PCP - things to be aware of?

[bitchstewie]

Looking at changing and historically I've paid for vehicles outright but the car I'm looking at comes with a considerable dealer contribution if you go the PCP route.

My understanding is that whilst they're not going to shout it too loudly you can usually pay off dealer PCP finance at any time you want without a penalty - but obviously this is something I need to check and confirm.

Are there any other "tricks" to beware of beyond the possibly tagging on of finance "extras" if you don't query/confirm everything?

I'm not one to get pressured into signing up there and then and ideally I'll get a copy of any agreement and do my best to understand the small print.

[Alucidnation]

There are about forty bazillion threads on this if you use the search function.

[Sheepshanks]

You can Withdraw 14 days after signing (note that will usually be a few days before you get the car). Once you tell the finance company you want to Withdraw the deal is frozen and you'll pay back what you borrowed (no fees), plus a daily rate since you got the car - so a few quid.

I must admit that it baffles me why they don't claw back the deposit contribution but there must be some law that stops that as they'd obviously do it if they could. I withdrew from a VW deal and VWFS were a delight to deal with, and I never thought I'd say that about anything VW related.

The only iffy bit is if you get anything free that is tied to the finance - ie free servicing for 2yrs etc.

You can Settle anytime. You have to give a month notice and they can charge a months interest. So two months in total and still a relatively small amount. If there's any fees (document fees etc) then you have to pay those but often they're nominal amounts now, but watch they're not hundreds.

[bitchstewie]

Sheepshanks said:

You can Withdraw 14 days after signing (note that will usually be a few days before you get the car). Once you tell the finance company you want to Withdraw the deal is frozen and you'll pay back what you borrowed (no fees), plus a daily rate since you got the car - so a few quid.

I must admit that it baffles me why they don't claw back the deposit contribution but there must be some law that stops that as they'd obviously do it if they could. I withdrew from a VW deal and VWFS were a delight to deal with, and I never thought I'd say that about anything VW related.

The only iffy bit is if you get anything free that is tied to the finance - ie free servicing for 2yrs etc.

You can Settle anytime. You have to give a month notice and they can charge a months interest. So two months in total and still a relatively small amount. If there's any fees (document fees etc) then you have to pay those but often they're nominal amounts now, but watch they're not hundreds.

Thank you, delivery is about 3 months from order though I guess the finance agreement isn't signed/drawn up until the car's delivered.

The contribution is several thousand quid which is why I want to be damned sure that there's no massive catch.

I'm not looking to pull a fast one but would like to be sure that if I simply decide after 3 or 6 months that I want to pay it off I'm not going to get stung for interest on the full thing or have to pay back the contribution.

Whole system seems nuts

[Andehh]

Read the contract super carefully, but I got a £300-400 off a second had Peugeot we bought, then paid the finance off a week later. Very easy, but everything you need will be in the contract.

[Sheepshanks]

bhstewie said:

Thank you, delivery is about 3 months from order though I guess the finance agreement isn't signed/drawn up until the car's delivered.

The contribution is several thousand quid which is why I want to be damned sure that there's no massive catch.

I'm not looking to pull a fast one but would like to be sure that if I simply decide after 3 or 6 months that I want to pay it off I'm not going to get stung for interest on the full thing or have to pay back the contribution.

Whole system seems nuts

It's all governed by the Consumer Credit Act so it doesn't really matter what it says in the contract - although it will of course be drawn up to be compliant anyway. They'll usually want you to sign the docs a few days before collection. Withdrawing (within 14 days) is the slightly iffy thing, although I did it on wife's Tiguan with £2750 deposit contribution with no issues at all. Settling anytime is absolutely fine.