Hearing a lot about instalment payment methods that can be used for items like furniture and fashion items. Any thoughts on this and which providers are best? Is it financially wise to use?

It depends on the payment and interest rate. Some companies offer 0% interest if you pay within the stipulated time frame, so that could be much more cost efficient than other payment methods that require you to pay interest. As for providers, hoolah offers zero interest payments at a reasonable time frame.

I shop a lot online for different items ( both big ticket and smaller items like dining wear, kiddy items) and I think it does make a difference when it comes to helping me budget every month esp because I am a freelancer, meaning that my monthly income fluctuates. So if I absolutely need to make a purchase this month and it happens to be a big ticket neccessity, but the entire sum seems too intimidating and takes a chunk out of that month's income, then I use an instalment provider to split my payments up at 0% interest. This helps me keep in consideration all my other avenues of expenditure when I do the math for my budget.

I've been using hoolah.co for 1 year ++ and so far it's been good. All I need to do is take note of when I have to make my next payment or if I have any outstanding payments. What I really enjoy is also that their app is super easy to use and the entire check out process is relatively fuss free. The transactions are done on the brand pages and I just need to opt to use hoolah during checkout. I reccommend it and I think these payment methods are really very helpful.​​​