You may be making payments but, you're using their money. You have the benefit of investing your money (earning) while making payments at 0% interest, rather than paying the entire amount up front. Therefore giving up the earnings opportunity on that money. Any time that you can earn a higher return on your money over the interest rate being charged for something, it's to your benefit to do so.
For instance, mortage rates are at 3% right now. Investment earnings are anywhere between 6 - 25% depending on your risk tolerance. You're better off making payments @ 3% interest while earning higher returns on your money.
If you remember the big housing crisis when many, many people were defaulting on their mortages, the biggest single cause of this was that people bought more house than they could afford. They all blamed the banks. When you go in to apply for a mortgage, the banker looks at your financials and says "you can afford a mortgage of $350,000."
Now that may be true ASSUMING nothing changes in your life financially. During that time in history, the housing market was booming, people got greedy and figured they'd jump in and flip the house for a big profit. So, they took out a $350,000 mortgage and bought the biggest house they could. The economy took a turn, maybe husband or wife lost their job and boom, they could no longer afford the mortgage. They lost the house and blamed the banker. The banks do not want to put mortgages on their books that will default. When they say, " you can afford up to $350,000", you need to be realistic. A safer mortgage level may be $200,000 or less leaving you with a monthly cushion should you lose your job, get sick, whatever.
Too many "fake it till you make it" people living in houses they could "afford" but not really.
A builder of high end homes friend of mine told me many stories of going back several months after a house closing to take care of punch list items. The houses had the very basics of furniture, several rooms actually with no furniture, because the people mortgaged themselves to the hilt and couldn't afford to furnish the house they bought.
