Excessive admin charge for private reg plate

thelawnet

jwturpin wrote: »

Cripes! So much for a caring society here on MSE!! Thanks Xoleeb and Slyracoon for your positive contributions!

FYI, I own it from a finance point of view as I have paid back 3/4. Who on here (who in the world?) pays for a car outright?? We all get finance, and if you don't, then why are you on here?

????????

I have never bought a car I couldn't afford. I bought my first car in 2004, it cost £1000, paid in cash (debit card!).

I bought my second car in 2007, it cost £7000, again debit card.

I bought my third car this year, it cost £13,000, again debit card.

The £1000 car was fine, it got us where we wanted to go, ok no air con, but you really don't NEED it (certainly don't need to borrow money for it). The £7000 car was nice too, but a bit boring, a Volvo, and as I had the cash we bought the convertible in January.

Why on earth would you borrow to fund a car, which is a liability, not an asset?

It makes sense to borrow for any of these things:

* housing (an asset, will increase in value in the long term)
* education, will enrich you in the long run, one way or another
* if you have no other choice, e.g., to fund living costs you can't otherwise meet.
* to refinance expensive debt with cheaper debt

But cars? Foreign holidays?

No, never. Can't afford it don't buy it. You can get cars practically for free these days, they will get you from A to B, all you need is some petrol. Want something better, save up for it. Don't buy what you can't afford.

This website is about SAVING money, although there are mixed messages some times what with all the links to Amazon and such like.

As a point of comparison, I changed address recently too, they didn't charge me £25 to update my address! The computer operative had to type in at least all of 40 characters more to do that. They shouldn't charge for one amendment, and not another.

Why not? People move for many reasons, often not through choice. It is much fairer to charge for the pointless luxury of a vanity plate than to penalise people for moving house.

Trebor16

This website is also about advice on things such as admin fees charged by various organisations. The OP doesn't need to be lectured on how he runs his life, he just wants advice on an admin fee. Not too much to ask surely.

Antispam

I do and the reason I can is I save money by shopping around and get deals on here. I have never had a loan on a car, I buy a car on how much I can afford I never buy new. Only money I have borrowed is for a house

jwturpin wrote: »

FYI, I own it from a finance point of view as I have paid back 3/4. Who on here (who in the world?) pays for a car outright?? We all get finance, and if you don't, then why are you on here?

thelawnet

Trebor16 wrote: »

This website is also about advice on things such as admin fees charged by various organisations. The OP doesn't need to be lectured on how he runs his life,

Clearly he does, as he's already bought a car on the never-never and is now adding a vanity plate to his bill, then rather than worrying about the cost of the car and the plate (which could both be very considerable), he's getting all hot and bothered about a one-off £25 fee.

Not very money saving is it?

There is btw a name for this kind of error of priorities, that people fret about small fees while ignoring the big things costing them thousands (in this case the car and possibly the plate). People will shop around for tins of baked beans but then buy expensive, fast depreciating cars on credit.

jwturpin

Trebor16 wrote: »

This website is also about advice on things such as admin fees charged by various organisations. The OP doesn't need to be lectured on how he runs his life, he just wants advice on an admin fee. Not too much to ask surely.

Thank you for that I didn't need the lecture.

I manage what money I have well, I pay my credit cards off each month, I have NO other finance other than the car, I pay into two pension schemes to save for later life, I pay a small amount into a savings account to make sure I have enough to cover for something unforeseen, urgent, and expensive, but I DON'T have the luxury of having 13000, 7000, or even 1000 spare in my bank account to pay for a car on my debit card. Bully for all you people who seem to have taken pleasure in gloating to me that that's what you do; some people can't!

I can however afford 140 a month to pay for a nice car, something which won't breakdown, potentially have more ongoing costs than would be economically sensible, allow me to drive the long mileage I do in comfort, etc etc.

My dad recently retired and had a lump sum, He wanted to give some to his sons to quote, "treat yourselves, don't go paying any bills with it or put it in your bank account and chip away at it, buy yourselves something nice". So I did!! and the vanity plate was one of the things I bought.

So, before anyone else decides to lecture me and tell me how fantastic they are at saving their money, and get all holier than thou on me.....don't bloody bother, i'm not interested!

eschaton

jwturpin wrote: »

FYI, I own it from a finance point of view as I have paid back 3/4. Who on here (who in the world?) pays for a car outright?? We all get finance, and if you don't, then why are you on here?

Apart from once in March 2010, I have bought all cars outright for the past 11 years. The one on finance was only because it was 0% for 48 months and that was cleared after 15 months when the car was sold.

If you can afford to make interest payments on the car that you couldn't afford to buy outright every month, then £25 should be a breeze for you.

Flyboy152

xoleeb wrote: »

to be fair there's a few conclusions being jumped to here - how do you know how long he has been paying the HP off? to say he doesnt own it just because its on HP is not correct...if he has paid off the majority he does in fact own it....from a finance point..how do you know he is wasting money on HP it might be an interest free deal? as i said few conclusions being jumped to...

I think you'll find that the finance company do own the car, right until the very last penny is paid.

Flyboy152

jwturpin wrote: »

Cripes! So much for a caring society here on MSE!! Thanks Xoleeb and Slyracoon for your positive contributions!

FYI, I own it from a finance point of view as I have paid back 3/4. Who on here (who in the world?) pays for a car outright?? We all get finance, and if you don't, then why are you on here?

I had the choice of a loan, or of HP when I bought the car. The HP was cheaper all round, better APR, better length of term, and smaller repayments, all in all saving me over £600 interest over 4 years, that's why I took it (plus I can hand it back after 1/2 payments should I ever run into financial difficulty, which I never have and never intend to as I manage my money very carefully).

So what if I don't OWN the car; I come into a small windfall and treat myself to something, I'll bloody well spend it on what I want to. As a point of comparison, I changed address recently too, they didn't charge me £25 to update my address! The computer operative had to type in at least all of 40 characters more to do that. They shouldn't charge for one amendment, and not another.

Anyway, rant over, but if you don't have anything constructive to say, then just don't bother....check out the forum etiquette! If I disagree with something someone posts on here, I just don't reply. Please extend the same courtesy.

I think you may be confusing one rule with another.

Cash-Strapped.T32

fivetide wrote: »

does that help?

Ah, yes! I thought you meant those cool-as front mudguard number plates or something, but I see what you mean now. Cheers :cool: