[envy]

Hi All,

We have put a deposit down on a MINI (at a Volvo dealer) and was originally paying the car by personal loan. Unfortuntley although i have excellent credit rating (per experian), cant get any cheap personal loans (unsecured)

So i asked the dealer for PCP Prices, heres the figures:

£12,500 Cost
No Deposit
£299 PCM - 36 Months
Final Payment of near £6000!
Through CitiGroup. apparent APR of 14%

I personally think thats a crazy payment schedule, and seems bloated with more APR!

I tried another website offering PCP Agreements and they were near £260 which i thought was more reasonable.

So, does anyone know of good / reputable PCP companies? I want the PCP secured on the car, as i dont want unsecured personal debt.

Any help would be great, or even how much you pay, so i can see how far this is out!

[Martin F]

Try Sainsbury's Bank

[envy]

Thanks Martin.

I just called them and they only do cars upto two years old

Unfortunatley this car is a 54 plate

Any more companies ?

[humph]

When I bought my brand new 56 plate Cooper last year I had already seen a 1 year old Cooper with identical spec. Dealer quoted me a monthly payment of £279 / month for the 1 year old, but I could have the brand new one for £240. Reason was that the guaranteed final value of the older car was far less than the brand new one. Your payments may be high for the same reason, a newer car may cost you less

Monthly payments for PCP are calculated on the Total cost of finance, minus the deposit, minus the guaranteed final value.

Plus I never trust a none MINI dealer to value a MINI as they don't know enough about the options.

[envy]

Well its a Stratstone Dealer, so i would think they have better alternatives really

Yes, they dont take into account the options, but if i worked it out right

£12,500 minus £6000 = £6500

£6500 Left Payable

However

36 Payments of £299 = £10,440

So interest of £4,440 , seems pretty steep for a PCP Agreement

There are other websites that seem to offer better PCP deals, but unsure on whether i should trust thier figures , and trust thier company.

[Martin F]

Your figures do look high. Indeed I calculate the APR at nearer 15%.

I agree with Humph that you might get better value by buying a newer car, say something acceptable to Sainsbury's and see what the monthly costs look like.

For example, a car costing £15,000 with a balloon payment of say £7500 and an APR of 6.5% would cost £270 per month. So you get a better car and pay £29 less per month.

[envy]

Well i could look at newer cars, but unfortunatley already placed a deposit on the car a week ago

Heres a quote from car-finance.net , the terms and conditions look OK but not sure if company are OK e.t.c.

Total Price £12500.00
Total Deposit £250.00
Balance to finance £12250.00
First payment of £401.95
Followed by 34
Regular monthly payments of £252.95
Followed by a final payment of £6366.55
Term of agreement 36
Total Amount Payable £15618.80
APR 11.7%
Acceptance fee * £149.00
Option to purchase fee ** £50.00
Based on an annual mileage of *** 7000


Though concerned that they want acceptance fee, double installement to start AND balloon payment is a bit higher.

Pfff.... Why isnt it more easier than this

[Martin F]

APR looks a bit more reasonable.

Are you sure you can't get a personal loan with a better APR than this. Because if you can with say a 5 year term with no significant early repayment penalty you may find that the cash flow profile is as good. The early repayment after 3 years is a surrogate for the balloon payment on a PCP. You might like to look at personal loans on this basis and compare APRs.

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

Do be careful of the mileage penalties if you go over the estimated mileage. 7,000 miles per annum will bring your payments down, but is 7,000 miles realistic? You could easily wind up spending over £250 a month for a car that you can only use for 19 miles a day!

Our MCS is used for weekend fun miles only and that's clocked up over 17,000 miles in only 11 months

[Stiggy]

How about The AA?

Quote:

Your preferred loan amount is £12,500
Monthly repayments: £388.19 per month
APR: 6.8%
Term: 36 months
Creditcare: None
Six-month AA Car Warranty free

EDIT: Oops, sorry, you wanted PCP.

[envy]

Unfortunatley tried some low APR personal loans, but was unsuccesful. Strangle as i checked my credit report after and all was OK and my rating was excellent. Last year companies were trying to provide me loans lol.

So, i think the whole credit crisis seems to be having a knock on effect. Therefore its best i look at a secured loan e.g. PCP / HP.

Ive had two MINIs so far - HP & PCP - HP was expensive and i found had alot more interest than PCP. Both with BMW Finanical Services, but unfortunatley this is a Volvo dealer so cant get access to them!

So at the moment the only PCP providrs i can find are:

Dealers - Citigroup - 15% APR
Car-Finance.net -11% APR

I will try calling up BMW Financial Services later and asking whether they could assist being a Stratstone dealer (MINI have a Stratstone Dealer too!)

