Best way to get money for a car.

dchurch24

Hi all,

My car has completely had it, at a really bad time too. I'd been saving so that I could go halves with my ex-wife and buy our 17 year old daughter a car (£900). We've just done that and she is well on her way to learning to drive.

Unfortunately, this has used up all my savings (my half of the insurance was pretty hard to find!), and now my own car has died.
The MOT has just run out, and I had it tested and they have advised that it's not worth fixing; fair enough, it was old and has nearly 250,000 miles on the clock, so I've had a fair run!

I've been offered a family member's car for £2000, which is very cheap for what it is, but after having exhausted my savings, I don't have £2000 readily available.

I do, however, have two empty credit cards (2000 limit and 3000 limit).

Before you say, "No!!! Don't do it!", hear me out.

I can probably get a loan from my existing bank for the £2000, but that means having the loan for a minimum of 2 years, which I'd rather do without, having just finished a loan of a similar amount that I borrowed towards the cost of my father's funeral 18 months ago.

...and some time ago, when I was more comfortable, I lent a friend a sizeable amount of money - long story, but it was an old friend and they needed help and I was in a position to do so.

They are now in a position to start paying it back, and last month gave me £700 of it, with the promise of 3 more payments of £750 and then smaller payments.

So, my question is, should I try to find a loan where I can pay off larger chunks of it with minimal penalties (if such a thing exists), get a "normal" loan, or see if I can draw money down from the credit card, knowing that I will be able to pay it back over the next 3-4 months?

Ideally, I could simply save the money being paid back to me by my friend, but of course, I need a car urgently to get to work etc...

I'm edging towards the credit card option, as I can choose the amount to pay. Should something else pop up unexpectedly, I could then choose to pay a smaller amount that month...

Thanks in advance.

djphig

Might be worth having a look at a money transfer credit card? I have a Barclaycard which offers me 0% on money transfers for 18 months which would give you time to repay it back as and when you like

Smellyonion

If I understood correctly, you have purchased a £900 car for the daughter which she isn't driving as she is still learning thus why not drive that for the time being?

dchurch24

Smellyonion wrote: »

If I understood correctly, you have purchased a £900 car for the daughter which she isn't driving as she is still learning thus why not drive that for the time being?

I have done on occasion, but sadly, the car lives at her mother's house with her, so I can't rely on it.

dchurch24

djphig wrote: »

Might be worth having a look at a money transfer credit card? I have a Barclaycard which offers me 0% on money transfers for 18 months which would give you time to repay it back as and when you like

I too have the Barclaycard with the 0% for 29 months - I've just transferred two cards to it (hence they are now empty), so am about £1000 away from the transfer limit. I could, and would, of course transfer as much from the card to that card to take advantage of the 0% offer.

JimmyTheWig

Does your family member need all of the £2000 up front?

Carrot007

dchurch24 wrote: »

I can probably get a loan from my existing bank for the £2000, but that means having the loan for a minimum of 2 years, which I'd rather do without, having just finished a loan of a similar amount that I borrowed towards the cost of my father's funeral 18 months ago.

Why does it? Just overpay the loan.

dchurch24

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Does your family member need all of the £2000 up front?

Yes, they're buying a new car and need the money for that.

dchurch24

Carrot007 wrote: »

Why does it? Just overpay the loan.

I wasn't able to do that with the loan I had that just finished.

dano17439

Or you can lease a car. Small ones are around £150pm with probably a £500 deposit.


So you get a brand new fully warrantied car, with hardly any maintenance costs apart from routine servicing, and you don't use any capital

mustiuc

Dano17439

Please, stop telling people to borrow more than they afford. When you dont have money you dont need a "brand new car".

OP dont rely on your friend or someone else. Just figure out how much you can afford each month to pay and take a loan or cc with 0% MT. Do not use a credit card with high interest rate !!! Tey to get a loan instead.