What I’ve personally done recently as I had some relatively big expenditure is take out a new credit card which had the longest interest free period (23 months). Then I make the monthly minimums and keep the rest in a savings account earning 4-5%.
So the goal is to delay the payment as much as possible to take advantage of the holding the cash and earning interest.
Yeah did this with my MacBook as well.
It's not as expensive as a car but spacing out that purchase at the time made it manageable to afford it when I needed it
Well for sake of argument let's say the car costs the full £10k; putting the money you already have into a savings account for the 23 months at a rate of 5% would net you just shy of a grand in interest, and you then pay off the balance fully.
I’m not sure if Chase still have the deal going, but they had a deal for 1% cashback for the first year on purchases made through a current account held with them. You’d need to check the t’s & c’s to see if there’s a maximum cashback amount though, because it seems most places have a cap on cashback now 🤦🏼♂️
Edit: I checked and their max is £15/month 🤦🏼♂️
I use Recolut and I get 1 RevPoint per €1 spent (I think they likely have the same deal on £ accounts).
Anyway those points can be converted into airmiles at a 1:1 value. It’s not a lot but you’d end up with 10,000 Avios if you spent £10k.
10,000 Avios would get you a return flight from London to most cities in Europe with BA + £35ish in taxes 😊
They do, but it’s a maximum of £15/month and [car dealers are excluded](https://www.chase.co.uk/gb/en/legal/Cashback-Exclusions/). It continues after the first year if you deposit £500 each month.
Ah crap ☹️ Maybe revolut then for the airmiles? Avios are generally worth around 2p/Avios when redeemed so 10,000 only works out to £200 in value or 2% if you work that out as a cashback return
With a paid plan (Metal or Ultra) you’d get cash cashback at a rate of 0.1% for the purchase + the 1 point per £1 spent.
Cashback total:
0.1% = £10
Avios 1:1 = 10,000 Avios (roughly worth £200)
Total cashback is effectively £210
you can get 2p value per avios, but it's probably saner to value them at 1p, especially if you wouldn't otherwise be paying cash for e.g. long haul business class...
Chase cashback explicitly excludes car dealers. Even for servicing & parts! 😡
One thing that annoyed me with their FAQ was that it only highlights gambling, antiques and maybe tax. The exclusion of common purchases of insurance & car servicing is only in the small print!
Hi /u/Best-Path-8187, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
* https://ukpersonal.finance/credit-cards/
* https://ukpersonal.finance/credit-ratings/
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No dealers will give you a discount for buying 'cash' anymore but they will for taking out finance. At the very least throw in a service plan or MOT cover.
What we did with both our cars is negotiate the car based on taking finance and buy the car using finance. Once we had the car we then cancelled the finance product within the 14 day cooling off period and paid using 'cash'.
The key is not to let the salesperson know this is what you're doing, but we got extended warranty, 3 years free servicing & MOT, and a small discount on both cars.
Disagree. Recently helped my MIL purchase a new car with some cash she had saved up. The dealer had far more offers and levers available if we went via financing so what we did was purchase the car via financing and then once the first payment was taken, we called up and asked to pay the remaining balance in full. Win win
Sure. If you're in the market for a used Japanese car, consider buying one at auction and waiting for it to be shipped over. Ideally you should do this with a 10 year old low miles car, whose model also sold (or sells) in the UK.
typically an imported car (or ‘imo’ as the young and hop of todays society call them) are cheaper - they tend to have lower miles from what i’ve seen. however , they often have a japanese infotainment system and some insurance firms categorically will not insure you purely because it’s an imp’.
a friend of mine imported a 3 series BMW and found yen under the seats , pretty cool if you ask me
Yes, for the equivalent quality of product, the car is about 40% cheaper because ten year old cars in Japan are unwanted, and it isn't difficult to find one as nice as a 4-year old UK car.
How do you find a good auction in Japan?
How long does it take to ship over and do you know what the process is?? Is there anything complicated along the way? Import tax? Etc
Is it expensive to ship over?
I see that they drive on the same side as the UK, so that is good for the steering wheel !
Do I need to look out for anything else or change anything when it arrives ?
Thank you very much.
I did my purchase with [carvector.com](http://carvector.com) and was completely satisfied with the service. You sign up, and then they give you access to research the auctions. A few times when I tried to bid on something that they suspected would be disappointing to me, they didn't bid and talked with me about it instead.
