Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[bakum123]

Thank you so much for your reply to my question. But I have one more question for you.
Please tell me the difference between monthly payments and rent.

[dragn]

Monthly payments are precisely that: payments you make each month for something, normally for something you are buying. It could be any number of different things. In most cases it is something expensive such as a car, a boat, a new stereo system...something that's sufficiently expensive that it is not convenient for you to pay for it all at once. It could be your mortgage payment, or the monthly payment on the bank loan for your house (that you are buying). (See note below.)

Rent is money you pay to use something temporarily. You don't own it; you're not buying it. You are simply using it for a period of time and you either pay a single sum of money at one time to rent it for a given period, or you may pay a certain amount of money each week, month, etc. to rent it for a certain period or indefinitely. It depends on the situation. This could be anything from renting a bicycle for an hour (a single payment) to renting an apartment for many years (and paying rent each month).

Note: If you are renting an apartment or a house and making a rent payment each month, I would say you are renting that apartment or house. I would not say you are making monthly payments on it. That would be confusing, because that makes it sound like you are buying it and making monthly mortgage payments.

Hope this is clear.

Greg