Originally Posted by
Icculus21
Probably not - compared with the general population there aren't many people who ride bikes, let alone extremely expensive ones. Bikes are relatively small purchases compared with something like a home or car or other types of loans, so even with high rates the interest would be very small. It would be nice for the buyer, but hard to imagine making significant money as the lender...
If somebody really wants a nice bike, just work on saving. Avoid eating out one extra time per week, make lunch, stop buying expensive clothes for a couple months... whatever, there are ways to save for a bike.
There are bunch of companies that do this sort of financing. Same companies that do 12 months same as cash for furniture stores, electronics stores etc. They don't care that it's a bike instead of a 60" LCD TV. They're not lending against the bike, or the TV as collateral.
The model is they pay the store a % of the price financed, so they get a few percent cut upfront. Then they make most of their money on the customers who don't pay off in full during the promotional term, and they get 24% interest or so, from the original date of purchase. And they make some money on people who pay off in time, but borrow other money from them.
If it wasn't profitable, you wouldn't see all the 0% promotional interest offers that you do.