What would you do with $300 cash back?
I have been watching the news on TV using our rabbit ears for the past few weeks, and there is a certain commercial that comes on - it seems like every commercial break - that really annoys me. It is an ad for TV, internet, phone, and wireless service. The deal is that you pay $100 a month, and just for signing up you get $300 cash back.
So they go around on the streets asking people what they would do with that $300. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that if I were given $300 back for signing up to pay $100 a month, I would be using that money to cover the first 3 months of service, right? But, no, not these people they interviewed. Out of the 6 responses they show, only one is what I would consider a judicious use of the money, and most of the responses seem outright selfish. Here they are:
- some "really awesome" concert tickets
- take his girlfriend out to eat someplace nice
- grocery shopping - thank you, frugal Asian lady with a toddler! ;-)
- tickets to the game
- MP3 player
- salsa lessons
So tell me, what would you do with that $300?
Categories:
frugality
,
pop-culture
People are so gullible. They think someone is giving them $300. In reality they are borrowing $300 at a ridiculous interest rate. They are being distracted from the fact that they are committing to paying $1200 a year to this company for the duration of the contract. "Cash back" as an incentive to purchase, borders on deception. It ought to be illegal.
I think you're totally correct. It doesn't make sense to me that you would buy something, receive a discount (affectively) and then since you got a discount you choose to go ahead and spend that discount's $$$ amount on buying something else entirely. There's a reason so many people have a net worth of -1%, and this commercial helps you understand why :-P
Jon
Well, in answer to your question, I wouldn't have it, because I wouldn't sign up... Or, actually, I WOULD have it, because I wouldn't sign up... Oh, never mind. ;-)