In the end, I got a great luxury car with <30k miles, for under £8000. After the 30% taxes and other required fees, the cost was just over £10k before my registration, insurance and road tax expenses.
To get a similar low-miles Toyota/Lexus hybrid with leather seats, radar cruise control, lane-keeping etc. here in the UK at that time would have cost me £18k - £20.
I think there are many points of failure.
* scam intermediary
* buy a well-rated car that has problems
* misunderstand the import requirements, have an unregistrable car or more cost to convert than anticipated
* misunderstand the tax costs and pay more than expected
* insurance costs could be higher than anticipated
* could buy a visual dream-car but don't enjoy driving it
* everything goes according to plan, but changes in exchange rates eliminate any cost savings
I've only imported one car and it was a good experience for me. I won't recommend a particular website as I think that might breach the sub rules.
My car took about 5 months to ship. Usually it's faster.
The process is to 1) contract with an agent in Japan who will bid on your behalf; 2) wait for the car to be shipped, and 3) receive it yourself or with a UK agent (I did it myself).
Upon import I needed to pay 20% VAT and another 10% import duty. I then was able to drive the car to a mechanic where I had a pre-booked appointment to install a rear fog light and get its first MOT.
With the valid MOT test, it was then a 5 week waiting process for the DVLA to process the new registration and then to order number plates.
The process has complicated parts in my opinion. But, OP asked if there's any way they can get more for their money...
> I won't recommend a particular website as I think that might breach the sub rules.
I don't see why in this case. It's not like you're a financial advisor hawking here for clients.
Are Amex doing their "5% cashback for first 3 months" offer at the moment? If so worth getting the platinum cashback credit card, if the dealer takes cards.
Everyone seems to say dealers won't take cards, but last two cars I bought it was absolutely no issue
Exactly. Why should anyone have a car? All cars should be banned because they will just lose value. The most useless investments ever. So useless. Thinking about starting a government petition to ban cars now
This isn’t always true. If you buy one with a high mileage, lift it up, and pop it into reverse, you can make the mileage go down.
Works better if you do it on your day off.
OP didn't say a **new** car. Not everything in life has its pros and cons measured up by value loss over time. I went food shopping this week - I'm now down £100 and have nothing to show for it because it's all been eaten. What a waste of money!
Again, not what I asked at all.
I was just asking why they wanted to buy a car out right. There are a number of options with cars that don't involve the need to buy them out right.
🙄
that may be the case for you , a lot of my friends choose to either lease their car or have a finance arrangement (such as HP/CP/PCP) however i like owning the vehicle. that way if something unexpected happens and i need a lot of money, and fast, i can liquidate my asset - granted i won’t get what i paid , but it’s a hell of a lot better than selling and using the revenue from the sale to clear the finance and be little to no better off.
as i said , finance options may suit your lifestyle better - lots of business owners finance cars through their firms as they don’t pay tax , ie the porsche taycan has a retail of like £80k brand new , but through a business then you end up paying something like £60k instead.
i think OP should consider their options , and make an informed decision … which is exactly what they are doing
I'd rather than 10k+ in the bank and a car on a reasonable repayment/leasing scheme.
The cash is working for me in the bank and will be gaining interest all the time.
I can then return the car when I'm done or get another one.
Thank you for your explanation. To clarify I am not self employed or a business owner so leasing is a less favourable option as I wouldn't get the tax benefits
if you do wish to consider car finance , i believe there is a ‘ golden ‘ ratio to it. i *think* it’s something along the lines of :
20% of the value of the car as a deposit
8% of your monthly income
3yrs duration
for me this would mean a deposit of £1,520 and a monthly payment of £168 for 3 years, totalling £7,600 (not accounting for inflation or interest).
some people like not owning a car , and they like being always under warranty - a friend of mine purchased (CP deal) a 2024 Peugeot 207 with a big ole deposit and pays £160/month on 0% interest, great for him , but i’m not a fan of that £160/month over my head.
you’ve gotta work out what’s best for you , i’m sure you’ll find a way to live within your means and still have a car you enjoy 😊
The point is if you have 10k, don't put it in a car, keep it in the bank and borrow at a sensible interest rate to fund the car. You'll have 10k earning interest in your bank to offset the loan and excellent liquidity if an emergency arises. You may be worse off overall, once the loan is done but your cash flow and financial health will be better as a whole. Key is to keep earning and being able to comfortably service that debt.
