Car has died, seen new one, but not sure how best to pay!

[fusar]

Hello,

Firstly, apologies if this in the wrong forum!

My car well and truely died on me last night. It is very old with 188k on the clock, and has had a number of problems over the last few months.

I need to buy a good second hand vehicle and have seen one that I really like. However it costs £4995...... which is a huge chunk of money for me! But hopefully this is a big family car that will last for a long time! I can scrape together the money, but it would leave me with absolutely nothing for the rest of the month. I have always bought bangers in the past and never spent this amount on a car (although I know it is normal for some people, however it makes me nervous!). I'm probably being silly, but I was wondering the best way to pay, ie. cash or on a credit card? I would love one of those cash back credit cards, and then pay the balance off in full at the end of the month, but I imagine it will take at least a month to sort out the paperwork for one of those and I don't have that time. I already have 3 cards with Abbey, M&S and Barcleycard - maybe they would swap over to a cashback one for me within a couple of days? I could even charge it up beforehand. Has anyone done this before with these companies?

Also, I need some serious tips on haggling down the price with the garage. I know that people do it, but I turn into a stuttering mess with anything like that!

Many thanks in advance for any advice, you are able to share with me.
Take care
Fusar

[Glad]

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=1009335#post1009335)) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email abuse@moneysavingexpert.com (abuse@moneysavingexpert.com). :)

[fusar]

many thanks Glad. I wasn't sure where to post it to be honest. Could you kindly let me know where it has been moved to?

Many thanks

[Clive Woody]

First have a look at the Parkers guide to see how much you should be paying for this car. There are also other free sites you can use where you can adjust for mileage to get a more accurate price....

http://www.parkers.co.uk/

.....take a print out of this along with you to haggle over price. One common trick of car dealers when you start haggling over price is they remove their standard warranty (or reduce it in length) then try and sell this to you as an add on once you have agreed a price for the car. Make sure before you start haggling on price you agree on what type/lenght of warranty the car comes with.


As you say it would take a long time to get a cash back credit card and most likely the car dealer would not let you pay that much on a credit card anyway (usually only up to £1000 deposit on credit card, the rest to be paid by bankers draft, debit card or other means that the dealer does not incure a cost as he would when taking payment by credit card). The dealer themself may offer some sort of credit deal, but compare his APR with best buy tables for loans and be careful as most likely he will try and sell you payment protection and all manner of other ad ons. it might be worth speaking to your bank manager about loans to see what sort of deals they can offer and how quickly the funds can be made available (I assume you need this car quickly).

:D