[humph]

As Tigger says 7000 miles isn't a lot at all, you'd be surprised how quickly you can rack that up. What is the miealge penalty? The clincher for me when it came to using the MINI PCP was the mileage payment of 2.16p per mile. I do a lot of miles and the average of 6-10p quoted by other dealers has always made PCP an expensive option. Most finance companies quote on 10k per annum, so your 7000 mile quote above is probably artificially low, on purpose. Sorry

Is the deposit you've put down substantial? Could you not squeeze an equivalent discount or additional px out of a MINI dealer? Just a thought. i would suggest yuo are more likely to get accepted for finance if you're buying a MINI from MINI using MINI finance

Good luck with it.

[suzysafloozy]

wow thats sooooo expensive! mine is through carlysle finance (sp?) google them and see, my apr is only 4.9% !!

[My MINI me and me]

Have a look at this, I am not sure if it is restricted to new cars?

M & S Car loans

http://www6.marksandspencer.com/page...Def&Product=BP

Alternatively you can create your own deferred loan by taking out a loan over a long period to reduce teh monthly from you bank but paying it back early when you sell your car. Be warned it requires self disipline and a personal commitment to make the early repayment regardless of the value and condition of the car.

I am currenly doing this to attain 7.4% APR with the intention to clear the loan in 2010

[akeapy]

It seems you are looking at about he same amount I have recently to buy a MCS (picked up on Saturday!! (Dealer report to follow )

First post on this forum BTW sorry for the wall of text

I was about to go along with the Mini Select deal but due to a clerical error on the finance agreement we looked into it further and found out just how EXPENSIVE Mini Select is.
Bear with me as figures might be slightly off as I don't have the info in front of me.

This is what I found:

MCS 55plate, Dark Silver, Chili, LSD

Car:= 13467
Deposit: £1000 cash
Part x £900 (which was WELL under trade let alone the private value as they just punt it to an auction - be warned)

Finance needed £11567
They wanted £219 a month payments over 48 months
£4500 ish as a ballon payment

It worked out that the interest over the term was about £3500 or there abouts.
The Flat rate % was 5.48
APR 11%

I went for a Marks and Spencers Car buying plan same thing just a personal loan with a deffered payent (ballon).

Cant link as my first post but go to site, click loans and look for car buying plan

Amount loan £11500

Monthly : £224
Deferred: £3470
Apr - 8.9%

I think it worked out that interest was £2680

So straight away was paying less interest of £820

Also with the ballon payment at Mini of £4500, and the M&S deffered being £3470 = means £1030 less.

So working on the basis of the fact that MIni is a business out to make money, and wouldn't Guarantee a value of £4500 if they think they wouldn't make at least that and much much more on each car that is "Just handed back to them".

The car we bought was Dec 2005 and would be 6 years old at end of term, looking at market 6 year old minis with "normal" mileage are going for at least £6000+ (i know market might change but unlikely by much for a hugely desirable and sought after brand).

Handing back the car is there only real selling point for Mini select deal as they will only give you trade value the same as any other car dealer when P/X'ing for a "new one" regardless of having Select or not.

So in essence the total saving of around £ 2000 !!

NOTE: A car loan such as HP (select agreements) use FLAT RATE % for interest on the loan.
This means that they calculate the interest of the whole loan value upfront so you pay interest of the £11567 across the whole loan. You pay off interest first.

TIP: Flat Rate is "roughly" doubled to show the indicated APR %

If it was just APR then you pay interest on how much you owe per year. BUT, for ease of you knowing what your payments are each month they do a calculation to make a "mean" average thus the payment you pay each month.

Otherwise your monthly payment would change over the years as you owe less on the loan.

So an APR that is shown on the Mini Select is in fact an indication only as they are using FLAT RATE interest

I hope this helps a little, and I know your said you were having trouble getting a personal loan from some banks but to save even further money over the loan then a 6 year "normal loan" with a 6.8% apr rate. This would mean you have paid £11k at around 48 months and the payment would be much less (about £200 a month) but you would only owe £2000 at that point and could end the loan early and kind of making your "deferred payment" only £2000 so even better if you trade in or sell the Mini at that point .

On this track make sure you check out the "early termination" terms some change a fee or a percentage of the loan as a penalty but still could be much less than £4500!! or even £3500.

Good Luck and hope you found my experience help, if just a little

[envy]

Thanks for all your advice on here so far, i have read all of it a few times now!

Looks like the M&S is the best so far! I will speak to them tomorrow, and see what they can do!

I think the best way would be £12,500 over 48 Months and final payment of around £3500 which we can throw on a Personal loan over 12 months. Really we would like to end it earlier, but its cheaper over the longer term!

In fact the rate of interest doesnt make it that bad verus a personal loan. Though i assume its a secured loan (as in to the car)? which i would prefer anyway.

Also are thier any agreement fees, or early cancellation charges?

Thanks so far, and i will see what M&S Say tomorrow!

[akeapy]

re M&s Car Buying plan, its is just a personal loan really not secured at all.

Also I believe, but will have to check but at the end of the 48 months you can carry on paying at the same monthly payment for an additional 16 months and what ever is left then is paid as a very small final payment is any but will have to check.

Think arrangement is £45 ish but cancellation Im not too sure without check the paper work again...brain drain it seems today

Good Luck, hope they say yes !!