Scary prospect of getting solar panels - is this a good deal?

tunnel

windup wrote: »

led bulbs are a lot cheaper

Oh look....a (dodgy)solar installer!!

bergy2

Hi


I got a pre approved loan from Barclays at 3.63%
If you have a good credit score suggest you go direct - mortgage add ons can be secured loans though can be extended I guess

mwddrwg

Hi all, thanks for all the replies yesterday.


We sat down and had a look at the figures and we have decided that this is too big a commitment for us at the moment so have cancelled the survey.


We are interested in PV in principle but getting a loan independently of an intermediary would be difficult due to my crap credit score (due to one tiny 'default' that I'm disputing, but that's another story...). Ironically, the myplanet rep phoned me last night to tell me that the Barclays loan had been approved in my partner's name only, which was when I told hime we would be cancelling the order. Going to email them to confirm tonight as we're required to do.


Hopefully this thread has highlighted how expensive these loans are so that others in the same boat may be made aware.


Thanks again all

zeupater

mwddrwg wrote: »

... Hopefully this thread has highlighted how expensive these loans are so that others in the same boat may be made aware ...

Hi

Probably even still worthwhile calling in to a local bank branch of (Barclays etc), explaining the situation and see if they would lend direct at a reasonable rate ...

Regarding the referenced text above ... it's not just the finance which is expensive, it's the base price of the system too ... halve the initial price and it wouldn't be too bad a deal even at the interest rate used, halve the interest rate as well and things start to stack up .... however, as always, the best return would definitely be achieved through self-finance ...

HTH
Z

loskie

Go back to the start.
If you need to borrow money for this you CANNOT afford it.

It is not an asset you can in anyway liquidate should you need the money.
Only install these if you have a wide and varied range of savings and some you are willing to gamble.
Better to drip feed £300 a month into a fund of some sort.

zeupater

loskie wrote: »

Go back to the start.
If you need to borrow money for this you CANNOT afford it.

It is not an asset you can in anyway liquidate should you need the money.
Only install these if you have a wide and varied range of savings and some you are willing to gamble.
Better to drip feed £300 a month into a fund of some sort.

Hi

If you have unallocated income enough 'to drip feed £300 a month into a fund of some sort' then you should logically be able to afford a £5k/£6k pv system without resorting to finance ....

As it stands, if you're looking at pv purely as an investment it'll probably outperform most funds by a good margin (tax free too!), with far less (but still some!) capital risk as long as you're not looking to move house in the not to distant future - then who knows, depending on the buyer's interest in pv, you might make a small capital return or have to completely write the cost (/investment) off ...

Personally, I wouldn't take a loan to pay for pv, but that's just me. However, if someone definitely intends to purchase something on finance then the best deal would not be based on the combination of a highly inflated base price and a comparatively high finance cost ... that's really the basis of most comments which have been made in response to the original post ...

HTH
Z

EricMears

There's nothing wrong with the concept of borrowing to invest - providing that your investment yields a better return than the APR of your borrowings.


That is the raison d'etre of the 'leveraging' system which has created some vast fortunes for hedge fund managers.

nigelpm

loskie wrote: »

Go back to the start.
If you need to borrow money for this you CANNOT afford it.

It is not an asset you can in anyway liquidate should you need the money.
Only install these if you have a wide and varied range of savings and some you are willing to gamble.
Better to drip feed £300 a month into a fund of some sort.

Absolutely NOT!

With that reasoning no-one would ever get a mortgage on a house.

How many people can afford to buy a house outright?

As others have said if your income exceeds your debt finance and repayment then it is a sensible option.

Certainly it is preferable to take out finance if you are using a pot of money that you might need for something else - broken boiler etc..

The point here is the government scheme (as UKIP have pointed out) is very much to the advantage of those with the funds.

If you don't have the money up front you should still want to take advantage of such a generous scheme IMHO.