Credit transactions

Buying an item on terms for a fixed price

Q: I want to buy furniture for my house as I am shifting to a new flat. But I can't really pay cash currently. But the shopkeeper is charging interest on that. So is it permissible? I have heard that if I know the total increased price then it is permissible. e.g If I buy a car now I have to pay 8000 but on instalments the new price will be 10,000. But they increase it and say that its the interest rate. However I know the final price so is it permissible?

Buying a car on installments

Q: I had a question about buying a car on installments. There is a car the dealership is selling for 17,000 but if I don't have cash upfront then I'll have to buy it in installments. So now they will sell it to me for 20,000 because of the fact I don't have cash upfront so will this be getting involved with interest?

Accepting payment from financial institutions

Q: We have a company selling computers with Muslim and non-Muslim customers.

Some customers require financing/loans (which comes with interest) through third party financing institutions to buy the equipment from us.

Firstly, is it permissible for us to accept the payment from the financial institution on their behalf? We are not engaging in interest but we have to be registered as an authorized supplier with the institution.

Secondly, as some Muslims also tend to go through the same system, we want to provide an in-house interest-free financing facility for our Muslim customers only so that they do not have to pay interest and get a short-term facility on their purchase from us. Can we make the credit price higher than the cash price? For example, if R100 is the cash price, can we charge R125 for credit term over 6 monthly instalments?