Understanding Vehicle Finance To Save Money
Sunday, 2. October 2011
We need a debate about this or a discussion about that, it’s all we seem to hear these days from the mouths of politicians. The banks aren’t lending – we need more sources of finance! This is the clarion call of the coalition but in truth it’s all around us, sources of finance I mean. We don’t need debates, discussions or more sources of finance it’s all there for the taking but what we need is education. In the last week I’ve spoken to several people who all said they would never take a new car as it loses so much as soon as the tyres touch the road.
This is true in some cases but in others, where the leasing company has some very good terms with the manufacturer (terms mean discounts and bonuses), virtually all of the 1st years depreciation is given away and built into the lease rates making the repayments affordable and much less in terms of monthly costs.
As Sainsbury’s took the lead by saying about their products ‘Live Well For Less’ I’m saying about leasing ‘Drive A Better Car For Less’. Remember that new cars are also much cheaper to run than aging used cars but the problem we suffer from is education.
Too few people ‘put finance first’ and simply revert to financing their vehicles the way they’ve always done it. Those that read my blog have a lot of information at their finger tips, those that have a copy of my book, Graham Hill’s Simple Guide To Car Finance also have a lot of knowledge but is it being applied?
And if you can arrange for alternative finance to fund your car isn’t it worth paying a little more APR or using an alternative type of finance than simply a bank loan from the bank with whom you have your current account because who knows what is round the corner?
Will you need your bank to help with an overdraft or a loan to get you through a difficult period. The bank will only advance you a fixed amount, either in a loan, overdraft, lease, factoring etc. Once you’ve taken their facilities to the maximum of their exposure it could be too late.
Keep the bank in reserve for essential borrowing. Does that make sense? By Graham Hill
