car finance brokers are a rort!!

[flappist]

Originally Posted by Hunter

I know they pass the fee onto the merchant... I don't see what your point is? Usually they tell you what the CC surcharge is and that you will pay it...

They don't run off that, they run off people paying stupidly high interest because they don't pay it out on time. In fact they probably make an absolute fortune off that... They also bank on the fact that people are more likely to buy if there is a line of credit available...

Its a tool that can be very powerful but also very destructive. If you misuse a credit card you will get bitten but if you use it properly you can purchase things that you need now. For example, if our washer blew up tomorrow we would not have any money to buy a new one AT THIS TIME because we're saving like mad for a wedding and paying for the car. But we could buy one on a credit or store card and then pay it back in the coming weeks (and save a little less this month). But we'd get the item, get it going and then pay it back as soon as we get time. You pay more for the ability to have it now. That's how loans and credit work...

Ok, I give up.........

[zx10]

I think some of you guys watch too much ACA/today tonight.

Interest free is not a rort. The only people who complain about interest free are the dumb s who don't know what they are talking about.

Case: I purchase $5000 worth of goods on interest free. The interest free period was 36 months. The total profit from the sale was 14% (due to the goods being in a catalogue sale). The interest free period cost the retailer 12%. Even if I was able to negotiate a 5% discount (pretty pointless for the retailer as they would be losing money) I would have only saved $250.

Now I agree that $250 is more money than I would want to throw away. But by me using the interest free offer I was able to put my $5000 into a bank account which pays 8% pa for the 3 years.

Result: I earn $1200 over the 3 years (would be more when you consider that the interest is paid monthly and would compound). If I had paid cash I "may" have saved myself $250 + monthly account fee of 2.99 per month, which over 3 years is $107.65.

End result is I am up over $800. I don't see anything wrong with that.

[zx10]

On original topic. Some car brokers are criminals, so are some homeloan brokers.

Just look at what has happened in the US. The whole reason the housing market is rooted over there is due to greedy finance companies writing loans to sub prime mortgage candidates with adjusting interest rates.

Bottom line is that so long as you read what your signing everyone should be AOK.

[Hunter]

Originally Posted by stang65

If you go to a Harvey Norman store and pay full price for something you have no one to blame but yourself. HN staff get paid commission and have flexibility to move on price.

Depends on what you buy - you really think they'll "cut you a deal" on a $200 piece of kit? Highly unlikely.

I worked for a HN store for 9 years. The only people that purchased interest free were the ones that didn`t have the money to buy outright.

Funny since my xbox was on it but surprise, I had the cash on me at the time to buy it. I didn't because I wanted to keep it in reserve for something else. Deferred payment and interest period... paid less for the 360 than it was going for elsewhere... so how am I losing out here exactly? At the time I got it for $200 cheaper because they were having a sale (all up I paid $800 for the console, controllers and games - would've been over $1000 if I bought it frm EB or whatever). According to flappist this somehow means I lost out...

Interest free as mentioned earlier as so long as you pay the amount within the interest free period there are no charges.

Except for the silly account keeping fee but meh, most finance companies have crap like that these days.

[azaxr8]

no you don't get it. clearly.

If a TV is ticketed at $3000 then thats what you will pay for it on hoc.
but that tv is really worth $2500 so if u pay cash thats what ull get it for. Therefore if u bargain ofcourse the sales assistant is gonna knock $500 off it and the store is going to still break even and profit. WORK IT OUT?

The prices are risen when interest free applies and only the dumbs*its who pay $3000 for it with cash should not buy anything.

therefore $500 of that 3000 is profited which interms is what? 24 months interest free on a certain interest rating.

i hope u, understand that? far out.

Hidden fees apply, even to the people that are braindead and cant work it out

[The Yeti]

Originally Posted by flappist

Ok, I give up.........

In support of flappist here

you will get bugger all in way og a discount if you sign on to 24 months interest fee infact you can usualy do quite well in th ediscount stakes with a regular cc as the back fees are no where near as high as the never never, and as flappist said once the 24 months is up forget 18 - 25% interes, man, they wach on extra fees and high interest and it just keeps going.

[RATT]

Originally Posted by flappist

Ok, I give up.........

I was wondering when you would..

[Hunter]

Originally Posted by azaxr8

no you don't get it. clearly.

If a TV is ticketed at $3000 then thats what you will pay for it on hoc.
but that tv is really worth $2500 so if u pay cash thats what ull get it for. Therefore if u bargain ofcourse the sales assistant is gonna knock $500 off it and the store is going to still break even and profit. WORK IT OUT?

