How beneficial is No Cost EMI?

New Delhi

Whether it is a big brand store or an online website, the market is abuzz with the festive season these days. Online shopping sites are offering more than one great offer to attract platform customers.

Websites like Amazon, Flipkart, Jio Mart and Myntra have provided attractive deals, cashback offers and various discounts.

But many times these offers turn out to be harmful instead of beneficial. One such offer is the No Cost EMI. Falling into its greed, many times we end up doing harm instead of benefit. We are telling you about some such tricks, which will make your shopping memorable.

Just because something is cheap doesn’t mean you should buy it. For example, if upgrading your laptop can make you run less, then you don’t need to spend a few thousand rupees on buying a new laptop. The same applies to other things as well.

Sometimes online retailers offer huge discounts of up to 50-70 per cent on select items. Many times such products are available for a limited time only. Be careful while buying them. Often sellers do this to get rid of an old model or product. So check all the details properly of what you are buying. Also, see that the price at which you are buying online is not available in any store at a lower price than that product!

Compare online prices with offline discounts

Even offline retailers are not behind these days when it comes to offering attractive offers. Things like mid-year sales, festive offers, and end-of-season sales are now being made available by offline retailers as well. At the market shops, you can see what is suitable for you and what is not.

Here you choose the product according to your preference. In online shopping, you have no other option but to make a return.

All retail stores along with Amazon, Flipkart and other e-commerce websites offer facilities like no-cost EMI and EMI on credit. But remember, no feature comes for free. EMI can definitely reduce the burden of your shopping with immediate effect, but check whether it will be beneficial for you in the long run or not.

Nothing comes for free in the world of business. No-cost EMI also comes at a cost. One is that you don’t get the benefit of the 4-5 per cent discount given by the dealer that you would get if you buy on cash or debit card. Apart from this, the burden of instalments will fall on you separately.

In case of default, the company charges about 4 per cent interest on the outstanding instalments. Charges like processing fee, annual fee, and National Automated Clearing House (NACH) / check bounce charges are charged separately.

There are processing charges for converting credit card purchases into no-cost EMI transactions. For example, ICICI and Kotak Mahindra Bank charge GST in addition to a processing fee of Rs 199 for each EMI paid on No-Cost EMI credit card transactions.