might be going full Apple.

Hello all! I hope this is the correct place to ask this and celebrate in!
Anywho. I'm going full Apple as my title suggest, I have a iphone 5s which I love. However, I have a Samsung rv511 which has held up spectacularly for 5 years.........5 YEARS! Not a single problem with it, I know, I'm surprised as well.
Anywho, as much as I love this laptop, I will move on to greener pastures, and I'm not going to lie, the retina display looks amazing. The 13 inch macbook pro screens look much larger than 13 inches, not sure how they do it. I'll be going back from a 15 inch notebook.

ANYWAY, my question is this; If I get a student discount and I do monthly payments which "start" at 37/mo/24mo. I don't have much experience with macbooks, but will my macbook pro be relevant after I'm done paying it off? I know, I'm talking after using the same notebook for 5 years haha.

My second side question is this, how much realistically should I expect to pay on a per month basis with a student discount?
Is a 13 inch MBP a good investment? It's mainly for school and work(real estate), not so much photography or music and such.


I love windows as well, and I like android, I just want something streamlined and working properly...And Apple products look **** good, aside from the watch..

Aside from my gaming PC,obviously, I'll be fully Apple!

P.S my first post here and hopefully many more to come!

I'm sure some of the guys who have purchased more recently that I have can make more specific recommendation about mess. In the meantime keep the following in mind:

1. Most Mac models now have the drive (flash storage) and memory hard-wired into the system making them impossible to upgrade later. Get as much of both as you can reasonably afford. I wouldn't go below 8 GB of ram.

2. If you have an external monitor around hang on to it. You can probably keep it around and use it as an external monitor giving you some extra screen real estate.

3. At some point during the first year purchase the Applecare extended warranty. You may be able to find it cheaper by purchasing from a third-party seller.

My computer use is similar to yours. Mainly word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, and web use. I've been using My 2008 MacBook Pro since 2008 and it is still capable of doing what I need. I'd like a new machine but barring a catastrophe it's still going. good.

Slydude said:

I'm sure some of the guys who have purchased more recently that I have can make more specific recommendation about mess. In the meantime keep the following in mind:

1. Most Mac models now have the drive (flash storage) and memory hard-wired into the system making them impossible to upgrade later. Get as much of both as you can reasonably afford. I wouldn't go below 8 GB of ram.

2. If you have an external monitor around hang on to it. You can probably keep it around and use it as an external monitor giving you some extra screen real estate.

3. At some point during the first year purchase the Applecare extended warranty. You may be able to find it cheaper by purchasing from a third-party seller.

My computer use is similar to yours. Mainly word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, and web use. I've been using My 2008 MacBook Pro since 2008 and it is still capable of doing what I need. I'd like a new machine but barring a catastrophe it's still going. good.

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Okay, great! I'm getting the 258(?)gig SSD drive and 8 gigs ram model.
I never used more than 100 gigs of 230 in my five years of ownership on my laptop.

When I replaced the hard drive in may machine I splurged and put in an SSD. I got a 512 GB because I'm something of a digital pack rat. The only other suggestion I would have is to make sure you have an external drive that can be used to backup data to.

dudefromthebay said:

ANYWAY, my question is this; If I get a student discount and I do monthly payments which "start" at 37/mo/24mo. I don't have much experience with macbooks, but will my macbook pro be relevant after I'm done paying it off? I know, I'm talking after using the same notebook for 5 years haha.

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I think this might be the wrong way to look at it. The price of the notebook is going to be exactly the same regardless of whether you go the monthly payment route or buy it outright. I get the initial impulse of considering whether or not something that you're paying for long term is worth it but, in the end, it costs you the same.

Slydude said:

2. If you have an external monitor around hang on to it. You can probably keep it around and use it as an external monitor giving you some extra screen real estate.

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I do this here - my MBP basically becomes a desktop machine when I'm at home (which I much prefer) and I have the benefit of having a fully portable Mac. In that regard, I can't recommend this enough if this is an option for you (you will, of course, need a keyboard and mouse).

vansmith said:

I think this might be the wrong way to look at it. The price of the notebook is going to be exactly the same regardless of whether you go the monthly payment route or buy it outright. I get the initial impulse of considering whether or not something that you're paying for long term is worth it but, in the end, it costs you the same.

I do this here - my MBP basically becomes a desktop machine when I'm at home (which I much prefer) and I have the benefit of having a fully portable Mac. In that regard, I can't recommend this enough if this is an option for you (you will, of course, need a keyboard and mouse).

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Ditto. I've been running that way since shortly after I bought the MacBook Pro. I'm so used to it now that I sometimes have a hard time adjusting to working without it. For some tasks even a cheap monitor is sufficient.

dudefromthebay said:

Anywho. I'm going full Apple as my title suggest...

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Technically the thread title says "might" be going full Apple.

- Nick

Well, I was ready to take the plunge, but neither pay pal or Barclay would approve me........I have 2 jobs am a student and have two checkings and one savings and a credit card I've never missed a single payment on. I make more than enough per year to buy 8 macbooks a year if I wanted, but almost all of it goes to housing and my car and such

I can only afford to do monthly payments at this time instead of paying outright.
I just wish I could be billed directly to my credit card instead of loading it all on my card and making me pay it off one month at a time(I'm under a 1k limit for now which took me years to get to). I find it kind of stupid that people who can comfortably pay the monthly bill on it can't get approved....Money does stupid things to corporations.

Sigh* looks like it's another windows laptop for me.

I can't speak for the UK, but in the US if you "make enough to buy eight MacBooks a year" and spend nearly all of it on housing and car ... they may see that you are over-leveraged and that the loan they would be making for you would be the first thing NOT paid if the situation changed.

