Compare Finance Deals

[teeboy]

Hi

I have been doing a lot of comparing finance deals over the last few weeks, so I thought I would share my man maths with you all, it might help others.

The spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... sp=sharing

shows the four finance options I had available, and shows their relative monthly payments, as well as the total amount payable and total interest paid.

Different people will have different requirements regarding deposit, months of loan, monthly payments or total payable, but this illustrates the current rates that I have been offered.

Also there are a few notes to help with pitfalls

The key information is highlighted in Blue, the variables that you might want to change to your specific circumstances are in yellow.

Hope this helps - if you find mistakes then let me know.

Tony

P.S. The mortgage was the obvious choice for me, but I am the sort of person who loves a spreadsheet and will treat it like a car loan, if you add your van to a 25 year mortgage you will pay loads of money in interest - beware!!!

 

[teeboy]

The sheet I have shared is read only, but if you have a google account just select File - Make a Copy and you will get your own copy to play with the numbers.

Or if you have Excel the goto File - Download As... and you will get a copy on your PC to play with

Tony

 

[Stu]

Excellent stuff Tony. I have similar things myself, I like to analyse the cost differentials much like you have.

One comment - PCP will be 35+1 and not 36+1. The balloon is your 36th payment, I didn't check the numbers to see if that is what you've done.

 

[teeboy]

Good spot Stu - fixed that now.

The actual numbers always vary a little bit to the actual quotes you get from Finance companies, as it will depend on what day they compute your interest. I have assumed monthly rather than daily interest.

It gives a good idea of the monthly payments and overall cost.

Being a sad git - if I had gone for PCP I would have been saving £360 per month to cover the balloon payment at the end and that would leave no money for actually going camping

T

 

[Stu]

Worth noting with many finance agreements these days you can overpay without penalty much like you can with Mortgages.

I know VWFS do and they will ask if you want to reduce the monthly commitment or reduce the term.

It's good to look at the numbers in detail, the dealers can 'tweak' PCP's to change monthly payment by adjusting the balloon. So if someone is worried about a significant monthly commitment and having little contingency you could opt for the lower monthly commitment and over pay when you have spare cash without risking going into debt problems for missed or late payments.

Also with VWFS PCP (Solutions) don't get hung up on the agreed mileage as it only really has any effect if you wanted to end the agreement and hand the vehicle back. If you sell it and settle or trade in for another it's irrelevant.

There is also no great need to be concerned with having funds for the ballon, generally the figure is less than the vehicle would be worth so no worries there and you can simply refinance the balloon with a personal loan or similar if you wanted to. Effectively continue making finance payments.

 

[teeboy]

Good stuff Stu

You clearly know more about VWFS than my local dealer.

I was asking about overpayments, and he said yes, but couldn't tell me how it worked or if there were penalties. (this is the same dealer who was doing me a good deal with a 4.5% fixed interest rate)

After more trawling around I think the VWCV salesmen are generally more knowledgeable. On financing...

I agree on the PCP thing, my old EOS was way over miles, but no impact as I kept it The balloon for the EOS was about right, but does look very low on quotes I got for the Cali, I would have thought a 3 year old cali would be nearer 30 than 13,000

The more of this stuff we can put on the forum the better it will be for future buyers


T

 

[Stu]

VWFS will take one payment every 24 hours from account holders so for example if you were paid weekly you could settle some as and when you had it.

I've been reading some quite horrific tales on other VAG related fora lately, it's quite worrying.

One trick is to try and sell GAP to a customer, when they decline the dealer 'throws it in for free' to sweeten the deal. What they actually do is discount the vehicle and/or increase the value of your PX to meet the amount of the GAP insurance policy. They then include the GAP policy on the invoice at full price thus ensuring that the sales person gets his commission and the dealers will hit their add ons targets.

This is nothing short of mis-selling of insurance products and should be stopped immediately.

You, as the buyer, can fight back though.

Just roll with it, ask them for a written quotation and keep hold if it. Come the day of the races you go to collect and pay for the vehicle you let them produce the invoice with the GAP as a chargeable amount on the invoice and then you tell them you've changed your mind, you really don't want it. Because it is insurance and dealers are regulated (yeah right!!) they cannot require you to take it. Equally they cannot increase the price of the vehicle if you don't take it so all they can do is remove the £500 or so from the invoice and take the hit. You of course will be cira £500 better off

Hopefully after being 'bitten' a couple of times they'll get the message.