Fancy an iPad Mini 16Gb? It's yours for just 3 payments of £89/month. Any takers?

I really, really like smart ways of paying for technology. Even stumping up £269 for an iPad Mini can feel expensive, more if you’re looking at the full size iPad. It’s so unpleasant that many UK consumers will run a million miles to avoid having to pay full price (£500ish) for the latest smartphone. They’ll willingly subscribe to a 24-month excruciating expensive service plan to have somebody else front the initial device cost.

I’ve been wondering what would happen if someone came into the market and made the costs go away by splicing them or presenting them differently.

Now and again I saw examples of Tesco Direct offering something like 6-month payment terms for various Android tablets, but it’s only recently that I noticed www.very.co.uk is offering excellent payment terms on a wide variety of consumer hardware.

I have to say £89 for 3 months feels a lot cheaper than £269. That’s the cost of a bog standard iPad Mini from Very. (Have a look) Provided you pass the (I suspect, basic) credit check, you’ll qualify for “take 3” payment terms. There’s no additional cost beyond taking the purchase price and splitting payment across 3 months. If you choose to delay payment, then they’ll charge you interest. Fair enough.

Let’s get a bit more serious and evaluate the potential of using very.co.uk to fuel your handset purchasing habits. The Sony Xperia Z is a fabulous new handset. It’s £599 from very.co.uk. Or, you can choose to pay £199.67 across 3 months.

Now, yes that’s a bit of cash to stump up every months for three months.

But you get to avoid:

a) Putting the whole amount on your credit card and therefore feeling, ‘shit, I’ve spent a lot of money probably unnecessarily’
b) Signing up to a 24-month contract that you probably don’t need

£199 each month for three months is a lot easier to manage. And if you absolutely must have that phone….?

And you know, you could actually spread the cost out a bit more (at an extra 7% interest rate).

Some people will read this and think I’m off my rocker. The fiscally sensible way might be to wait until you’re out of contract yada yada and then have the operator buy the device for you which you then pay-up along with your price plan.

Or it might be more sensible to buy the device outright on your credit card.

I think it’s about perception.

I like the idea of payment terms that feel more accessible.

Perhaps it’s all in the mind.

What do you think?