While it's usually cheaper to pay upfront for appliances, the answer to this question usually depends on your finances. If paying up front means draining your emergency savings fund, it may be smarter to use financing. It's a good idea to keep some cash available for real emergencies or times when financing is not available. Alternatively, if you are being offered a promotional 0% appliance financing offer it's essentially free to use financing and take advantage of affordable monthly payments. However, if you use promotional financing and miss a payment or fail to repay the loan balance within the promotional period you may incur high fees.