It's important to get a good interest rate

This might actually be a good way to teach kids about credit and interest. Let them borrow a small amount at a high interest rate and walk them through paying it off.

It's one thing to tell them about financial responsibility. But watching a bad choice drain their piggy bank is the sort of trauma that leaves a scar.

Let's not scar children to teach them lessons. I'm sure there's a better way to teach a kid about interest besides getting a loan from McDonald's.
- A couple dollars is a cheap price for such a valuable lesson.
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- Eh, valuable lessons generally are valuable because they cost you something to learn.
  
  Anything that’s free we tend to not appreciate very much.
If that was the reason for it then great idea. Having to buy icecream on a payment plan is just sad and more than a little crazy
- Oh I don't know if that was the reason for the one in the image. I agree with you that needing to finance ice cream is sad. I'm just thinking it could be a good intro to predatory finance for kids.
Why even use credit at all? What is wrong with debit?
- I use my credit cards for everything I purchase because I get some cash back or other incentives along with fraud protections.
  
  My brother’s a psychopath who plays his credit score like it’s a game so he has like ten cards and a 800+ score he’s proud of.
  
  I make nearly three times as much as him and it took me forever to get an 800 so maybe he’s onto something but fuck that game.
- Credit cards come with fraud protection and help you build a credit score, which will get you a lower interest rate on a loan, if you need one. So long as you only spend money you have on hand, and pay off your card every month in full, there's no down side.
- Why even use debit at all? What is wrong with bank notes?
- It's for people who don't have enough in their bank account.
  
  Although if you don't have $8, maybe rethink that shitty fast food.

Credit seems like a tax on the poor.

These schemes are usually interest free.

They make their money similar to credit card fees, a small percentage from the merchant.

They shaft you if you don't pay though, and I'm not sure if this is still the case but they never used to show up on your actual credit history. Which seems nice on paper, but is actually hugely irresponsible. All these credit trackers seem like an unfair scam to keep the poor in their place, but they are there to stop you getting into more debt than you can pay off. If left to their own devices, the lenders would cheerfully give you way more than you could ever hope to pay, and then come round and break your kneecaps when you inevitably fall behind.
Actually, it’s a tax on the impatient.
- It can be both
- It’s not just impatience, for companies is usually more bet. They bet that they can earn a surplus higher than the interest rate when they invest that money now and not later.
You don't have to use credit, taxes are taken from you by force. Not comparable imo.
- Being able to live isn't a choice.
- Not technically correct. If you want to be able to rent apartments or dream of owning a house, you will have to use credit in the U.S., or you'll at least need someone with a high credit score willing to be your co-signer.
  
  obv nobody is forcing you to get a credit card and rack up a lot of debt, but you will face a lot of struggles in life that someone who makes regular payments on a credit card will not.
- You also don’t have to pay taxes. Plenty of rich people don’t
- They aren't taken by force, you choose to live in a society that provides you with all sorts of services, which need to be paid for.
  
  You are free to live in a society that doesn't provide any road networks, fire departments, education, ... but that is not where you live now. So I suggest you move instead of complaining about something necessary.
  
  I heard Somalia doesn't ask for any taxes.

I looked into using this type of service to pay for a modest purchase. A luxury of sorts. Something I had the cash for, but felt weird about paying all $600 or so for. I thought, maybe an interest free loan would be cool?

So i start to pay for the thing with klarna or whatever. And I see it's only a six week loan. Wait, my credit card is a free six week loan (give or take). Wtf. I'd have to pay the thing off faster than just using a credit card.

I talked myself out of buying whatever it was.

Six weeks seems very short, all the services I've seen are three payments over three months.
- PayPal pay in 4 is 6 weeks. It splits into 4 payments, 1 due now, 1 after 2 weeks, one after 4 weeks and one after 6 weeks
I’ve used similar services to this in the past; not because I couldn’t afford something up front - but because I wanted to amortise the purchase across a pretty short (8 week) period.

Why not just use a credit card? I did. As a semi-regular user of the service, it was set up in such a way that it would bill the first 25% of my purchase after 2 weeks, and again every 2 weeks after that.

So not only was I getting an additional interest-free time stacking the 2 week period with my CC’s billing cycle; but I was earning loyalty/rewards points with both programs simultaneously.

$8 for a McFlurry sounds absurd

What's more absurd is that there are people willing to pay that.
- What's even more absurd is that there are people willing to finance that
11$ in total

Micro-financing is a concept that should be violently uninvented.

Payments Processing is its own niche highly lucrative industry. And options to convince people to finance every fucking thing are largely just rent-seeking schemes intent on nickel-and-diming the transactions of the poorest people.

At least it should be paid off by now