I managed to get an early termination. Looking at all of the upcoming changes, I’m not willing to put up with them. I’m very lucky in that my credit is now pretty good after my bankruptcy fell off last month. With this in mind, I thought that it would be daft to keep paying £80 a week for a car I will never own. After a lot of number crunching I’ve made the decision to buy a brand new Suzuki Swift on hire purchase over 4 years. I think I could have done 5 years if I’d wanted to. I chose the Suzuki as they’re offering 0% finance with nothing down. I believe it was easier to get a loan from their finance as it’s tied to the car – they own it until the last payment is made. I had options for a personal unsecured loan but the best rate was 6% and I thought there was probably a lower chance of acceptance. The salesman said that the finance company are more concerned with knowing where you live than income. I am retired and wasn’t asked to provide any evidence of income. Fill the form in and accepted minutes later. Obviously I wouldn’t have gone this route unless I felt able to pay. Actual figures (car £19,999 plus £750 paint = £20,749 minus VED at £365 and £600 discount via Carwow so a true cost of £19,784) are: Car payment monthly £412.16, deduct monthly mobility £346.66 so actual extra monthly cost is £65.50. Car tax (VED) is free so had that taken off the new car invoice. Car service plan monthly for 4 years (excluding MOT costs) is £23.61 Car Insurance around £300 so monthly is £25 Overall total additional cost to eventually own the car works out to a monthly figure of £114.11. I will do approx 34k in 4 years so will probably need some tyres but even if I put an additional £5 a month away for this I should be fine. I live in a housing association 1 bed bungalow so my outgoings aren’t massive so I can afford this. It’s nice thinking that after 4 years I will own an asset that should be worth upwards of £10k. I looked at second hand, demo’s and pre-reg but the 0% was on new cars and others were around 8.9% so it didn’t really make sense to follow that path. I’m content with my choice. The process was simple. If I had been unsuccessful with my finance application I would have reverted to Plan B, getting a much older and cheaper car for cash. Just thought this was worth putting out there in case it’s helpful for anyone else considering leaving.
Not being rude but how the hell did you get finance without a credit check finding out you was bankrupt so soon as most people with bad credit history or retired find it very hard to get any finance and Experian credit ref agency I was told for a lease car you need well over 800 points and most people where I live only score in the 500-700 score so quite amazed you got this but good luck to you.