Monthly Servicing Plans - Any Good?

toomanynotebooks

Hi All

I noticed on a website at work that a local garage is offering a 2-3 year deal on servicing where you pay per month by Direct Debit plus get an MOT discount thrown in.

I realise there could be all sorts of pitfalls with this if it's long term contract (tied in for repairs, whatever they say is wrong, savings on MOT wont be mega) but I was wondering if anyone else has ever had one of these?

I emailed them but just got a reply asking to call them and I don't really want the hard sell, just some advice?

Thanks, TMN

scotsbob

What do you consider to be the advantage of this?

An alternative would be to pay the amount you would pay monthly into a savings account that at least gets interest while it accumulates to pay your next service bill.

Joe_Horner

Depends on what the monthly payment is, what sort of mileage you do and what the typical servicing costs of your car are.

I've seem some of these schemes where the garage is effectively giving a discount in return for getting regular payments (which is fair) and others where they're charging a premium for the "convenience" of paying up front (which is definitely NOT fair).

Hintza

Is it transferable? What happens if you write the car or or sell it?

forgotmyname

Is this just a basic service plan or repairs priced in?

What if they say something needs fixing, Is the plan void if you dont get it done?

Personally i just pay for the work as and when.

toomanynotebooks

It is just a basic service plan and I suppose if they "found" a lot of things that needed repairing a few months in you'd be less likely to shop around to get them done. I've decided to go with the putting money into a savings account each month idea, then if no repairs are needed, it's just good savings. (For the next thing that breaks down!)

Cheers all...

forgotmyname

My parents bought a car with free MOT's for life. 1 free MOT later and they
changed the name of the dealership.

Claims they are a different company and the free MOT offer no longer stands.
Even though nothing has changed but the sign outside. Same staff etc.

Its risky giving anyone money in advance these days.

liubeliu

forgotmyname wrote: »

My parents bought a car with free MOT's for life. 1 free MOT later and they
changed the name of the dealership.

Claims they are a different company and the free MOT offer no longer stands.
Even though nothing has changed but the sign outside. Same staff etc.

Its risky giving anyone money in advance these days.

The staff may have been subject to TUPE, the only way to tell is to look up who the directors were of the old company and the directors if the new.

My local garage has been taken over about 2 years ago retaining the old staff but the owners are different. They were bought by a chain but were previously an independent, the staff were subject to TUPE.