How To Pay For Your Electric Bike? | Electric Bike Financing
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When you start looking into electric bikes, you may be surprised at how expensive they can be. Electric Bikes come in a variety of tiers but when you’re looking at a high-quality electric bike, they can cost in the thousands and sometimes over $10,000.
I wish I had that kind of money sitting around but the truth is the average person doesn’t, luckily many e-bike retailers understand this. In order to remedy this problem, many e-bike retailers will partner with financing companies to give you flexible payment options so you can own the e-bike that you want!
If the e-bike retailer that you’re working with doesn’t have a relationship with a financier, then there are a few other options that you have.
While taking on credit may allow you to buy the bike of your choosing, I don’t recommend spending more than you can afford to get the electric bike of your dreams. There are a number of electric bike options out there so you should be able to find an e-bike that fits your budget.
I’m no financial guru, otherwise, I’d be writing a finance blog, but here are some options that you can research for electric bike financing.
On all credit cards, loans, payment plans, etc. make sure to read all paperwork, restrictions, and rules and make a decision for yourself.
Table of Contents
7 Ways to Finance Your Electric Bike
1. Affirm: Pay at your own pace
Many electric bike companies give you the option of paying with affirm at checkout. Affirm is a pay at your own pace company. They give you a couple of options when choosing to pay with Affirm but overall, you’re able to spread your payments over 2-12 months. Some options have no interest and no fees, others charge interest. It depends on how fast you plan on paying them off.
If you choose to finance your electric bike with the “Affirm Pay in 4” program then you won’t be charged any interest or fees. The Pay in 4 Program is 4 payments made on an every 2 week period. So, you’ll have it paid off in 2 months. Depending on the price of the e-bike, this may be doable for some people. However, for more expensive e-bikes you may need to spread it over a longer period of time.
This is where the monthly payments come in. This option is more similar to a loan, you’ll pay interest and fees but no hidden fees. They will give you all the terms upfront and what you see is what you pay. You don’t even pay late fees if you miss a payment. Although, I wouldn’t recommend skipping payments.
2. General Credit Card
Many people have a general-purpose credit card from one of the big-name banks or credit companies such as Chase, American Express, Discover, Capital One, etc. A credit card is definitely an option when it comes to financing your e-bike, but the interest rate on standard credit cards is usually pretty high.
If you plan on paying off your card quickly then, you shouldn’t have to worry about paying too much in interest. However, if you won’t be able to pay it off soon, you could end up paying way more by using a credit card. So, I would see if any other options on this list are better for you before putting your e-bike on a credit card.
3. Store Specific Credit Card
Some big-name stores such as Trek have their own credit cards that you can get through them. Since it’s still a credit card, you want to check the interest rates on these cards. They can still be very high, even though it’s not going through one of the major banks/credit card companies.
Just like with a normal credit card, If you plan on paying it off quickly, then you won’t end up paying much in interest, but if you wait you could end up paying 100+ dollars over the original purchase price of your bike.
4. Paypal Credit
Paypal Credit is similar to a credit card, but they don’t charge you interest on purchases over $99 as long as you’re able to pay it off in under 6 months. If you can’t pay it off in under 6 months, then they’ll end up tacking on all the interest from the first 6 months and it will have essentially been a normal credit card.
If the bike you’re buying is within your means and you’ll be able to pay it off in 6 months, this is a great option. It allows you to get the bike that you want at a low upfront cost.
5. Bike Loan
There are a number of companies that specifically offer bicycle loans. You can search around on google and find a good option for you. I’m not going to make any recommendations on these as I haven’t used them but if you do a little bit of research I’m sure you can find a bike loan that’s right for you.
6. Bike Store Payment Plan
Some local bike stores are going to be a lot more willing to help you get the bike you want. Since in many cases, the bikes in the store have already been paid for by the owner of the shop. In order to sell a bike, they may be willing to put you on a payment plan so that you can pay off the bike over time.
This benefits the bike store owner because he sold a bike and although he didn’t recover his investment upfront. It can be better than having that bike sitting in the bike store until the next willing buyer comes around.
7. Buy Used To Minimize Cost
Another great option is instead of looking at brand new e-bikes, you could look at used e-bikes. Used e-bikes are going to be a lot more cost-efficient and you never know you may find an amazing deal! One of my good friends was able to find a full carbon fiber road bike for $500. It’s not an e-bike but he was able to find an amazing bike at a steal of a price. His bike new would have cost $3-4,000 and the used bike should’ve cost $1,500 – $2,000.
Not everyone will get that lucky when searching for a used e-bike, but you’ll definitely be able to find a better deal than buying it brand new.
Conclusion
Getting a nice e-bike can be an expensive task. In order to ease the financial burden and get you on a nice new bike, you can utilize credit, payment plans, or used bikes. With used bikes, you won’t necessarily be on a payment plan but you will be paying less than you would for a new e-bike.
When financing an e-bike, it’s likely that the lender will run a credit check on you so they can be confident they will be paid back. I hope this article helped cover your options for how you can use electric bike financing to purchase your new electric bike.
