What are my sons options?

Seanybhoy68

My 19-year-old son is a Civil engineer apprentice just about to finish his first year. He earns 22kpa which will increase to 24k next year. He's looking for a loan of about 6k to buy his first car. I've carried out a few searches for a loan for him but all state he has a 0% chance of getting one. 

I've no intention of getting this loan for him as he'll surely skip payments with me as he did on the mobile phone contract I got him last year.

What are his options?

Brie

Save a few months and get a cheap banger.  It's not just the car but his insurance will no doubt be very high too. Plus tax.  I doubt many banks will consider him a good risk for a couple of years particularly if there are already blips on his credit history.  What else is he doing to build his credit worthiness??  Credit builder card paying off in full monthly?? Registered to vote??

Mark_d

Your son is 19, on a 22k salary and wanting a first car costing 6k?  I would suggest that he be more realistic.  If he was to spend 6k on a car, aside from financing the car itself, how much money would he need to run the car - tax, MOT, fuel, maintenance, insurance?

My first car cost me £900.  Even my latest car car cost £4000.  The more money you spend on the car, the more money will be wasted in depreciation.  If you son gets a 6k car now, perhaps he'll only get £1500 when he comes to sell it in 5 years time.  So he will have lost 4.5k - equivalent to £900 per year.

Owning a car is really quite an expensive luxury - so much so that I no longer have a car.  Occasionally I think it would be nice to still have a car..but then I remember than all the money I spend on train/bus/Uber comes to a lot less than the ownership costs of a car.

CliveOfIndia

Another vote for saving up and buying a much cheaper car.  6K is more than I've ever spent on a car, and I'm a year or two older than 19

And as mentioned by a previous poster, he needs to consider all the other costs associated with running a car.  Not least of which, insurance - at 19 years old, he could be in for a nasty shock when he starts trying to get quotes for insurance.

Money_and_Travel

If he works nearby, maybe get a moped for the time being.

Grumpy_chap

Seanybhoy68 said:

My 19-year-old son is a Civil engineer apprentice just about to finish his first year. He earns 22kpa which will increase to 24k next year. He's looking for a loan of about 6k to buy his first car. I've carried out a few searches for a loan for him but all state he has a 0% chance of getting one. 

I've no intention of getting this loan for him as he'll surely skip payments with me as he did on the mobile phone contract I got him last year.

What are his options?

To live within his means and start to learn the value of money.  Learn that he cannot rely on the Bank of Parents.

He does not need a £6k car.
He may not need a car at all.
He needs to prepare his own budget and work out how he can afford a car by saving up for it. 
Fortunately, he is training as an Engineer so will be good with maths and spreadsheets so this will be an easy (if unpleasant) task for him to get done.  If he is struggling to get going, he could look at one of the online SoA calculators (Statement of Affairs) to guide him in structuring his own budget.

Before he considers a car, he needs to repay his Parents for the defaulted mobile phone (or give the phone to the Parents so they can sell it on eBay and cover the loss).

This might help:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/financial-education/

Herzlos

I doubt he'll get any loan whilst being an apprentice and it may need to wait until he's got a confirmed full time job.

How much does he need to spend of his income since he presumably still lives at home. A few months of hard saving should be able to get him a cheaper car outright. You could always ask around and see if any family/friends are planning on upgrading cars in the next few months.

Does he actually need a car right now? Car prices are still crazy at the moment especially around the £6k mark.

silvercar

Seanybhoy68 said:

My 19-year-old son is a Civil engineer apprentice just about to finish his first year. He earns 22kpa which will increase to 24k next year. He's looking for a loan of about 6k to buy his first car. I've carried out a few searches for a loan for him but all state he has a 0% chance of getting one. 

I've no intention of getting this loan for him as he'll surely skip payments with me as he did on the mobile phone contract I got him last year.

What are his options?

If you won’t trust him to make the repayments, then I don’t see how you expect anyone else to. That said, if he is living at home with I would think he should be able to afford the payments. Does his company offer any help? If they did, then the repayments would come from salary before he sees them, so avoiding making repayments would be virtually impossible. 

Clive_Woody

Seanybhoy68 said:

My 19-year-old son is a Civil engineer apprentice just about to finish his first year. He earns 22kpa which will increase to 24k next year. He's looking for a loan of about 6k to buy his first car. I've carried out a few searches for a loan for him but all state he has a 0% chance of getting one. 

I've no intention of getting this loan for him as he'll surely skip payments with me as he did on the mobile phone contract I got him last year.

What are his options?

If he's already missing payments to you for a debt then it might be worth mentioning to him that if he does this with a bank loan it will have more significant long term consequences and will impact him for some time into the future.

Best thing he can do is save up to buy the car, pay the insurance, cover petrol/maintenance/MOT and breakdown cover.