Financing the purchase of a motorhome
The dream of owning a motorhome is one that many people harbour because of the freedom it affords you. However the realities of buying one can be a bit too much for many people because of the cost of financing the purchase. You can generally use methods of financing that you would use to buy a car, but you might find a few more restrictions on you due to the generally higher costs of a motorhome over a car.
What sort of finance can i use?
Assuming that you haven’t been saving for years and are able to just go out and buy your dream motorhome, you will need some sort of loan in order to finance your purchase. These loans can range from a standard unsecured loan from a mainstream lender through to a hire purchase plan through your dealer. Every type of loan has its advantages and disadvantages, so the most common options and their pros and cons will be discussed here.
Personal unsecured loan
In general you will find a personal unsecured loan from a mainstream lender to offer you the most competitive interest rates. This is because these loans are very much restricted to those with a good credit history and so therefore they are seen as a low risk. A low risk, to lenders, then leads to the application of much lower interest rates on these loans. You can normally expect to see interest rates of around 4% on personal loans between £4000 and £25,000. This level of interest rate will reflect any movement in the Bank of England base rate so make sure you check out all of the products available as you can potentially save yourself some money by shopping around. As this type of loan is unsecured you are also not putting your new motorhome at risk should you run into trouble with your repayments. You will also generally have quite a lot of freedom to make overpayments, or to pay off the loan early and save on interest payments if you wish.
Using a hire purchase plan
This is definitely the favoured option of dealers because you are then tied into them for the lifetime of your loan, which can be a substantial amount of time if your motorhome is expensive. The benefits of this type of loan is that it is easy to arrange and you can do it all as part of your purchase rather than having to secure your loan before you then go and sort out your purchase. There are a number of disadvantages of this type of loan, with the biggest one being the fact that you are securing your loan on your vehicle and so if you run into any problems with your repayments, you will find that your motorhome will be at risk of repossession. You will also find that you will be limited in the amount of flexibility you will have to pay off your loan early, with early repayment charges being in place. You will also not be able to sell on your vehicle privately during the term of the loan.
Other types of loan
If you do not have a good credit score you are likely to have to look elsewhere for your loan. There are a number of options available to you, but perhaps the best one is that of a guarantor loan. You will not be able to borrow more than £10,000 using this type of loan and you will also need to find someone who is willing to guarantee your loan. They will then be responsible for paying your loan off should you default on your payments, so you will need to make sure that they are fully aware of this. You will pay much higher levels of interest on this type of loan than on personal loans because of the higher risk it represents to lenders. You will generally be looking at something between 40% and 50%, but you should also be aware that these rates are still significantly lower than you would be able to get on an bad credit unsecured loan from a direct lender. No matter what options you are thinking of, do your research and use all of the help available.
