Most homeowners may already know this, but since I've never had to purchase a bunch of large appliances, I only noticed this recently while fawning over fancy appliances (Man, I'm getting old). When stores like Home Depot, Lowes, or Best Buy offer "No payments and no interest for 12 months", it's true, but with an interesting catch. If you don't pay in full before that 12 months ends, they will charge you back interest for the full price of the purchase from the date of purchase, often at about 20% APR! It doesn't just start accruing from when the promo period ends.

Here's an example. You buy a nice stainless steel fridge and oven range for $1,500. You're happy, paying nothing for 364 days. If ...