The prices are risen when interest free applies and only the dumbs*its who pay $3000 for it with cash should not buy anything.

therefore $500 of that 3000 is profited which interms is what? 24 months interest free on a certain interest rating.

i hope u, understand that? far out.

Hidden fees apply, even to the people that are braindead and cant work it out

Wait, let's see, I already paid less for the item than anywhere else... how much less do you think they're going to cut off when they're already $200 cheaper for the same item than everywhere else???? I'm not talking about several thousand dollar items here... I'm talking about small items which don't already have a lot of margin built into them.

Besides which, you're trying to convince us of something we already know: you pay more when you buy using a means other cash... I thought this was already well known and applied to a lot of different payment methods...

What I am saying is that if you use the credit at the RIGHT TIME then you will get a cheaper price - in this instance the xboxes were being sold cheaper than everywhere else so HN could MOVE the stock. Using credit during sales is how you maximise its value. Of course in some sales they won't let you use anything other than cash.

I think you lot think I don't get what you're saying: I do, I'm just pointing out that what you're saying is already well known and not some hidden fee that only the high elders of the church of the dollar know about...

EDIT: Oh and how do you explain a colleague of mine here who bought a big screen plasma for $500 less than the advertised price... and used his GE card? Maybe the store made a loss who knows but he did get it cheaper and I did see him do it (I helped him move it to his house in fact).

[The Mighty Red]

Originally Posted by cycle myth

Do you think just car finance brokers have the monopoly in this?

Think about what a broker does for a living (they need to make money too) and you can see that if you want to do the leg work then you could do better.

Ultimately you pay for convenience and ease.

Is $770 too much to pay for a service? - a plumber cost me $85 just to turn up the other day yet alone fix the problem.

Not that plumbers are unskilled - they are - however many finance professionals are pretty well qualified as well so advice has a value.

Yes $770 is to much to pay a car finance broker who worked for about 2 hours if that on my credit file.....All they basically do is access your credit file and sent it off to would be creditors .....Its not rocket science and is in no way worth what he was trying to charge me.

I guess if your credit rating is poor and you will allow yourself to be ripped off in order to get credit then more fool you

By the way anyone can become a car finance broker with accreditation in as little as 5 days...

A licenced plumber has to go to tech for 4 years to learn his trade .....

[flappist]

It is quite amusing to read back over this.

Those who have done the selling or work in the industry all agree that the interest free thing is a scam.

Those who have bought interest free all have about a zillion reasons why what they did was far better that paying cash because they could not have made a mistake.

It is also interesting to note that HN et al are extending the interest free period and giving advertising an absolute flogging at the moment.

It appears that even those who never have any money and never pay their bills on time are not buying anymore which is a sure sign of a slowing economy....

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by The Mighty Red

So what do these SHARKS do that gives them the right to charge these insane amounts money for so little work and qualifications???

Because they can and people will pay it.

[The Yeti]

Originally Posted by flappist

Those who have bought interest free all have about a zillion reasons why what they did was far better that paying cash because they could not have made a mistake.

Thats because the Retailers and the finance companys are just real good guys and do this as a service to help their customers out LMFAO

[Nappa]

my old man works for aussie and deals with people needing to refinance daily.
One of the biggest problems are these store or GE money cards run by places like Harvey Norms, he's got clients that are deep in debt on the money cards. To me they dont seem like a good idea and my dad has warned me many times not to get involvled with them.

And on another point, when placing a order/deposit on a car that is subject to finance, its a good idea to put in the name of the company you wish to get finance from ie "subject to finance approval from Ford Credit"
if you have a broad "subject to finance" claus means that if you get knocked back by your prefered finacier the dealer can hold you to the deal by obtaining you finance elsewhere..

By the way 90% of new cars i sell are subject to finance approval.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Sorry, i'm not going to quote from here and there.

Agree with Flappist. These businesses offering any sort of credit are doing so to make a handsome profit. Very very few can jig it into their favour.

The lazy, and the free spirits / trendy's who live payslip by payslip will use this to buy their plasma TV's, Ipods etc. And naturally, as mentioned, there is always a good reason to justify it.. Ohhh I make $X a week, and will pay it off in no time etc etc.

Credit has it's place.... but it's my opinion that it's not for things like cars, big screen TV's etc....

CASH IS KING... and ALWAYS WILL BE!

