Rent-to-own / lease-to-own
No credit check to get furniture, electronics, or appliances today — paid for at roughly 1.5-2.5x what the same item costs to just buy.
What it actually costs
Total cost typically runs 1.5x-2.5x retail once weekly payments, add-ons, damage waivers, membership fees and tax are all counted. One reported example: a soundbar retailing around $150 cost nearly $1,100 once financed through a rent-to-own contract with the full set of add-ons included.
How it works
You make weekly or biweekly payments toward eventually owning an item, with no credit check required to start. The FTC fined Progressive Leasing $175 million in 2020 for "same as cash" advertising that implied a low, disclosed cost when consumers "frequently paid approximately twice the sticker price." A separate NerdWallet analysis found Rent-A-Center charged roughly double comparable retail prices in 40 states plus DC. Miss a payment and you can lose the item along with everything already paid toward it — there's no equity that survives a default the way there might be with, say, a mortgage.
Red flags
- A "same as cash" or "90 days same as cash" pitch that doesn't clearly disclose what happens if you don't pay in full within that window.
- Add-on fees for damage waivers, membership, or delivery that aren't itemized separately from the base weekly payment.
- No clear, written total cost of ownership shown before you sign.
- Pressure to sign quickly, especially paired with a low weekly payment framed as the only number that matters.
A safer alternative: Buying used, a library-of-things rental, or a 0% promotional retail card paid off on schedule
Any of these avoids the 1.5-2.5x markup. If the item is genuinely needed immediately and none of those work, compare the total rent-to-own cost (not the weekly payment) against retail before signing.
Sources
See every product's real math on the ScamWatch hub, or try the cost calculator.