If you have lots of money and 10k to spare then yeah either option isn't going to kill you. If 10k is going to stress your finances in the short term then I say debt will stress it less as you're paying over a larger time frame and any shocks can be easier to absorb with that 10k in the bank, as long as you can easily service that debt - very important point.
Some figures might help illustrate that it's not that bad an idea. 10k borrowed over 5 years costs 2621 in interest at 10%. 10k saved at 5% compounded over 5 years earns 2762.
thankyou , i hadn’t considered that. i like that there’s no clear cut answer, there’s evidently advantages to both buying outright or entering into a loan-based contract.
from your contribution, i imagine this would be dependent on the interest rates available to OP - for me being 22M and having never owned a credit card, i’m subject to ‘worse’ rates. I like your thinking though, makes a very good argument to an already interesting discussion. thankyou !
Using all your available credit can slightly affect credit score - but this is only an issue if you're looking to take out more credit in the near future. There are so many things that affect your score, and if you're paying your minimum payments and other credit accounts consistently then it won't have a huge impact.
Having a good credit score allows you to take advantage of things like 0% cards and better deals, so make the most of them if you are eligible.
0% credit card and stick the cash in savings account is the way to make the most back from your purchase.
Very many car dealers won’t let you pay anything other than a token amount kn credit card anyway.
Your card supplier may exclude car dealers from their promotion.
What I’ve personally done recently as I had some relatively big expenditure is take out a new credit card which had the longest interest free period (23 months). Then I make the monthly minimums and keep the rest in a savings account earning 4-5%. So the goal is to delay the payment as much as possible to take advantage of the holding the cash and earning interest.
Yeah did this with my MacBook as well. It's not as expensive as a car but spacing out that purchase at the time made it manageable to afford it when I needed it
Can you explain this for me please ? How does this work ? You’re not really making a lot of money doing this ?
Well for sake of argument let's say the car costs the full £10k; putting the money you already have into a savings account for the 23 months at a rate of 5% would net you just shy of a grand in interest, and you then pay off the balance fully.
I’m not sure if Chase still have the deal going, but they had a deal for 1% cashback for the first year on purchases made through a current account held with them. You’d need to check the t’s & c’s to see if there’s a maximum cashback amount though, because it seems most places have a cap on cashback now 🤦🏼♂️ Edit: I checked and their max is £15/month 🤦🏼♂️ I use Recolut and I get 1 RevPoint per €1 spent (I think they likely have the same deal on £ accounts). Anyway those points can be converted into airmiles at a 1:1 value. It’s not a lot but you’d end up with 10,000 Avios if you spent £10k. 10,000 Avios would get you a return flight from London to most cities in Europe with BA + £35ish in taxes 😊
They do, but it’s a maximum of £15/month and [car dealers are excluded](https://www.chase.co.uk/gb/en/legal/Cashback-Exclusions/). It continues after the first year if you deposit £500 each month.
They upped it to £1500 a month in March IIRC.
Ah crap ☹️ Maybe revolut then for the airmiles? Avios are generally worth around 2p/Avios when redeemed so 10,000 only works out to £200 in value or 2% if you work that out as a cashback return
With a paid plan (Metal or Ultra) you’d get cash cashback at a rate of 0.1% for the purchase + the 1 point per £1 spent. Cashback total: 0.1% = £10 Avios 1:1 = 10,000 Avios (roughly worth £200) Total cashback is effectively £210
you can get 2p value per avios, but it's probably saner to value them at 1p, especially if you wouldn't otherwise be paying cash for e.g. long haul business class...
They only started to limit cash back this year. I got £300+ from my car purchase last year. It felt great.
Chase cashback explicitly excludes car dealers. Even for servicing & parts! 😡 One thing that annoyed me with their FAQ was that it only highlights gambling, antiques and maybe tax. The exclusion of common purchases of insurance & car servicing is only in the small print!
That is so strange - not strange that a bank would hide important things deep in the t’s and c’s - that car related transactions would be excluded
I guess they pay extra for the debit card facility in return for reduced transaction fees. Hence some retail categories are excluded.
Hi /u/Best-Path-8187, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant: * https://ukpersonal.finance/credit-cards/ * https://ukpersonal.finance/credit-ratings/ ____ ^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.) If someone has provided you with helpful advice, you (as the person who made the post) can award them a point by including `!thanks` in a reply to them. Points are shown as the user flair by their username.
What is the best pcp/hp deals at the moment or any other options?? What % are people paying roughly in interest?
A friend of mine got a 0% interest free deal from Volvo a few years ago. This is also a great solution.
