Hire purchase is one of NZ’s oldest consumer credit shapes: you take the goods home today, repay in instalments, and ownership (or at least an enforceable security over the goods) stays with the seller or financier until the last payment clears. Miss payments and the goods can be repossessed under the rules of the CCCFA.
Modern retail finance, the “12 months interest free on the lounge suite” offer, is usually a hire purchase or its close cousin. The headline can be genuinely interest free; the costs tend to live in establishment and account-keeping fees, in the rate that kicks in if the balance outlives the promotional window, and in the ease of stacking several of them at once.
Two numbers tell the truth about any hire purchase: the total amount payable including every fee, and the date the promotional rate ends. If a balance might outlive the promo, price a fixed personal loan against it before signing; one fixed repayment with a known finish date often beats a drawer full of store agreements.