O2 will sell you GTA 6 on credit: £20 down, £1.39 a month to 2029

Virgin Media O2 announced on 21 September that anyone in the UK can pre-order Grand Theft Auto VI by paying £20 upfront and then £1.39 a month for 36 months, with no interest. The carrier's own newsroom puts that at under 5p a day, 4.6p to be exact, and says the offer is open to O2 and non-O2 customers alike, subject to status and credit checks.

Run the arithmetic and the plan lands almost exactly on the shelf price. Thirty-six payments of £1.39 come to £50.04, plus the £20 at the start, so £70.04 against the £69.99 O2 charges for the standard edition outright. The 0% is real: the whole plan costs five pence more than handing the money over once. What changes is the term, because a single game now stretches across three years. GTA 6 arrives on 19 November 2026 and the last instalment falls due in late 2029.

In November the buyer gets the same thing every other shop is selling. The pre-order carries Rockstar's Vintage Vice City Pack, and the box holds a download code rather than a disc, which Rockstar settled back in June. The new part is the paperwork: a £70 single-player game now comes with a credit agreement, a direct debit and a credit check.