Financing a GTI

[\\\Maisie]

Hi All

With my new car only a couple of weeks away, I've been getting some quotes from finance providers. I've also asked the dealer for a quote. As they are part of AHG, they use Toyota Finance.

Does anyone have recommendations for providers they'd like to share?

[kryten2001]

Hi All

With my new car only a couple of weeks away, I've been getting some quotes from finance providers. I've also asked the dealer for a quote. As they are part of AHG, they use Toyota Finance.

Does anyone have recommendations for providers they'd like to share?

From my experience they're all much of a muchness..

The only advice I can give is to check the fine print, especially in regards to early break clauses and costs, as well as monthly charges and setup fees. The interest rate alone is not enough to decide.

Best option is to include it in your mortgage (if you can), or obviously pay cashola. A lot of non bank financiers charge low rates - but exhorbitant fees if you want to break early. I've been caught more than once on this.

Building society's can be OK, otherwise there's Esanda, St George...

[tdi guy]

check for other costs

In order to compare rates, you might also want to check whether the quote includes extras you might not want. For example, my novated car lease payment quote included 'redundancy insurance' (which in practice insures the financier rather than you). It added 2% to the effective interest rate.

TG

[KWICKS]

I was very unhappy with a finance mob that shall remain nameless. They used to take money from my account, rather than permit me to control direct debits to them. They were unreliable with dates and timings, so I would go to put money in one day for the payment to come out the next only to find the F#@KERS had taken the money a day early and caused me a dishonour fee. This resulted in a poop load of chasing them to reverse the fee or cough it up themselves. Also, when they took the money they took a minimum payment only and payout was only allowed in one lump sum with a fee...fees for everything.

The point is choose a financier that is flexible. I've found the local Credit Union to meet my needs. I control payments, pay what I want when I want as long a I meet the minimum required. This lets me pay it off much faster, so less interest. There are SFA fees, a little set up one with the stamp duty on the account and off you go. I've since moved my transaction account with them and its even simpler to transfer money between accounts, even redraw money paid in advance on the car for not very much if you need to.

Get a car loan from a bank or credit union and stay away from finance companies, especially one the dealer offers, unless is 0% finance like Lexus offer but even then the real rate might be higher when you look at the fee structure.