[cycle myth]

I would bet that a Dealer is in a position to do a better deal when you package more purchases together than not.

Example - if you buy the car and the credit from the dealer they have more profit silos to ultimately deliver a better deal.

Like it or not, if you are in debt somewhere you're not paying for it in cash just because the notes are coming out of your wallet.

[OLDFORDNUT]

Originally Posted by Hunter

What fees are you talking about? I get charged $2.99 a month account keeping fee for my GE card (which banks do anyway). Where is this magical $500 fee coming from? Assumedly the other guy also has a similar fee charged to his account. Works out about $35 a year... the commonwealth charges me a lot more than that in fees for money I actually have...

What harvey normans do you shop at? I've used the card several times (not just at harvey norman) and never once have I seen 'interest added to the price' or other nonsense. Besides which, most places will give you a 'lower' price if you pay cash, but usually it ain't much, especially at harvey norman.

The only real catch with these cards is getting done up the khyber on interest if you don't pay it off in time, which a lot of people don't... If you are silly enough to let that happen then that's the way it is... but the fees are as expected from financial institutes and GE are far from the worst. I recall being charged $160 in fees for 3 months' worth of banking with the commonwealth once. :

you are kidding right?
GE charge 28% then add monthly accoun t keeping fee so when added up it works out at 31% but i know one family that are not very well educated and they pay 34%to GE plus monthly fee's.they advertise low rates but they only apply to people with good credit rating and a good job,there real bread and butter is in people with pensions and low income who will sign almost anything to have nice stuff they could never afford anyway else,

[OLDFORDNUT]

ive lost count of how many people ive tried to warn about GE and the like,i always tell them to double what ever the recomended minimum payment is,as the minimum means at end of interest free period they still owe at least half original price and automatically go to 28-34% starting from the date when first signed,its amazing how few understand what its going to cost in the long run

[Hunter]

You do realise that you can pay it out EARLY without incurring any charges? As I said, if you're silly enough to let it run to the interest period starts then well maybe you shouldn't have one...

[OLDFORDNUT]

Originally Posted by Hunter

You do realise that you can pay it out EARLY without incurring any charges? As I said, if you're silly enough to let it run to the interest period starts then well maybe you shouldn't have one...

when people have nothing and you offer them a big carrot they will bite,
lots of these people are not silly as you put it,Just Poor.this is why GE and the like make huge profits, they prey on the unsuspecting

What's so silly about taking on the interest free period? What I did was take advantage of 6 months of interest free on my credit card and put the money I would've spent in my managed funds.

When it came time to pay, I just paid the bill and was left with a nice bit of change in the account.

Interest free is awesome if you use it properly. It's the people who can't handle their cash who subsidise it for the rest of us.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Shounak

What's so silly about taking on the interest free period? What I did was take advantage of 6 months of interest free on my credit card and put the money I would've spent in my managed funds.

When it came time to pay, I just paid the bill and was left with a nice bit of change in the account.

Interest free is awesome if you use it properly. It's the people who can't handle their cash who subsidise it for the rest of us.

Pretty much, if your smart with your money interest free, or even interest can make you money on the side.

[FPV GT40]

Originally Posted by OLDFORDNUT

when people have nothing and you offer them a big carrot they will bite,
lots of these people are not silly as you put it,Just Poor.this is why GE and the like make huge profits, they prey on the unsuspecting

If you do not have the money do not buy it simple, no excuse being poor, poor is relative, I am poor compared to the person that has a collection of 20 Gt's in the back shed of a 5 acre block, as much as I would like that I will not afford it, so I do not get a loan that I can not afford to pay back to get it.

So if people get loans for stuff they want but can not afford, I do not really feel sorry for em, may be work a bit harder to get it, do some OT, get another job, work some week ends etc etc, all of which I have done to afford things that I wanted...

[OLDFORDNUT]

Originally Posted by FPV GT40

If you do not have the money do not buy it simple, no excuse being poor, poor is relative, I am poor compared to the person that has a collection of 20 Gt's in the back shed of a 5 acre block, as much as I would like that I will not afford it, so I do not get a loan that I can not afford to pay back to get it.

So if people get loans for stuff they want but can not afford, I do not really feel sorry for em, may be work a bit harder to get it, do some OT, get another job, work some week ends etc etc, all of which I have done to afford things that I wanted...

good advice Grand Dad

[cycle myth]

Then again - as my Grandfather used to say -

"No point in being poor and looking it"