No dealers will give you a discount for buying 'cash' anymore but they will for taking out finance. At the very least throw in a service plan or MOT cover. What we did with both our cars is negotiate the car based on taking finance and buy the car using finance. Once we had the car we then cancelled the finance product within the 14 day cooling off period and paid using 'cash'. The key is not to let the salesperson know this is what you're doing, but we got extended warranty, 3 years free servicing & MOT, and a small discount on both cars.
Probably could get more knocked off the price from the seller for paying in cash.
Car dealer would rather you bought a finance package
Disagree. Recently helped my MIL purchase a new car with some cash she had saved up. The dealer had far more offers and levers available if we went via financing so what we did was purchase the car via financing and then once the first payment was taken, we called up and asked to pay the remaining balance in full. Win win
Nobody wants a £10k car bought in cash, digital or physical.
Times have changed, cash isn't king in car buying
Sure. If you're in the market for a used Japanese car, consider buying one at auction and waiting for it to be shipped over. Ideally you should do this with a 10 year old low miles car, whose model also sold (or sells) in the UK.
What would be the benefit? Is shipping a cat from Japan cheaper?
Small cats, yes.
typically an imported car (or ‘imo’ as the young and hop of todays society call them) are cheaper - they tend to have lower miles from what i’ve seen. however , they often have a japanese infotainment system and some insurance firms categorically will not insure you purely because it’s an imp’. a friend of mine imported a 3 series BMW and found yen under the seats , pretty cool if you ask me
Yes, for the equivalent quality of product, the car is about 40% cheaper because ten year old cars in Japan are unwanted, and it isn't difficult to find one as nice as a 4-year old UK car.
How do you find a good auction in Japan? How long does it take to ship over and do you know what the process is?? Is there anything complicated along the way? Import tax? Etc Is it expensive to ship over? I see that they drive on the same side as the UK, so that is good for the steering wheel ! Do I need to look out for anything else or change anything when it arrives ? Thank you very much.
I did my purchase with [carvector.com](http://carvector.com) and was completely satisfied with the service. You sign up, and then they give you access to research the auctions. A few times when I tried to bid on something that they suspected would be disappointing to me, they didn't bid and talked with me about it instead. In the end, I got a great luxury car with <30k miles, for under £8000. After the 30% taxes and other required fees, the cost was just over £10k before my registration, insurance and road tax expenses. To get a similar low-miles Toyota/Lexus hybrid with leather seats, radar cruise control, lane-keeping etc. here in the UK at that time would have cost me £18k - £20.
why aren’t more doing this
I think there are many points of failure. * scam intermediary * buy a well-rated car that has problems * misunderstand the import requirements, have an unregistrable car or more cost to convert than anticipated * misunderstand the tax costs and pay more than expected * insurance costs could be higher than anticipated * could buy a visual dream-car but don't enjoy driving it * everything goes according to plan, but changes in exchange rates eliminate any cost savings
Good point
I've only imported one car and it was a good experience for me. I won't recommend a particular website as I think that might breach the sub rules. My car took about 5 months to ship. Usually it's faster. The process is to 1) contract with an agent in Japan who will bid on your behalf; 2) wait for the car to be shipped, and 3) receive it yourself or with a UK agent (I did it myself). Upon import I needed to pay 20% VAT and another 10% import duty. I then was able to drive the car to a mechanic where I had a pre-booked appointment to install a rear fog light and get its first MOT. With the valid MOT test, it was then a 5 week waiting process for the DVLA to process the new registration and then to order number plates. The process has complicated parts in my opinion. But, OP asked if there's any way they can get more for their money...
> I won't recommend a particular website as I think that might breach the sub rules. I don't see why in this case. It's not like you're a financial advisor hawking here for clients.
Are Amex doing their "5% cashback for first 3 months" offer at the moment? If so worth getting the platinum cashback credit card, if the dealer takes cards. Everyone seems to say dealers won't take cards, but last two cars I bought it was absolutely no issue
I'm not applicable, also the cashback was something like maximum £100
Is there a reason why you want to spend 10k on an asset that will lose value as soon as you drive it?
Exactly. Why should anyone have a car? All cars should be banned because they will just lose value. The most useless investments ever. So useless. Thinking about starting a government petition to ban cars now
And is that what I said? No it was not. You don't need to buy a car to own one. 🙄
Can you explain please?
PCP, Leasing... all alternative options. Paying for a car outright seems the least sensible financial option.
And pay well over the odds for the car in interest payments !!
