Best 0% way of paying for a Motorhome - Motorhome Newbie

[ROTR-2024]

Morning one and All,

I am new to the forum and have see some threads on this topic already but can't really find the answer (maybe there isn't one). We are in the process of reserving a MH (Roller Team T-Line) that will cost ~£80K. We intend to pay cash for most of it (approx. £60K) but wanted to leave £20K on interest free cards to keep the rest of our cash in our bank.

The conundrum; obviously don't want to pay interest or fees (or minimal) so was hoping to use long "0% Purchase Credit Cards" but the dealer insists only on BACS for the balance so they don't pay fees.

Looking for inspiration on how we can extract money from a credit card that still qualifies us for 0% for XX months. Any other suggestions also welcome at this point.

 

[chaser]

Morning one and All,

I am new to the forum and have see some threads on this topic already but can't really find the answer (maybe there isn't one). We are in the process of reserving a MH (Roller Team T-Line) that will cost ~£80K. We intend to pay cash for most of it (approx. £60K) but wanted to leave £20K on interest free cards to keep the rest of our cash in our bank.

The conundrum; obviously don't want to pay interest or fees (or minimal) so was hoping to use long "0% Purchase Credit Cards" but the dealer insists only on BACS for the balance so they don't pay fees.

Looking for inspiration on how we can extract money from a credit card that still qualifies us for 0% for XX months. Any other suggestions also welcome at this point.

Good luck on that one.

 

[The Wino]

If you have balances on other credit cards transfer those onto an interest free one. If like us you pay off in full not an option! You could if you were really keen ask the dealer what their credit card commission is and pay them extra to cover it I suspect it will be about 1 to 2%. You clearly don't mind borrowing on a vehicle there's no right and wrong but I wouldn't as I treat vehicles as depreciating assets so wouldn't fancy borrowing to buy id sooner find one for the £60k and pay cash.

 

[Neil S]

would you not be better to buy a good second hand motorhome for your £60,000 .
There are plenty of good well looked after second hand models available for that sort of money

 

[chaser]

would you not be better to buy a good second hand motorhome for your £60,000 .
There are plenty of good well looked after second hand models available for that sort of money

Exactly my thinking but it looks as if he is already buying it.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Guigsy]

If you have balances on other credit cards transfer those onto an interest free one. If like us you pay off in full not an option! You could if you were really keen ask the dealer what their credit card commission is and pay them extra to cover it I suspect it will be about 1 to 2%. You clearly don't mind borrowing on a vehicle there's no right and wrong but I wouldn't as I treat vehicles as depreciating assets so wouldn't fancy borrowing to buy id sooner find one for the £60k and pay cash.

Meh. It's not going to depreciate by £60k by the time the cards are paid off, so it's never going to be negative equity. And if you've got the money regardless... There's good interest to be had at the moment, so I think I'd be looking for a way to lever out a hundred quid from the banks if I had the opportunity. I doubt you'll get away with a fee free method, but there's probably still opportunities. I don't see an issue.

 

[JimmE]

In our case, for similar reasons (but roughly half the amounts!), I put almost all our other spending for a month before purchase, and a couple of months after purchase, on 0% spending cards for a couple of months, then transferred them to 0%, 0-fee balance transfer cards. I was then able to use the unspent money in the current account to replenish savings quicker than I would have done otherwise.

Our dealer wanted the bulk of the balance by bank transfer, again due to fees, but was happy to take a larger-than-normal deposit by card, and did offer to take more by card if we covered the fees, which they said would be just over 2% at the time.

 

[suavecarve]

Admittedly interest rates were lower at the time.

We had paid off most of our mortgage with a lump sum when we bought our first and second motorhomes. (Endowment)

I just asked if they would lend us some and the way they viewed it was that we could just ask to borrow anything up to the amount we had paid off early.

They were willing to lend us nearly 6 figures within 3 days which was a bit scary! But we could still overpay to get rid of it quicker.

