Taylormade Upgrade Program

Just heard about this. DOND?

Reminds me of what the Wireless providers do with cell phones. You pay full price over monthly installments, at a certain date you are eligible to trade in/upgrade then get new items and just continue the payment process. Or you pay a few months more and own the item.

To me I dont see the point of buying high end clubs, paying on them, then just giving them back for free after 12 or 24 months when you could be reselling them. But I guess if you always want the latest and greatest without a hassle....

http://taylormadegolf.com/upgrade

"Easily stay in our latest product technology with low monthly payments at 9.99% APR"

I didn't realize Taylormade was a car dealership now.

I guarantee people will do it. 9.99% apr though....ouch.

So what's the monthly payments on an M1?

Can't wait for people to ho clubs attached to the leases on BST - got 4 months left I'll sublease it for $25 a month.....

After the initial 12 or 24 month period (depending on plan chosen you can continue payments for 6 additional months and the clubs become yours. Here's the disadvantages:

1) Its a financing so subject to interest (looks like 9.99%)

2) Have to run a credit check so that hurts your FICO score

3) If your clubs have too many problems at the end (dings, etc) you cant upgrade/return them.

Advantages:

1) You get new clubs depending on your lease/financing plan

2) Its a payment plan so less upfront cash out the door. (See disadvantage 1 above though)

Interesting concept.....until your buddy puts a sky mark on the top of the M2

Interesting concept.....until your buddy puts a sky mark on the top of the M2

Yup. Pretty soon, they'll be offering insurance. Similar to cell phones!

Like leasing a car. Pay full price for the car and spread the payments. At the end of the term turn it back in and get a new one. How many new clubs have you bought and got rid of within the first year or two? With this program you are stuck paying for something that is sitting in the closet.

I wonder how many different club models will be released within the 24 months, by the time you payoff your current club you will be 4 models behind.

I don't disagree with any of the negatives above, and the GolfWRX market might not be right for this...but it's at least a little refreshing to me. Golf is expensive. New equipment is expensive. This is at least a new approach that can make new equipment a little more approachable.

Obviously there are conversations to be had about whether someone should be financing a $500 driver...and ulterior motives for TaylorMade. I don't think this will change the way clubs are bought and sold for the majority of golfers, but I can see some appreciating it.

Not to mention I doubt a company TM's size would roll something like this out without putting it through focus groups and some serious analysis.

Financing your hobbies is a bad idea. If this was a car forum or boat forum maybe. Financing golf clubs is the path to ruin.

GMAC TMAC

TMAC!! Lol

It may be only a few hundred dollars, but I can see it now we're someone stops playing forgets to pay, destroys their credit and all for a golf club.

Cant wait for the youtube videos of Rocco coming to the course to repo the driver from someone.

Interesting concept.....until your buddy puts a sky mark on the top of the M2

Yeah, your "buddy."

This is dumb. Golf is not life or death, I can't imagine thinking financing golf equipment at 10% APR is a good idea.

I bet you the majority of the people on this website finance their club purchases through their credit cards at a higher rate than 9.99%.

I bet you the majority of the people on this website finance their club purchases through their credit cards at a higher rate than 9.99%.

I agree, 9.99% is better than the standard credit card APR

I can't wait to see what kind of commercials they are going to have for this.

Like leasing a car. Pay full price for the car and spread the payments. At the end of the term turn it back in and get a new one. How many new clubs have you bought and got rid of within the first year or two? With this program you are stuck paying for something that is sitting in the closet.

Yea but when you lease a car you are only paying for what you use (depreciation) spread out over a certain period of time. Oversimplified example: MSRP $500, club value in 2 years is $150. You're cost is $350 or $15 per month for 24 months. Of course they won't do this for free so you'll pay interest on that also.

So I think I have this straight:

Buy the club on either 18 or 30 month plan - lets make it 18 for simple math. Your $500 driver on Jan 1 is now going to cost you ~$32 monthly for 18 months. You have 2 options after 12 months:

1. Swap it out for a new driver and start the payments anew - having spent $384 in this example to lease your club for a year.

2. Continue making the remaining 6 payments and you own the club outright.

For those of us that resell I don't know that the math works out in the buyers' favor, but as others have pointed out, if you're putting it on a credit card anyway this is certainly a viable option.

Don't see any scenario where I would ever partake, but cool to see finance nerds permeating into the golf world.

I swear some really big names come here...

Two or three years ago there was a thread about purchasing equipment and how costly it was getting. I replied that, like the auto industry, if the trend continued the OEMs would have to come up with a leasing program. Lots of laughs at the time because it really is sort of silly to think you would lease something that is under $1000 but when you think about it leasing is essentially just another purchase via credit option. It just comes with the caveat that at the end of the term of the payments you don't keep it - you trade it in for another new one.

I think it was CPO that was running an ad "try it for 30 days free". They take your CC info down, send you the clubs, and you swing away. If you don't like them, return them in the same condition and no harm, no foul. Going into it I have a feeling that they know most people will not go to all of the trouble of sending anything back.

OEMs are coming up with all sorts of creative methods of getting stuff sold.

Now there is one HUGE bright side here as I see it.

Imagine when lease terms are up and clubs are returned the bargains that will be able to be had! Just like cars off lease; someone else paid the depreciation. As someone who buys a lot from CPO this might make for an interesting used clubs market in a couple of years. Bargains to be had!

I can't wait to see what kind of commercials they are going to have for this.

Rocket-leasier!

Buying any club full retail price sounds like a bad investment to me unless you're getting fit and getting it custom to your specs. It'll be just as good a year later for half the price.

If you're financing a golf club for 12-24 months, you just might have financial issues that preclude the "need" for that stick of metal and perhaps should rethink your financial life.

I could maybe see it if one were to go in and get fitted on an entire set of clubs, hell if I didn't have student loans I might bite on that. But something like a driver or a putter...get outta here with that foolishness.

Dumb dumb idea. Great for TM their equipment doesn't cost them much but they will stay in the business by collecting finance charges

It's the same thing as the phones....

We are not lowering the price...but we will come up with a creative way for people who can't afford it to pay for it.

And then once we get everyone accustomed to this method, we can raise the price even higher, and no one will care because it only comes out to a couple extra dollars a month.

Simple math for simple people.

A lot of people are going to have bad credit because of some golf clubs. this is weird.

I don't feel sorry for people who get bad credit because they don't pay for their golf clubs. Stupid people will be stupid people no matter what they decide to finance.

Reminds me of a Cell Phone plan honestly, not for me personally but I bet a lot of people will jump on board if they stick with it and market it right.