PCP Advice

[Jimmy Filth]

I think I just have a dislike of CC's.  My dad is an accountant and has always beat two things into me:

Mortgage > renting

Credit cards are the most expensive way to borrow.

[noexcuse]

I agree with Monkeyhanger re the savings and hassle, The reason for the post was to let the forum know my experience and maybe of use to another member. The dealership I have ordered through is a large one and hence get a 1.5% credit card surcharge.

My personal circumstance's are that I may need the spare cash in the next couple of months as contingency in the purchase and renovation of the property. I was thinking of cancelling and reordering for September, The credit card option allows me flexibility and less stress. Car goes into build next week fingers crossed will get it towards the end of March.

Already have a 12% discount off list price do not have the cheek to ask for another 1.5% (I know the  answer would be no !).
I signed up to the Experian credit report (30 day free trial and Just being nosey) and found to my surprise I have a credit rating of 999. It shows just about every bit of loan history and also shows that I have £32k of credit available (on credit cards) I have just been recently approved for a £70k  buy to let mortgage as well. I spoke to Barclaycard yesterday to cancel my card as they had only given me a £2k limit several months ago. Ended up staying as thy offered to increase my limit to £4k and 12 month's interest free on purchases. I have never paid the full interest rate (bar a couple of weeks)  on any credit card and would never take money out that I could not pay back within the interest free period. Otherwise it would be like borrowing from Wonga you would get stuck into debt for the rest of your life !

[dubber36]

My personal circumstance's are that I may need the spare cash in the next couple of months as contingency in the purchase and renovation of the property. I was thinking of cancelling and reordering for September, The credit card option allows me flexibility and less stress. Car goes into build next week fingers crossed will get it towards the end of March.

If things are that complicated, I would be questioning is it really the right time to be getting a new car as well?

[Mk1Macca]

After some negotiation I was able to persuade my dealer to let me pay the deposits for both my car (£5k) and my wife's (£3k) on our Amex card.

He agreed to process £1k of each deposit without fee and charged me only 1.5% on the remainder.

We had the cash to pay for it, but by putting it on the Amex first (then paying it off immediately) we got a boat load of Avios as an added bonus The total fee really wasn't much, especially as we did it purely for the Avios.

I wouldn't advocate buying the car on a credit card though. Seems like really bad ju ju.

[noexcuse]

There will never be the "right time", I have though long and hard and my finger has been on the cancel button a few times ! My options are the GTD as a company car, actual cost over 3 years is £18k (difference in salary). So really is a no brainer as a personal purchase, My insurance is approx. £340 per year and I am currently doing 8,000 miles per year.

[p3asa]

I agree with Monkeyhanger re the savings and hassle, The reason for the post was to let the forum know my experience and maybe of use to another member. The dealership I have ordered through is a large one and hence get a 1.5% credit card surcharge.

My personal circumstance's are that I may need the spare cash in the next couple of months as contingency in the purchase and renovation of the property. I was thinking of cancelling and reordering for September, The credit card option allows me flexibility and less stress. Car goes into build next week fingers crossed will get it towards the end of March.

Already have a 12% discount off list price do not have the cheek to ask for another 1.5% (I know the  answer would be no !).
I signed up to the Experian credit report (30 day free trial and Just being nosey) and found to my surprise I have a credit rating of 999. It shows just about every bit of loan history and also shows that I have £32k of credit available (on credit cards) I have just been recently approved for a £70k  buy to let mortgage as well.

Thats funny because I signed up to Experians 30 day free trial but only because I was refused for credit through Zopa and I couldn't understand why. Experian gave us a credit rating of 999 as well which is a bit coincidental I think! Anyway, you'd be better signing up to https://www.checkmyfile.com/ as they have 3 credit houses under their wing with Experian being one of them. Plus they are more detailed.

[noexcuse]

Guys thank you, don't get me wrong I would not buy anything on the "never never". If I can't afford to buy it for cash then I can do without it. The last item I bought was a large screen TV cash price £1500 or £150 deposit and £75 per month over 18 months interest free. I now only have 5 payments remaining (£450) to pay off, and still have the original £1500 saved in my deposit account. That is interesting p3asa Will look into the www.checkmyfile.com once my 30 days trial is over thank you.

[JonnyG]

Would there be any advantage on me going with either if I was going to keep the car after its term?

If you are seriously thinking about keeping the car after its term, then you may be best to consider other finance options as well that may (in fact are likely to  )  offer a lower interest rate than PCP.  The interest rate (APR) is the most important thing to consider IMHO.

One of the options is (a) a straight forward HP deal over five years and another is (b) a low finance scheme which is like PCP but you don't have the option of giving the car back to the finance company ... you either pay the balloon payment yourself or trade the car into a dealer and they pay it off.

My last two cars have been financed on (b) above and VW / Audi couldn't match the third party's APR or even get close.    This may be different now though.

[monkeyhanger]

If I was looking to keep the car 5 or 6 years, I would be paying off as much as I can afford now. If you can only just afford PCP rates as they stand, it'll be worse when you are driving in a 3 year old car that has no warranty coverage (unless you bought the warranty extension) and still owe more than half RRP on it.

Keeping the car for just 3 years, then PCP isn't a bad way to go if you can't buy it outright.

[Mark V GTD]

This is one of the problems with longer term car finance of any type - you are paying the same amount after four years as you were after four months!  At the start, you have a brand new car so all is well but spool ahead a few years and you are paying the same sum per month for a car that is decidedly less than new!

Never heard of a scheme where the repayments stepped down a bit as the car aged (say by £50 after 12  months and so on) and I guess they may not be workable - but this aspect of the schemes makes me want to change when the car is two years old...