Another fail

I wanted to buy a new DSLR today. So I went to Harvey Norman. I was so nervous driving there because you have to drive through a tunnel to get there and I haven't driven through a tunnel since I was 17 and was on my Learners.

I get there. Choose the camera I want (Nikon D300) and choose the lens. The salesmen tells me that it comes with a carry bag, battery, memory card and warrantee. All up the cost was $3500 - something I can afford, but due to other commitments I asked if I could have the camera and make payments every week on it. I thought this would be good to give myself a credit rating. Since I am now 20 I'll probably be needing one some time in the near future.

So the salesmen puts me on the phone to the guy who does the credit checks and who makes sure I can afford the weekly payments. The man on the phone tells me that the payments will be approximately $50 a week. He had to check how much I earn, which is approximately $200 a week.

He then told me that the contract can go no further because I don't earn enough per week to be able to afford it. What is up with that?! I earn $200 a week...what do I spend it on? Well apart from the $20 I spend on petrol every 3 weeks I spend it on nothing.

It's a little ironic that I have enough money at the moment to buy the camera outright twice and still have money left over but I don't earn enough to spend $50 a week.

It's a little stupid if you ask me. You know there's something wrong with the world when someone who is unemployed, earning $0 a week, and is $20 000+ in debt can successfully apply for a credit card but someone who has been employed by the same company for four years, earns $200+ a week and the only debt they have is uni HECS can't buy a camera at $50 a week.

I'm sorry but I find this completely idiotic. If i didn't need the money in my account to go overseas for a couple months this year/next year I would have just bought the camera. I'd just prefer a little bit of money to leave my account each week than one huge lump.