Buy Now Pay Later: Is It Right for You?

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white clock next to jar of money for buy now pay later concept

With the COVID pandemic still ongoing, people are not only looking to save money, but they’re also trying to buy what they need without having to spend a lot of money upfront.

If this sounds like you, we want to share a popular way of getting what you need without having to come up with the entire amount in one payment.

Have you heard of “Buy now, pay later?” It means exactly what you think it means.

It’s a way of purchasing your favorite items from your trusted brands in 4 installments over the course of 6 weeks without interest!

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

You won’t have any interest on your payments during those 6 weeks! And to top it off, most companies offering buy now, pay later are doing so without fees.

Cool, right?

How It Works

Do you ever notice an option right under an item you’re shopping for that says something like: $200 or 4 equal payments of $50 with Sezzle?

There are companies such as PayPal, Splitit, Sezzle, Afterpay, Quadpay and others that give you the buy now, pay later option. These companies partner with some of your favorite retailers, so that you can still make purchases with those stores (buy now) without having to pay for an item completely at once (pay later).

If you go to one of your favorite retailers’ website, you might see an option to pay later on an item you’re purchasing. If you go to PayPal and these other sites directly, they give you an option to start shopping the stores that support their buy now, pay later payment methods.

To explain how this works, we’ll use PayPal as an example.

PayPal’s “Pay in 4” allows you to select PayPal as your payment method for an online store purchase.

According to PayPal, at checkout, you’ll just need to select PayPal as your payment method and then select Pay in 4.

Pay in 4 is subject to credit approval. If approved, you can make one down payment at checkout, and the rest of the payments can be made every two weeks for a total of 4 interest-free installments billed via your PayPal account.

Please note that most of these companies will use a soft credit check to verify your eligibility, which will not hurt your credit score.

It’s that simple!

All you’re doing is splitting your bill over the course of 4 payments instead of trying to pay for it all at once. You can still purchase what you want without breaking the bank!

Should You Try It?

Whether to buy now and pay later is totally up to you! It’s really a matter of preference and what will work best for your financial situation.

If you know your credit is good and you can get approved, this will likely save you money. Instead of footing the bill at once, you can save money and break your purchase down into smaller payments. It’s also only 4 payments, so it won’t be that many installments to pay back.

Please know that any missed or late payments can have a negative impact.

You may lose your interest-free promotion, be charged a late fee, and could also have your credit score impacted if your late payment is reported after 30 days. If you know you can pay on time for the duration of the buy now, pay later option, this may be the right choice for you.

Some people may not like the idea of having one more bill to keep up with, and that’s okay. If you’d rather pay upfront, go ahead and do so.

We just wanted to share another option to helping you get the items you want and need from online retailers without having to wait until the next time you have the money.

Thinking about giving buy now, pay later a try? Let us know if you do and how it worked for you!

Boost Morale with These 5 Virtual Team Building Ideas

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Online meeting using zoom for virtual team building

Let’s face it.

With this pandemic still ongoing, remote work will continue to be our reality for a while.

If your team is struggling with the continued isolation, you can make the virtual world better for your team with our compiled list of the top 5 virtual team building ideas to boost morale.

Try this list with your team and watch what happens!

Break the Ice

It’s easy to jump right into a virtual meeting when everyone knows each other. You keep the same routine, and you instantly start talking about what’s on today’s agenda.

Don’t be afraid to do something different.

Switch things up.

You know what will bring a little more excitement to your meetings?

Start every virtual meeting with an icebreaker.

This is a great team building activity that you can do right before every remote meeting.

Even though everyone knows each other, is it really such a bad idea to give people something fun to talk about before work?

You might find your team getting excited about what fun icebreaker you might ask at the next meeting.

Here’s the kicker: your icebreaker questions don’t have to be about work.

Honestly, we wouldn’t even recommend you ask work-related icebreakers because who wants to talk about work before working?

Have a Happy Hour

You can set a special Zoom meeting aside just for Happy Hour. It could be one hour just once a month that you set aside for you and your team to have a Happy Hour.

So, what will it be? A Netflix movie party? Simon Says? Charades? Maybe a few rounds of trivia on Kahoot?

The possibilities are endless of what you can do for a fun happy hour with your team. Get creative! Ask your team for ideas on activities they would enjoy doing virtually. You can even appoint a volunteer to lead one of the happy hours.

Some people feel that these have been overdone, but if you haven’t done them, your team may really enjoy them.

Group Chat

This may sound weird, but you should consider starting a group chat with your team and colleagues. However, your goal should be whatever leads to team building.

Maybe you could start a group chat that is specifically for work-related humor. If someone finds a funny quote or meme related to work, they can post it in the group chat.

If you have Slack, you could create a workday humor channel. Encourage people to share funny things they have found. It would be good to remind them it is still a work channel and to make sure things they post aren’t offensive.

You could highlight a few of the things that are found in your team meetings. It gives you all an opportunity to check on each other and to stay engaged with one another.

Virtual Lunch Meetings

Add a virtual lunch to your team meetings!

If you block one hour for a meeting, spend at least 15-30 minutes eating lunch with your team via Zoom. Everyone can bring their lunches and eat while on the Zoom call.

This will help give the feeling of having lunch with your colleagues again.

We will caution you a bit here as some people don’t like to eat on camera, but an increasing trend is people eating lunch in their cars in a parking lot, socially distanced with the windows down.

While it isn’t fully virtual, it could be a great way to connect in person, while still being safe.

Virtual Games

We can’t possibly list every single idea you can do for virtual games, but this will be a great team building activity.

Here are some ideas we came across for virtual games with your team via Zoom:

  • Trivia
  • Truth or Dare
  • Scavenger Hunt (find this item in your house)
  • Play a few rounds of “Who’s Most Likely To”
  • Bingo
  • Pictionary
  • Play some of your favorite online games using this website: https://playingcards.io

Some families have a game night. There’s no reason why every now and then you can’t get together over Zoom with your team to have a game night or afternoon too!

No matter what you decide to do with your team, make sure you have fun! You need to get people excited about their job and give them something positive to look forward too.

Working remotely can become lonely for those who thrive on in person interaction. We know these team building activities can help boost your teams’ morale, help combat loneliness, and bring you all closer as you continue to work remotely.

If you’re planning on trying any of these team building ideas with your employees and colleagues, be sure to let us know how it goes!