Lifestyle

7 Rent-to-Own Practices That Cost Customers Thousands

By Erica Coleman · September 24, 2026

The pitch at a rent-to-own store is that you can walk out today with a couch, a big-screen TV, a refrigerator, or a laptop with no credit check and one small weekly payment. The reality — buried in the contract — is that you’re often paying two or three times the retail price, at effective interest rates that would be illegal if the industry weren’t structured to avoid state usury laws. The three biggest chains — Rent-A-Center, Aaron’s, and Buddy’s — have all been repeatedly sanctioned by federal and state regulators.

Here’s what your rent-to-own store hopes you never calculate before you sign.

The total cost is usually two to three times the retail price. That $800 living room set at Rent-A-Center might actually cost you $2,400 by the time you finish paying. That $600 TV can end up costing $1,800. The store advertises the weekly payment because the weekly number sounds small. Multiply it by the total number of weeks in the contract before you sign anything.

The effective interest rate is well over 100%. Rent-to-own installment contracts are structured as “rent-to-own” rather than traditional credit financing so they don’t trigger most states’ usury laws, but their functional interest rates amount to well over 100%, industry analysis has documented. A conventional credit card at 24% APR — high by most standards — is dramatically cheaper than most rent-to-own contracts.

The “cash price” may be inflated above retail. When Rent-A-Center wants to sell you an item outright at the “cash price” rather than through weekly rentals, that price is often higher than what the same item costs at Walmart or Target. California’s attorney general sued Rent-A-Center in 2022, alleging its kiosk business used an inflated “cash price” for products that was 15% higher than the retail price, and the company ultimately paid $13.5 million in restitution and $2 million in civil penalties. Compare the “cash price” the store quotes with the actual retail price at a major retailer before you agree to anything.

Late payment enforcement can be aggressive. Rent-to-own contracts frequently allow the store to repossess items after very short delinquency periods. Consumer complaints against Rent-A-Center specifically have documented aggressive door-knocking by store representatives when payments are just one to two days late. If a payment slips and the store repossesses the item, you lose everything you’ve paid so far — with no equity.

The FTC has fined the industry for anticompetitive behavior. Regulators have documented that these companies didn’t just take advantage of consumers individually — they cooperated to prevent competition. The three largest rent-to-own operators — Aaron’s, Buddy’s, and Rent-A-Center — agreed to settle FTC charges that they negotiated and executed reciprocal agreements from June 2015 to May 2018 in violation of federal antitrust law. Less competition means higher prices for you.

One of the biggest chains was caught spying on customers through rented computers. This one still stops people cold. Aaron’s agreed to settle FTC charges that its franchisees installed software on rental computers that secretly monitored consumers, including by taking webcam pictures of them in their homes and capturing login credentials for email and financial accounts, the Federal Trade Commission announced. Read what a rent-to-own store can do with a device before you rent one.

There are almost always cheaper alternatives. If you have any credit — even damaged credit — a store credit card, a personal loan, or a “buy now, pay later” plan will almost always cost less than a rent-to-own contract. If you have no credit, a secured credit card or a credit union loan is worth exploring first. Even buying a used version of the item on Facebook Marketplace and paying cash will typically save you thousands of dollars over the life of a rent-to-own contract.

The rent-to-own model works because customers focus on the weekly payment instead of the total cost. Do the multiplication before you sign. Then decide if that’s still the best option available to you.