Laptops have become almost an essential tool for students these days, due to the sheer amount of work they have. Sure, you can get a desktop for significantly less money, but you lose a lot of convenience without a laptop. Lugging one around to every class is a bit of a chore, but if you want to catch notes efficiently and not worry about being unable to read your own handwriting afterward, it can’t be avoided.
And then there is the unavoidable homework. And of course, you might want to relax and play a game or two when you have some free time or you simply want to waste your time on the Internet. Anyway you look at it, laptops are a must for students.
Unfortunately, even the most modest models cost a few hundred dollars and the majority of students simply don’t have that kind of money laying around. Even if they did, getting a cheap laptop is a very bad decision. There is never enough processor power or memory to run even the simplest task and you will spend half of your time frustratingly looking at the hourglass icon revolving on your screen.
You can forget about any games since even a simple YouTube video will strain your integrated graphic processor to the limits and often beyond them. The cheaper option is to get a used one, but since the battery is usually dead on those, you are just getting a smaller version of a desktop. Either that or get to every class 20 minutes early to claim one of the few power sockets in the classroom. Since that is rarely, if ever, an option, with school timetable as it is, you are left with just one option, scrap enough dough for a new device.
Loan for A Laptop
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That leaves us with the question of who will pay for a new brand new, decent laptop. If you can persuade your parents to shell out some cash for that, excellent. Then again, if you could, you probably wouldn’t be reading an article titled “Can I Get a Loan for a Laptop?”. The trouble with borrowing money for a laptop is that can lead to the snowball effect.
Often, it will die on you before you are finished with your payments, leaving you with no other option but to get another loan, while you are still paying off the first one. Now you have one working laptop and two monthly payments. They probably aren’t much, but they just might be the proverbial straw that broke your budget’s back and sent you into the red.
Personal Loans
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Personal loans require that you have an excellent credit rating, as they are unsecured loans and banks will only gamble on trustworthy people. There are two issues with that. First, young people often don’t have any, let alone excellent credit scores simply because they have never had a chance to take out a loan.
Most of them only have student loans and those are still outstanding. Even you have somehow managed to get a good score, the majority of banks won’t loan you less than $5,000. They can’t be bothered with a $500 loan for a laptop. They will spend on paperwork alone more than they will earn on your interest, not to mention man-hours.
Now, of course, you can spend $5,000 on a laptop. Asus has a model that costs similarly. It comes with an i9-9980HK processor, GeForce RTX 2080 Studio, and 64 GB of RAM, but that sounds like overkill for a budget student laptop. Besides, if you did get it, you would probably forego school altogether and stay in your room all day playing games.
Peer-To-Peer Lenders
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Your second option is peer-to-peer lenders, like Upstart or Prosper Marketplace. But even with them, the smallest loan you can get is $1,000. Even that is too much for a budget laptop. You will be left with some extra cash after making a purchase and all of us can use some extra cash, but not at that interest rate.
It just isn’t a viable option, especially considering you will spend it on junk food and booze. Now, if you need money not just for a laptop, but for some other items as well, like books (and we all know how ridiculously expensive college textbooks are), you may consider getting a personal loan. Check out here, for some more information on how to do that.
Credit Card
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Many companies offer 0% APR introductory rates credit cards and that may be an excellent option for financing your new laptop. Usually, getting a credit card is a bit easier than getting a loan and you may get one even with a non-existing credit score. You may have to shop around till you find one, but eventually, you will.
This is an interesting option because you get the best of both worlds. You get the money to buy a laptop immediately, but without the hustle of getting a personal loan. The best things that you can even avoid paying any interest on the money you have borrowed. Most cards will give you the first six months, or even more, without interest. Say that you spend $800 on a laptop (and you can get some sweet deals for that money).
For the next six months, you have to pay $134 each month and once the grace period is over, you are free as a bird. Bonus is that you can get a card that gives some great rewards and you can continue to use it for your everyday needs. Just make sure you pay it in full every month and you will get rewards, plus, but the time you are done with the school, you will have beefed up your credit score. That alone can be worth the hustle of getting a credit card.
All of these are just some possibilities for getting a loan for a laptop and you will have to do some more research before deciding which option works best for you.
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