I still wish I had left a tenner in the mortgage account for speedy borrowing at cheap interest

 

[Nanniemate]

The only time I have used credit for a vehicle was when you could buy at 0% and no discount cash
Even then had the money in the bank just I case
We are all different I don't like debt

 

[Fatboy]

I did that, I financed 50k for the motorhome 30k was an 18 month 0% transfer on a credit card from Lloyds. Obviously, you need the funds to pay for it but we had and the dealer never batted an eye lid

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[The Wino]

Admittedly interest rates were lower at the time.

We had paid off most of our mortgage with a lump sum when we bought our first and second motorhomes. (Endowment)

I just asked if they would lend us some and the way they viewed it was that we could just ask to borrow anything up to the amount we had paid off early.

They were willing to lend us nearly 6 figures within 3 days which was a bit scary! But we could still overpay to get rid of it quicker.

I still wish I had left a tenner in the mortgage account for speedy borrowing at cheap interest

We had a mortgage like that a few years ago you could overpay and draw back out at any time with no fees. It was great because being self employed we put all our future tax money in their and effectively got the mortgage rate as interest tax free. I don't think they offer them anymore

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Morning one and All,

I am new to the forum and have see some threads on this topic already but can't really find the answer (maybe there isn't one). We are in the process of reserving a MH (Roller Team T-Line) that will cost ~£80K. We intend to pay cash for most of it (approx. £60K) but wanted to leave £20K on interest free cards to keep the rest of our cash in our bank.

The conundrum; obviously don't want to pay interest or fees (or minimal) so was hoping to use long "0% Purchase Credit Cards" but the dealer insists only on BACS for the balance so they don't pay fees.

Looking for inspiration on how we can extract money from a credit card that still qualifies us for 0% for XX months. Any other suggestions also welcome at this point.

As an aside to your question.. I'm sure you've done all the necessary research, but , some manufactures are quite coy with their payload figures. Have a look at the payload for that vehicle, then have a tot up of everything, and that does mean everything virtually that you're likely to put in and on the van. Passengers, bikes, pets, food, pots and pans, water, etc, etc. Some people have found by the time they have got everything on board for their needs, their actually over the 3500kg limit, unless you have a C1 licence, and the van upgraded to a PLGV.
Mike.

 

[suavecarve]

As an aside to your question.. I'm sure you've done all the necessary research, but , some manufactures are quite coy with their payload figures. Have a look at the payload for that vehicle, then have a tot up of everything, and that does mean everything virtually that you're likely to put in and on the van. Passengers, bikes, pets, food, pots and pans, water, etc, etc. Some people have found by the time they have got everything on board for their needs, their actually over the 3500kg limit, unless you have a C1 licence, and the van upgraded to a PLGV.
Mike.

It's a fair to medium suggestion well pointed out.
If it's the 700 it has less than 400 kgs before anything extra.
Our roller team 685 was also quite light on payload and it was the first thing I did after seeing Eddie for an alarm

 

[vkr15s]

Mmm no such thing as a free lunch in my experience

 

[The Wino]

Mmm no such thing as a free lunch in my experience

I think they hope you will mess up the conditions on the interest free credit card and keep using it after the interest free period. I also suspect that a lot who take one out are going to struggle to pay off the balance at the end of the interest free period. It's a different world to when we were younger I think credit was a lot harder to obtain.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[ROTR-2024]

It's a fair to medium suggestion well pointed out.
If it's the 700 it has less than 400 kgs before anything extra.
Our roller team 685 was also quite light on payload and it was the first thing I did after seeing Eddie for an alarm

Yes, it is the 700 and we totted everything up and it was tight. They have offered to uprate to 3650kg as my licence supports it. The trouble is we have specifc requirements for sleeping and the roller teams are in a minority that offers this.

Regarding the other suggestions - thanks it is appreciated. We have the money for the whole balance but was trying to keep a large chunk back and using the banks as leverage for teh rest but only if it was minimal to zero. As suspected I don't think there is a clean way around this.

