Rent-to-own News

Rent-to-own News - RAC Acceptance to enter electronics realm with Best Buy

August 26, 2011

Best Buy is preparing a pilot program to offer electronics through a division of Rent-A-Center known as the RAC Acceptance program, which offers the rent to own option in traditional retail stores to customers not approved for in-house financing.

Rent-A-Center plans to set up kiosks in Best Buy stores to provide products to customers who don't meet Best Buy's credit standards or don't want to take on additional debt, according to Marketwatch.

The first kiosks, operating under Rent-A-Center's RAC Acceptance program, are expected to open in Best Buy stores in the California area, with one Rent-A-Center employee saying the first opening could come within weeks.

Under the arrangement Best Buy would sell the merchandise to Rent-A-Center. In turn Rent-A-Center would offer customers a rent-to-own arrangement that does not require a down payment and gives them the ability to return the item at any time, or pay it off fully and own it.

Rent-A-Center benefits by gaining access to a new type of consumer who wouldn't have made their way into the rent-to-own channel and consumers gain access to products that they once would have had a very difficult time acquiring.

Rent-A-Center started the RAC Acceptance program three years ago as an extension of its own rent-to-own operations. RAC Acceptance operates in about 160 Ashley Furniture stores and several other furniture outlets.

The Best Buy arrangement will be RAC Acceptance's first foray into electronics.

Neither Rent-A-Center nor Best Buy have made any such announcements regarding the program.

About APRO
The Association of Progressive Rental Organizations is the official voice of the rent-to-own industry and the most accurate and trustworthy source of rent-to-own news in the industry. Founded in 1980, APRO is the national, nonprofit trade association advocating and representing the rent-to-own industry before the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, courts, media and the public.

For more information, visit www.rtohq.org.

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RTOHQ: The Magazine
RTOHQ: The Magazine is the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations' award-winning rent-to-own industry magazine, and it's available here.

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RTOHQ: The Magazine’s upgraded digital format

APRO's new, mobile-ready magazine is now available in addition to our print edition. The digital format provides the same informative content as our printed magazine, but also offers tools to make the reading experience more enriching. Access the table of contents page with one click or tap. Get additional information from advertisers by clicking on the links in their ads. The interface is easy to navigate and requires no special app—read our magazine on your computer, digital table or smartphone. Click here to access the digital version of RTOHQ: The Magazine March-April 2012.

A New Rent-to-Own Experience

by Neil Ferguson

Here’s the lowdown on APRO’s 2012 Convention and Trade Show, July 24-26 in Memphis. The RTO industry’s big event will offer many valuable experiences, including insights on how to turn your stores into “experiences”–the good kind for consumers

Who Is Your Competition?

by Bill Keese

In order to expand your customer base, you can learn a lot by observing your competitors. But first, you need to figure out just who they are. If you think your only competition is the rent-to-own store down the street, you’re not considering the bigger picture. APRO’s executive director offers a big-picture perspective.

A Review of Online Customer Complaints

by Ed Winn III

While rent-to-own companies have not cornered the market on negative reviews posted on consumer complaint websites, it’s no surprise that there are cyberspace beefs against RTO. APRO’s general counsel reviews some of them in search of a pattern and he considers appropriate response to online complaints.

Rent-to-Own Families, Part VIII

by Kristen Card

Our series of family-run rent-to-own businesses continues with profiles of the Homeiers in Kansas and two Texas-based sets of kindred colleagues, the Spangles and the Weisblatts.

Future issues of APRO's magazine will be available in this same new format. Click here to access past issues that are not yet archived in the new interface.

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