I'm not sure why you say you'll get a Windows laptop instead ... a good-quality Windows laptop costs about the same, and you end up with an inferior and security-issue-laden OS. If they're not going to approve you for monthly payments, they're not going to suddenly change their minds because you want a different OS.

You'll also likely get a better rate on the credit card if you purchased it that way (particularly if you are diligent about paying it off as you indicate you are good at doing). Barclay's may have turned you down simply because you don't have a long credit history ... don't be discouraged by it.

I understand what you're saying. Yes I make 18k a year, I don't charge any more than a quarter of my credit card per month, if even that much.
I'm pretty tight with my money.

So they can't tell how much I charge to my card and how much I pay with my cash.

School starts in a month, and between my 15 minuet battery life and a ripping power cord, those two will set me back close to, if not over 100 bucks.
My only option is really a basement bin windowz computer.
I never understood why I can't make a monthly bill to my credit card and why they have to load all of it on the card at once. Sending me 55 bucks a month that automatically shows up is the same as loading up almost 1,700 and making me pay it off per month. Except, for a college student with one card, it's easier for us to do that.

"we have great student discounts and students can get a credit card"..Yeah, okay.
An engineering/real estate(on the side) student with a 3.8 GPA will be lugging around a 350 buck computer attempting to run autocad LOL. This should be exciting! I guess being in the top of your class doesn't equate to being allowed to have a credit card.

I dunno, I'm just bitter that I can't just be billed monthly on a credit card I already do have. I guess greed is a pretty hard thing to give up once you get it.

O well, no harm, no foul, it's not Apples fault really, so I ain't mad about them. It's the backwards banks I don't like.

p.s I've had a bank account for a year, and my credit score is around 690..If that's not good, then lord knows what is for a 24 year old. My score will probably take a hit since they tried to do both pay pal and barclays...Gee, thanks.

It's weird that your credit card doesn't bill you monthly, like all other credit cards ever do. That's a very odd "credit" card.

What normally happens is that you charge something expensive, and that total goes on your bill, but you make a normal monthly payment (and maybe a bit more if you're smart) each month ... this is actually the entire point of a credit card. Presuming you stay ahead of the monthly interest charges, you will pay it off exactly the same as the (probably higher-interest) scheme you were applying for.

chas_m said:

It's weird that your credit card doesn't bill you monthly, like all other credit cards ever do. That's a very odd "credit" card.

What normally happens is that you charge something expensive, and that total goes on your bill, but you make a normal monthly payment (and maybe a bit more if you're smart) each month ... this is actually the entire point of a credit card. Presuming you stay ahead of the monthly interest charges, you will pay it off exactly the same as the (probably higher-interest) scheme you were applying for.

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Oh my bad if I didn't clear it up

Take my Gym for example, the whole year costs about 250....They don't charge me 250 for the whole year and make me pay it off, they charge me the 20 bucks per month until the end of the year..It's a pretty novel idea if I do say so my self *sarcasm*.

I would hope that Apple or whomever the company may be, would do the same thing, bill me the 55 per month instead of tanking 1700 bucks onto my card...****, they have my credit card information and my name and SSN, it would be VERY easy for them to do that.

That's what I was trying to say...I guess it's time to start begging the parents. :/ Something I don't like doing.

p.s I pay off my credit card in full so I avoid my interest rate.

I mean, they need to understand not ALL students have such a broad flexibility, or rich parents. Again, not Apples fault, but the banking system...And very partially Apples fault on the payment methods, but not enough for me to whine over them in particular.

I was looking forward to a macbook for like 2 years too

Apple is not a bank (yet), and cannot bear the responsibility or loss if you default, so I think it's pretty obvious why they can't loan you the amount to buy the computer. Even the offer you were applying for uses a third-party bank, not Apple.

If you are diligent about paying off your debts, I'm sure your parents would be happy to loan you the money, because you're a good kid, a good "risk," and a good "investment." If you continue to use your CC responsibly, you will be in a good position post-school to leverage your diligence today into future rewards. Keep up the good work and I hope you get the MacBook.

Gentlemen, scratch everything I said. Called my mom and she even suggested that she pays for it and I pay her back 0.0............The joys of being a young college student. One day my kids will do the same to me -.-

Yay mom! See, I told you you were a good investment.

chas_m said:

Apple is not a bank (yet), and cannot bear the responsibility or loss if you default, so I think it's pretty obvious why they can't loan you the amount to buy the computer. Even the offer you were applying for uses a third-party bank, not Apple.

If you are diligent about paying off your debts, I'm sure your parents would be happy to loan you the money, because you're a good kid, a good "risk," and a good "investment." If you continue to use your CC responsibly, you will be in a good position post-school to leverage your diligence today into future rewards. Keep up the good work and I hope you get the MacBook.

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You're correct about Apple taking the loss,I overlooked that because I got quite saddened a bit if I'm perfectly honest and didn't think of that. Thank you !

Finally!

I got my macbook pro, 13incher today.
Anyway I can easily add bookmarks from my old computer into my new computer? If not then oh well.

Depending on what browser you're using, there should be an export option and then you simply use the import option on your browser of choice on your Mac. If, however, you're using the same browser, you can simply turn on the sync feature on both and everything will be done magically for you.

vansmith said:

Depending on what browser you're using, there should be an export option and then you simply use the import option on your browser of choice on your Mac. If, however, you're using the same browser, you can simply turn on the sync feature on both and everything will be done magically for you.

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Okay, so if I'm on Google chrome I hit export? Where do I export it too? lol.