 

[suavecarve]

. They have offered to uprate to 3650kg

Appreciating everything is personal but with having the licence I wouldn't hesitate in accepting that offer it LL pay for the interest you want to save ! I think it's over 100 pound a year less VEL at the moment to be over 3500

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Appreciating everything is personal but with having the licence I wouldn't hesitate in accepting that offer it LL pay for the interest you want to save ! I think it's over 100 pound a year less VEL at the moment to be over 3500

Can it not be raised to a higher figure without an mods? Quite often 3850KG is achievable, without mods, or maybe just tyres, are they in need of changing?
Also, if it has a garage, check the total weight allowance for it, sometimes there only 100kg.

Mike.

 

[Jez1966]

Admittedly interest rates were lower at the time.

We had paid off most of our mortgage with a lump sum when we bought our first and second motorhomes. (Endowment)

I just asked if they would lend us some and the way they viewed it was that we could just ask to borrow anything up to the amount we had paid off early.

They were willing to lend us nearly 6 figures within 3 days which was a bit scary! But we could still overpay to get rid of it quicker.

I still wish I had left a tenner in the mortgage account for speedy borrowing at cheap interest

Just a thought in case you wanted to borrow from it, your certain the mortgage is closed?
Though we have repayed the full anount on our mortgage with 1st Direct, the mortgage account is still "active" and we can draw from it
if we wanted to.
It only "closes" at the end of the mortgage period.

 

[suavecarve]

Can it not be raised to a higher figure without an mods? Quite often 3850KG is achievable, without mods, or maybe just tyres, are they in need of changing?
Also, if it has a garage, check the total weight allowance for it, sometimes there only 100kg.

Mike.

Its chassis dependant.
Mine on the heavy transit (ford) could go straight to 4100 but Fiat might be 3650. Others are 3850.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[suavecarve]

Just a thought in case you wanted to borrow from it, your certain the mortgage is closed?
Though we have repayed the full anount on our mortgage with 1st Direct, the mortgage account is still "active" and we can draw from it
if we wanted to.
It only "closes" at the end of the mortgage period.

Excellent thinking. I had never thought of that.
I can't see me needing to borrow money any more but if I do I LL remember this

Cheers

 

[Jez1966]

Excellent thinking. I had never thought of that.
I can't see me needing to borrow money any more but if I do I LL remember this

Cheers

FYI, we were advised by 1st Direct that "unused" accounts are often targeted by fraudsters.
They advised using the account every few month, we just move £1 in and back every few months.

 

[zac]

i wouldn't use bank transfer as i would want to inspect the vehicle on the day and doing a bank transfer will likely mean you need to transfer it beforehand, i paid our balance off on the day using chip and pin (55k). If they didn't offer this, then I would have simply gone with someone else, if they want the sale then they shouldn't be dictating how the balance is paid by only offering one method, also i believe if some is on finance it helps when you have issues later on if they don't play ball.

 

[Lenny HB]

Regarding the other suggestions - thanks it is appreciated. We have the money for the whole balance but was trying to keep a large chunk back and using the banks as leverage for teh rest but only if it was minimal to zero.

I can understand that when be bought our first van back in 2008 we borrowed 15k for the same reason, wife worked for the bank so got very low interest rates.
But tomorrow we have to part with over 50k just to change vans picking up a new Carthago, dealer will only accept bank transfer as now days they get charged a percentage on debit cards.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

I can understand that when be bought our first van back in 2008 we borrowed 15k for the same reason, wife worked for the bank so got very low interest rates.
But tomorrow we have to part with over 50k just to change vans picking up a new Carthago, dealer will only accept bank transfer as now days they get charged a percentage on debit cards.

I guess you can tell them you want to check the new gin palace over and have the full handover before you do the transfer and they part with the keys?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Jev88]

Don't over commit.

You can buy a serviceable MH for as little as £15K.
That doesn't mean don't buy a newer or nicer one for more

Things can go wrong. Keep a healthy rainy day fund for repairs and upgrades. Expensive garden ornament otherwise

 

[Lenny HB]

I guess you can tell them you want to check the new gin palace over and have the full handover before you do the transfer and they part with the keys?

Yep.