Snap Finance Review: Financing For People With No or Bad Credit

If you have a poor credit history or no credit score at all, you can still acquire lease-to-purchase financing with Snap Finance. With this service, you can buy a wide range of goods, such as furniture or tires, for example. With this type of financing, the purchase is considered a lease, although you can take your item or goods home with you straight away. Once the term of the lease expires, you will then own the item or goods outright.  

Best of all, you don’t need a good credit score to receive this financing. Snap Finance do not perform any credit checks. The only thing you need to receive this financing is to have a steady income.

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What is Lease-to-Own Financing?

Lease-to-own financing can allow people with poor credit to borrow money for obtaining specific items that can be costly. For example, if someone wants to refurnish their home, this can cost many thousands of dollars, which is cash that they may not have on hand. Snap Finance work with select stores so that customers can apply for financing to buy the items they need.

Another common item that people use lease-to-own financing is things like car tires. Necessities such as this can be expensive, and people with no credit or a poor credit score may need to utilize lease-to-own financing to acquire the goods they need.  

With Snap Finance, people can acquire funding towards items such as:

• Appliances

• Jewelry 

• Electronics 

• Furniture 

• Mattresses

• Car tires and rims 

With this type of loan, repayments can be made for up to 12 months. They also have an option where one can repay within 100 days if the repayments are possible to be made within this time frame.  

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What are the Requirements to Qualify for Lease-to-Own Financing?

There are only four main requirements that one must have before they are eligible to qualify for this type of financing. These include the following:

• The applicant must be over the age of 18 

• The applicant must have an active checking account

• The applicant must have a steady income 

• The applicant must have a cell phone number or a valid email address

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How Does it Work?

It’s very quick and easy to apply for Snap Finance online, providing that you meet all the necessary requirements to qualify for this financing. Applications can be made in only 3 simple steps.

Step 1: Applying Online 

It’s easy to apply for Snap Finance through their website. It only takes a couple of minutes to fill out the application and submit all the necessary personal details, including your driving license number and social security number. Your application can be approved by Snap Finance in only a few minutes.  

Step 2: Selecting a Retailer 

Once the application has been approved by Snap Finance, you can decide on a store and start looking for items that total up to $5000 in value, depending on the agreed upon credit limit. Snap Finance have partnered with a wide array of retailers in the US, so you can look for a local store to acquire your newly leased items. On the company’s website, you can find a helpful store locator, so you can find the nearest Snap Finance retail partner.  

Step 3: Checking Out 

Once you’ve chosen your selected store and found the items that you need, an email from Snap Finance will be sent to you featuring the agreed upon amount of your lease. The only thing you need to do next is to show this email to the cashier to complete the transaction. Payments will be deducted from your checking account automatically following this.  

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How Much Does Snap Finance Cost?

The exact costs of their lease-to-own agreements are not listed on their website, but they do mention what many customers should expect when it comes to fees and interest. 

When the transaction takes place, there will be an additional processing fee which varies according to the details of the lease agreement. Think of this as a down payment.  

There are no interest rates for a lease-purchase agreement, but that doesn’t mean that the repayments will be the same as the value of the items that were leased. All lease-to-own companies have a fee that is added to the monthly repayments, along with the purchase price of the leased items.  

Let’s say that you use a Snap Finance lease-to-own agreement to get a laptop that is with $600. If you agree to make the repayments of $40 every 2 weeks for a year, then you will end up paying approximately $1000 in total. The additional fees are not called “interest”, but you still are paying more than the value of the item.  

There are a few additional fees that you must consider before agreeing to a lease:

• Application and processing fees 

• Late repayment fees 

• Missed payment or non-payment fees

Snap Finance does not clearly state their financing costs, but many users online have reported that the costs are very high. Oftentimes, users have reported that the total cost ends up being more than twice the value of the items leased.  

Snap Finance Review 

The Better Business Bureau has awarded Snap Finance an A rating. They have been operating for over a decade at this point, and the company have received above average reviews since then. It’s important to note that the Better Business Bureau rating is only based on Snap Finance’s response to their customers, rather than customer reviews of the company.  

Many customers have reported in online reviews that the repayments were much higher than expected. This is unsurprising as Snap Finance do not include this information on their website. Many customers have felt misled by the company as they state on their website that they do not charge interest on their lease-to-own agreements, although they leave out the additional charges and fees that can add up to over 200% of the initial value of the goods. 

It’s important to understand what you’re getting into before coming to an agreement with a company such as Snap Finance. A better option for some people is their 100-day payment option, as this is the most cost effective choice.

Other customer complaints claim that they were unable to get their applications approved. According to Snap Finance, this is unrelated to the customers’ credit score, and that customers only need to meet their 4 main requirements to get their application approved. 

It is highly recommended that anyone carefully looks into the disclosures of any agreement from companies such as Snap Finance. It’s important to fully understand the payment amounts, the due dates, and any additional fees and terms of the agreement before signing anything. 

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Pros & Cons of Snap Finance 

Pros

• Easy to apply online 

• No collateral 

• No need for a good credit score 

• Same-day approval 

• You can choose a local retailer 

• Payments are deducted automatically from your checking account

• 100-day payment option if you want to pay the balance off faster 

Cons

• Fees are not transparent 

• Very costly 

• Payments are not reported to credit bureaus 

• There isn’t a grace time for repayments 

Conclusion 

For short-term financing without the need for good credit, Snap Finance can offer an easy and flexible solution for a lease-to-own agreement. It can, however, be a very costly choice, so customers need to be aware of the additional costs associated with this type of financing. Although there is no “interest” per se, customers oftentimes have to repay more than twice the amount of the item that they acquired. 

It’s important to note that Snap Finance do not report their customer’s repayments to any credit bureaus. Do not think of this financing option as an opportunity to build one’s credit, as it will not help you to qualify for better loans later on. 

Your check stubs can be used as part of tracking your finances. Use them along with your credit card statements so you can have a better understanding of incomings and outgoings.