After having been turned down by BillMeLater.com when I was trying to buy a digital camera, I decided to look into layaway. I found out that most stores do not have layaway any more, Wal-Mart being the most recent one to due away with it. Supposedly, because there is not a need for it since almost every one has a credit card. That sounds like a bunch of crap if you ask me. It is hard to get a credit card if you do not already have some kind of credit or bad credit. My problem is no credit.
Just to see what came up I did a search on Google.com for layaway. While going through the results I found a site called Elayaway.com. It is similar to billmelater.com but elayaway does not due credit checks like bill-me-later and supposedly will not turn anyone down. “Credit is over rated” that is the company’s slogan, it is a good one.
It all sounds great but because the company is new, the feedback from people that have used it is limited. That in turn puts people off from using it. At least it did me.
The list of merchants that accept elayaway is short; elayaway predicts that many other merchants will be signing up soon. Ones that are available are adequate, you can get almost whatever you want. If you are a merchant and want to accept elayaway, go to the website and sign up.
For the people just wanting to buy stuff you will be happy to know it is free to get an account with Elayaway.
You have to be 18 years old and have a checking account (savings account works too). You will need your banks routing number. If you do not have either of those Elayaway is working on offering a “store value” debit card solution, operating in the same manner as a checking account would. Like a pre-paid credit card. You will be able to load it with cash at locations across the US. To get a “store value” card a valid Social Security number, that is it. Payments will be automatically deduced from your checking account according to the payment schedule you picked. You can also adjust the payments, example: if you started out paying it off in four payments and for any reason, you can change it to paying it off in up to eight payments (Merchants can limit the amount of payments it can be stretched out too).
There are no hidden charges, only a one-time transaction fee of 1.9% on the initial purchase price (that is $1.90 for every $100.00), it does not matter what payment plan you choose.
Elayaway has collaborated with HSBC, ControlScan and IDplogy to ensure security and integrity of all transactions. All elayaway payments are stored in merchant escrow accounts until the transaction is complete.
I checked out the BBB website. Elayaway LLC is a member of the BBB but that just means they paid the membership fees.
http://www.jacksonville.bbb.org/commonreport.html?compid=180437033
However, of course you have the same problem with this report as you do with finding feedback, the company just opened in Aug. 2006 so there has not been much time for anything to happen. As of now is does have a satisfactory record with the BBB, and have not processed any customer complaints for this company.
The only thing that bugs me about Elayaway is that it is based in Florida, but I will give it a chance. If you have used it please share, we need to hear from people using it.
