How to Get a Great Deal on Appliances

When we moved into our new place, we discovered that the dishwasher was broken and the washer/dryer unit stunk. Our first order of business was to replace them with high quality machines. This, of course, meant that we were going to have spend some major money.  While the below hack(s) don't mitigate the fact that washer/dryer units and dishwashers are expensive, there are some ways to get a good deal and not spend a ton of money upfront.

After extensive research, and much to my husband's chagrin, I decided I wanted cover my apartment in Bosch appliances ($$$$).  NYC Condo living usually means ventless/electric dryers so I picked the the 24" Bosch 500 stackable washer and dryer.   These typically cost $1,079 each unit.
So I was looking at $2158. 
For the dishwasher, we have an 18" opening so until we renovate our kitchen, I decided to stick with that size.  I chose the 18" Bosch 300 series which costs about $719. 

Total cost was estimated to be $2877, not including tax, delivery, installation, removal of old appliances, and the warranties. 

So how did I hack this?

Step 1: Call for comparison prices.
Most major sellers have a "price match guarantee" like Best Buy (where we ultimately purchased from). So I picked up the phone and called both big and small companies until I hit the most competitive price.  The lowest price I was quoted $999 per washer/dryer and $679 for the dishwasher ("the contractor price"). I immediately asked for that quote in writing (a MUST). With this quote in hand, I had some negotiating power across different sellers. 

$2877++ versus $2677++
(savings of $200 ).

Step 2: Get all the costs upfront so you can compare apples to apples.
After getting the reduced quote, I asked the company what other charges there were considering I needed delivery and removal. The company, though they gave me great prices on the items, had a $150 delivery and removal charge for each set (extra +300). The same delivery charge was quoted by several other local companies. Best Buy, however, offered free delivery and $15 for removal of the old appliances (same with Lowes).

$300 versus $30 
(savings of $170)

Step 3: Check out store credit cards for 0% financing deals.
Once I had the base price of my items (which I could use for price matching) and I had identified the cheapest way to get my items delivered, installed and the old ones removed, I started researching financing options. While we could pay for the items upfront, I didn't want to. Especially if I didn't have to. I called around to different companies.  I found that while most retailers offer 0% financing for 6 months, maybe 12 months depending on your credit score, Best Buy offers 18 months at 0% financing.  Plus they offer in store cash back credit of 5%. 

$2700 upfront versus $35/month for 18 months. 

Also Best Bey charges warranties based on the total cost of the items - so their warranty prices are competitive.

Best Buy ended up being the winner with our total cost coming to:

$999 X 2
$679 X 1
$15 X 1 (we ended up selling the washer/dryer unit on Craigslist).
= $2692 + tax + warranties

But because we opened our Best Buy credit card, we only pay $35 month for the next 18 months (we'll pay the balance at the end so as not to incur interest).
 Further, we earned $150 in Best Buy "cash" which will be useful when we buy a receiver for our sound system. 

​Bonus Pro-tip: Look for Rebates: 
After we purchased our items, I did a quick to see there were any manufacturer or other rebates for our items. As turns out ConEd was offering a rebate for select items. Our dryer and dishwasher happened to be included in that list. So we earned a bonus of $85. 

What was your appliance hack?

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