Can I buy stuff in the UK in installments?

November 4, 2006 8:00 AM

Is there such a thing as "lay-by" in the UK?

I've recently moved from Australia to London, and am still coming to grips with some of the cultural differences. One that I'm finding perplexing at the moment is this: In Australia, you can often buy goods on lay-by. Lay-by is an arrangement whereby you pay an item off in installments over an agreed time (in the US I believe it's known as Layaway); during this time the item is put away and stored for you in the shop. When you've paid off the balance, you can take the item home. I suppose it's a bit like an interest-free loan, except that you don't get the item until you've finished paying for it, and if you cancel the lay-by you forfeit your initial deposit. In Australia, I've often used this system to buy clothes or shoes that are too pricey to pay for all at once.

Does a similar system exist in the UK? My brand new British husband says it doesn't, but I'm hoping he's wrong as I'd like to buy a nice pair of winter boots and don't yet have a UK credit card. I have googled for an answer, but it seems the term "lay-by" means something different here. British shoppers, please help a poor girl from the colonies!

posted by hot soup girl to shopping (15 comments total)

You mean by pay by instalments? If so, usually you don't have to wait - you take the thing home and pay in monthly instalments taken from your bank account, with interest. Was once called hire purchase. Most stores operate this. I don't think it exists on a cash basis though - eg they need to be able to draw on your bank account once a month or whatever.
posted by A189Nut at 8:11 AM on November 4, 2006

Not as far as I know.

Your description seems to indicate that it's a scheme which doesn't benefit the consumer at all.

You don't get the item until you've fully paid for it. In the meantime, the shop gets your money and can earn interest on it. Why not simply save the requisite amount each month in your savings account and then pay for it? You don't lose anything by this, and you gain the (admittedly small) interest, while more importantly also keeping your money in case you decide not to purchase the item in the meantime.

Wikipedia even says the firm charges you a fee for the pleasure of having it earn interest on your money. Have I misunderstood something, or is there really no benefit to the consumer in this?
posted by matthewr at 8:11 AM on November 4, 2006

I live in the UK, and I've never heard of anything like this. Instead you can get store-based credit cards which do basically the same thing, except you get to take your item home straight away. Beware though, store-based credit cards usually have astronomical interest rates.

Guides to not being ripped-off by UK credit cards

As you've already discovered, a lay-by in the UK is a place to park on the side of the road.
posted by Mwongozi at 8:12 AM on November 4, 2006

You do get this in the UK, but only at stand-alone shops where the staff have a degree of discretion: you won't get it at chains. Either way, credit is so ubiqituous now most stores don't even bother running their own schemes.

Time for a credit card!
posted by bonaldi at 8:15 AM on November 4, 2006

Layaway in the U.S. is pretty common. And there is a benefit to the consumer in some cases, such as putting the item in layaway while it's on sale, and finish paying for it later.
posted by The Deej at 8:19 AM on November 4, 2006

Here's an article with more details on layaway, if you're curious. The most popular use nowadays is for holiday shopping.
posted by smackfu at 8:46 AM on November 4, 2006

For matthewr, the benefit to the consumer is that if there's something they want to buy in, say, a particular colour or size, they can be sure that the shop will keep it for them. The shop charges a fee basically to cover storage costs and, of course, make money.

Otherwise the consumer runs the risk of not being able to purchase the desired item once he or she has saved the money. That's really the only benefit.

Hot soup girl, I'm afraid I can't answer your question definitively apart from to say that I didn't come across lay-by in my time in London. Overdrafts and credit cards seem to rule the system there, but hopefully someone else can tell you differently.
posted by different at 9:08 AM on November 4, 2006

Rats, I was hoping not to have to get a credit card. (Also, as a fresh-off-the-boat immigrant it's quite hard to get one.) Bugger. Still, thanks for your answers, all.

Yeah, the main benefit of lay-by to the customer is that you can reserve an item that might not always be available - such as a perfect cardigan, or a pair of shoes in a rarely-available size - and then pay for it later, without having to risk the Curse of the Credit Card. As someone with odd sizing, I've found it invaluable at times.
posted by hot soup girl at 9:08 AM on November 4, 2006

Snap, different.
posted by hot soup girl at 9:12 AM on November 4, 2006

You could try the catalogues - they'll let you pay over n weeks with a debit card, and send you the goods up-front.

You say "odd sizing"; there are a few plus-size catalogues (eg Simply Be). If you're a waif, I'm not so sure what's out there, but there's probably something.
posted by Leon at 9:50 AM on November 4, 2006

And, of course, you can go into K-Mart or Target during one of their many 15% off sales, put a fancy new whatever on layby and then pay it off as you go along, meaning you save the 15%!

Also, my wife's got a dress on layby at the moment that she wants for christmas family visits. The store will hold it until early december, so she can just pay it off over time and is sure they still have it for her (we've been to the store since and they've sold out of this dress).

I'm really surprised they don't have this concept in the UK. It seems somewhat odd...
posted by ranglin at 1:59 AM on November 5, 2006

Online/print catalog(ue)s like Littlewoods, Next Directory and Freemans support installments and most of them (bar Next) do designer fashion and home furnishing products, too.

If you're after appliances, I think Comet and John Lewis support hire purchase, too, but I'm not sure.
posted by unmusic at 2:39 AM on November 5, 2006

PS: In some department stores you can ask them to reserve an item for you, but this depends on which department store... worth asking. I know Harrods and Selfridges do this regularly.
posted by unmusic at 2:40 AM on November 5, 2006

I've heard people asking things like 'Can you hold this for me until Saturday?', but they've been planning to pay in a single instalment, just needing to wait until they get paid - and that's usually at the cheaper end of the market. Anything more complicated, and involving holding it for longer than a week or so, would quite possibly be too complicated for the staff of those shops.

If you've got a UK bank account, could you get a smallish agreed overdraft instead of trying to get a credit card? I don't know what that's like if you don't have a long history with the bank, but it can't hurt to ask, right?
posted by Lebannen at 9:34 AM on November 5, 2006

The closest thing we have to layaway are Christmas savings clubs. Probably the most well know is Park. You get a catalogue in January which covers Christmas food and drink, presents for the kids etc, and youdecide what you want to buy for Christmas. Based on your choices, you pay a set sum of money to the club every week til November and get the items delivered in December. These sort of clubs tend to be used by people with small household incomes and no access to credit. Note those without access to credit are now a very small group due to the deregulation of lending under Margaret Thatcher. Otherwise, some shops take deposits on items - Halfords will let you put a deposit on your kid's bike for Christmas etc - and you take away the item when you pay the remainder.
posted by boudicca at 2:43 AM on November 6, 2006