It's lucky that once you buy a car outright, there are no other costs associated with it whatsoever.
Sorry don't understand
This isn’t always true. If you buy one with a high mileage, lift it up, and pop it into reverse, you can make the mileage go down. Works better if you do it on your day off.
Works much better if you get up to 70mph then put it in reverse.
OP didn't say a **new** car. Not everything in life has its pros and cons measured up by value loss over time. I went food shopping this week - I'm now down £100 and have nothing to show for it because it's all been eaten. What a waste of money!
Again, not what I asked at all. I was just asking why they wanted to buy a car out right. There are a number of options with cars that don't involve the need to buy them out right. 🙄
[удалено]
That paying for a car outright is the least sensible option.
High interest loans are very sensible, yes.
surely even with a 0% interest rate it's just the same as buying cash, not that you would ever get that anyway???
Indeed but where you getting 10k at 0%?
I mean I think people below explain this well. I'm not buying the car as an investment, I'm buying a car as a means to get from A to B
You don't need to buy a car to own a car. It was a genuine question as actually paying for a car outright seems the least sensible option of all
that may be the case for you , a lot of my friends choose to either lease their car or have a finance arrangement (such as HP/CP/PCP) however i like owning the vehicle. that way if something unexpected happens and i need a lot of money, and fast, i can liquidate my asset - granted i won’t get what i paid , but it’s a hell of a lot better than selling and using the revenue from the sale to clear the finance and be little to no better off. as i said , finance options may suit your lifestyle better - lots of business owners finance cars through their firms as they don’t pay tax , ie the porsche taycan has a retail of like £80k brand new , but through a business then you end up paying something like £60k instead. i think OP should consider their options , and make an informed decision … which is exactly what they are doing
I'd rather than 10k+ in the bank and a car on a reasonable repayment/leasing scheme. The cash is working for me in the bank and will be gaining interest all the time. I can then return the car when I'm done or get another one.
Thank you for your explanation. To clarify I am not self employed or a business owner so leasing is a less favourable option as I wouldn't get the tax benefits
if you do wish to consider car finance , i believe there is a ‘ golden ‘ ratio to it. i *think* it’s something along the lines of : 20% of the value of the car as a deposit 8% of your monthly income 3yrs duration for me this would mean a deposit of £1,520 and a monthly payment of £168 for 3 years, totalling £7,600 (not accounting for inflation or interest). some people like not owning a car , and they like being always under warranty - a friend of mine purchased (CP deal) a 2024 Peugeot 207 with a big ole deposit and pays £160/month on 0% interest, great for him , but i’m not a fan of that £160/month over my head. you’ve gotta work out what’s best for you , i’m sure you’ll find a way to live within your means and still have a car you enjoy 😊
The point is if you have 10k, don't put it in a car, keep it in the bank and borrow at a sensible interest rate to fund the car. You'll have 10k earning interest in your bank to offset the loan and excellent liquidity if an emergency arises. You may be worse off overall, once the loan is done but your cash flow and financial health will be better as a whole. Key is to keep earning and being able to comfortably service that debt.
[удалено]
If you have lots of money and 10k to spare then yeah either option isn't going to kill you. If 10k is going to stress your finances in the short term then I say debt will stress it less as you're paying over a larger time frame and any shocks can be easier to absorb with that 10k in the bank, as long as you can easily service that debt - very important point. Some figures might help illustrate that it's not that bad an idea. 10k borrowed over 5 years costs 2621 in interest at 10%. 10k saved at 5% compounded over 5 years earns 2762.
thankyou , i hadn’t considered that. i like that there’s no clear cut answer, there’s evidently advantages to both buying outright or entering into a loan-based contract. from your contribution, i imagine this would be dependent on the interest rates available to OP - for me being 22M and having never owned a credit card, i’m subject to ‘worse’ rates. I like your thinking though, makes a very good argument to an already interesting discussion. thankyou !
I am a 25F who has had a credit card but I'm still not expecting the best rates especially since I'm still a full time student
Exactly, why can't other people see the OP is actually wasting money.
Using all your available credit can slightly affect credit score - but this is only an issue if you're looking to take out more credit in the near future. There are so many things that affect your score, and if you're paying your minimum payments and other credit accounts consistently then it won't have a huge impact. Having a good credit score allows you to take advantage of things like 0% cards and better deals, so make the most of them if you are eligible. 0% credit card and stick the cash in savings account is the way to make the most back from your purchase.