structure
Very high cost of leasing
Your payments are not reported to the credit bureaus
No grace time for payments
Hard credit inquiry
What Is Snap Finance?
Snap Finance is a lease-to-own provider based in Salt Lake City, UT. Snap Finance Merchants helps people obtain financing for things like:
- Furniture
- Mattresses
- Tires and Rims
- Jewelry
- Electronics
- Appliances
🤔 What is lease-to-own financing?
Furnishing a home can easily cost thousands of dollars. Other costly items like replacement tires for your car or appliances can present financial challenges if you don’t have the cash on hand.
Lease-to-own financing allows you to borrow the cash you need to obtain the items on your list even if you have bad credit.
Instead of going to a lease-to-own retailer directly, you can apply at stores, even if you have bad credit or no credit. You can only use Snap Finance at stores that work with Snap.
You can finance merchandise with up to 18 months of payments. There is also a 100-day payment option that helps you pay off your purchase in less time.
Requirements to Qualify For Financing:
- Be at least 18 or older
- Have an active checking account
- Have a steady source of income
- Have a valid email address or cell phone
Snap Finance will perform a hard credit inquiry, but the inquiry may not show up on your Equifax, TransUnion or Experian credit report because Snap pulls credit from smaller credit reporting agencies such as Clarity and DataX.
How Does SnapFinance Work?
Snap Finance Stores makes it easy to apply for and receive financing online. Just make sure you meet the minimum requirements before moving forward with these 3 steps.
Step 1: Apply Online
The application is online. It just takes a few minutes to fill out the form and you’ll submit your personal information along with your social security number and driver’s license number.
Snap Finance can approve your application in just minutes.
Step 2: Choose a Retailer
Once you get approved, you can choose your store and start looking for items up to $5,000, depending on your approved credit limit. SnapFinance partners with retailers all over the country so you can shop locally and use your approval to lease your items. There’s a store locator feature on their site so you can easily find your nearest retail partner option.
Step 3: Check Out
SnapFinance will send you an email with the amount you are approved to lease once your application is approved. All you need to do is show it to your cashier to proceed with the transaction. Your payments will be automatically deducted from your checking account.
How Much Does Snap Finance Cost?
Snap Finance does not share specific costs for their lease-to-own agreements anywhere on their site. However, they do speak to what some customers can expect in terms of interest or fees.
There will be a processing fee or initial payment due during the day you make your transaction. This amount can vary depending on the specifics in your lease agreement but compare it to a down payment.
Snap Finance does not charge interest on a lease-purchase agreement. However, that does not mean that you won’t pay more than the purchase price of your item(s). As with all lease-to-own companies, there is a cost in addition to the purchase price that will be added to your monthly payments.
👉 For example: If you choose to lease a laptop that retails for $600 and started making $40 payments every 2 weeks for 12 months, you’d pay close to $1,000.
So while the payments are not called “interest”, you’re still paying more money for your lease-purchase agreement.
Some other costs and fees you may want to consider include:
- Application fee and processing charges
- Late fees
- Missed payment or non-payment fees
Snap Finance does not clarify what the cost of financing is, but many users report paying extremely high costs.
⚠️ Warning: Your total cost could be more than double the cash price of the merchandise.
Snap Finance Reviews
Snap Finance BBB has an A rating with the Better Business Bureau and has been in business for the past 10 years.
A BBB rating is based on the company’s responses to customers, not on customer reviews of the company.
Customer Reviews
Some Snap Finance Reviews that stand out are:
My son had work done on his car and the repair shop used Snap finance for the loan, since Snap doesn’t charge interest on the loan. My son called yesterday to see how much was still owed on the loan and it turns out Snap says it is really an unsecured lease not a loan, although he used both terms throughout the conversation, and the amount still owed was $3113.68. The actual loan was for $3780. and after making payments totaling $2901. he sould have only owed $879. The guy also told him if the lease/loan had been paid off in the first 100 days there wouldn’t have been an additional charge. They told him after the 100 days the amount owed doubled. He asked what it would take to settle the debt and the manager said to make an offer, and he did for the remaining balance of the lease/loan $879. and they accepted the amount. They are supposed to send an email showing the lease/loan is paid in full, but we shall see, as the email never arrived yesterday like they said it would. This company is so shady that my credit card company wouldn’t let the amount go through, (We ended up paying using another method). In fact, after we got done on the phone I received a text message from the fraud department of my credit card company wanting to know if it was me and that they had froze my card.. I called and talked to customer service to let them know it had been me so they could unfreeze my card, they suggested I get a new card.Snap told my son he could never use them again. Really? Who would ever use these ppl? My son is going to inform the car repair shop, hoping they will dump this company.
8/20/2022
Have been using snap finance for years and not *************** lease/loan had any problems. I lost my job and spoke with a rep a couple days before my 100 day buyout. He assured me it would be extended and not to worry just call when I have the money. Called a month later and they have no information on extension. My buyout is now double, and the only thing I can do is settle for still more then what the 100 day option would be.. Terrible customer service, they do not track phone calls just access account and maybe makes notes. Will not use again.
7/20/2022
These complaints are interesting because SnapFinance states on their site that they don’t charge interest. Customers may be mistaking the marked-up fees for interest. However, it seems that their 100-day pay option is better for customers looking to save more money. Other complaints have stated that customers’ costs went up after the 100 days or that it was harder to pay the balance off.
Some users also complained that the Company didn’t approve them. Snap Finance says that credit is not an issue and implies that as long as applicants meet their basic requirements, they can get approved.
☝️ One thing that Snap Finance Stores does recommend that we believe every borrower should do is carefully review the disclosures of the agreement before you sign and agree to anything. Make sure you understand your payment amounts, when they’re due, how much you’d pay over time, and fees, and additional unique terms of your agreement.
Snap Finance Review: Final Take
Snap Finance looks beyond a borrower’s credit history when considering them for short-term financing. While their process is easy and flexible, getting financing can be a costly decision.
Snap Finance does not report your payments to the 3 major credit bureaus. This financing option is not a credit-building opportunity that could help you qualify for better loans in the future.
There are very few purchases that you need badly enough to risk the prospect of paying more than double what the item actually costs.
FAQs:
You can use Snap Finance at over 200,000 locations across the U.S. Use their store locator search tool to choose the store you want.
To use Snap Finance you need to apply online by filling out the form and submitting your personal information along with your social security number and driver’s license number. After you’re approved you can choose your store and start looking for items up to $5,000, depending on your approved credit limit.
Snap Finance can be used at over 200,000 retailers across the United States. Most Snap Finance stores sell the following:
– computers,
– mattresses,
– electronics,
– furniture,
– jewelry,
– wheels and tires.
It’s actually better for you to pay Snap Finance off early because that means a lower cost as no interest will be charged. If you pay Snap Finance off within 100 days there is no interest charge.
