The Off Topic Topic

[garbon]

For other purchases - for me furniture, laptop, white goods etc. They will lose value the second I buy them. So it's not like for like from savings - I'll get less back for spending actual cash. But I want the benefit, so credit.

This is odd to me. I would just pay for these things outright (ones I can afford) and be done with it. Who wants to be monitoring to make sure all the payments went through when they were meant to let alone the interest rates?

[Josquius]

Interesting what people find preferable. I like to pay for things in full and then forget about it. The object is to leave my income as free of rents, charges and subscriptions as possible. That way I know I have £x a month that could theoretically be spent on any silly thing that catches my fancy. And I like x to be a very high proportion of my income.

So we do buy brand new cars with a single payment, my wife drives them until the frequency of repairs becomes irritating then we sell and buy another new one.

Just skoda estates btw nothing fancy.

Without shade, I feel like that's a privileged position that not many can take.  Like I know when I was growing up and my parents were spending lots of money on their kids, they never bought a new car outright, always financed. Then once we were all gone / their investments paid off then they only buy new cars with a full payment.

Similarly, when I bought my first (and only) car, I could not have afforded to buy it outright. Decades later with no kids, if I needed to buy a car, I'd likely buy outright.

I'd say its totally the opposite. It sounds like its based in the traditional working class position- debt is bad, live within your means, save your money in a big tin under the sink (my nanna used to do this), etc...
The only privileged part is in buying a new car rather than just discounting the very thought of such a thing and buying something a few years old.

It definitely has its cons as well as its pros when someone with such values gets into a position where they would be best served investing, overly avoiding debt, etc...

Its also interesting how in the modern day there's almost a sort of hump of financial responsibility where you drop to the lower reaches of working class and below it into the non-working class where you come to conspicuous consumption and loans for ridiculous things.

[Sheilbh]

For other purchases - for me furniture, laptop, white goods etc. They will lose value the second I buy them. So it's not like for like from savings - I'll get less back for spending actual cash. But I want the benefit, so credit.

This is odd to me. I would just pay for these things outright (ones I can afford) and be done with it. Who wants to be monitoring to make sure all the payments went through when they were meant to let alone the interest rates?

I've never worries about checking whether payments go through. It's always just been a Direct Debit - needed to move them around to make sure they're after I get paid and make sure I've got the right money in the right account, but that's like a minute or two on the banking apps.

Although in fairness a lot of those I'd do on credit card in normal. I mean more if I wanted to redecorate, say, so needed them all at once.

[Josquius]

I don't trust credit cards. The whole thing of them charging you the month after the spending makes it too hard to keep track and I always suspect they're cheekily changing the settings so I'm not just paying everything off.

[crazy canuck]

I don't trust credit cards. The whole thing of them charging you the month after the spending makes it too hard to keep track and I always suspect they're cheekily changing the settings so I'm not just paying everything off.

The solution is to prepay so you are always sure you have no amount outstanding.

[Grey Fox]

I don't trust credit cards. The whole thing of them charging you the month after the spending makes it too hard to keep track and I always suspect they're cheekily changing the settings so I'm not just paying everything off.

Is the UK a lawless eldorado for swindles?

Quebec has robusts consumers laws in addition to one side can't change contracts willy nilly.

I'm just aghast how so many of you guys have 30k$+ in savings to buy cars.

I don't want to buy a used car in Quebec. Our weather & non existent inspection system makes it a too risky endeavour for my taste.

[Habbaku]

I don't trust credit cards. The whole thing of them charging you the month after the spending makes it too hard to keep track and I always suspect they're cheekily changing the settings so I'm not just paying everything off.

Auto-pay exists. 

[Habbaku]

I'm just aghast how so many of you guys have 30k$+ in savings to buy cars.

It's...inefficient, to say the least. But I suspect I would be horrified by most people's portfolios and cash management, so I try to ignore it.

[Grey Fox]

I'm just aghast how so many of you guys have 30k$+ in savings to buy cars.

It's...inefficient, to say the least. But I suspect I would be horrified by most people's portfolios and cash management, so I try to ignore it.

You would. I have some money from an insurance payout that with contractor delays will sit unused for 3 to 6 months. I want to put in some mutual fund but my SO is like "it's not worth it".

 

[Habbaku]

  A tale I've heard many a time from friends and family.

As a contrast, my brother is effectively paying for his new car via new checking account bonuses. 

[Zanza]

My car payments are directly deducted from my payroll.

[Tamas]

I was looking around a bit and it seems to me the salary sacrifice EV buying company my employer is signed up with is little more than a scam.

Like, the net cost quotes they were giving me, I am pretty sure I could get the same rates on the market. I am saying pretty sure because the market ones don't include insurance so I'd have to do that myself but I have done some googling for averages on that.

So they are drastically overpricing their offers so swallow all the gains I could made by using my pre-tax salary for the purchase.

Essentially their proposal is that instead of paying my tax after a portion of my salary, I should give that tax amount to them rather than the state, for the DUBIOUS benefits of not having to sort car insurance myself and the added complexity of having my car rental lease linked to my employment status.

[crazy canuck]

I'm just aghast how so many of you guys have 30k$+ in savings to buy cars.

It's...inefficient, to say the least. But I suspect I would be horrified by most people's portfolios and cash management, so I try to ignore it.

Check back with me when you have a family, and you encounter fairly significant unexpected or even expected expenses.  When that happens to you more than once, you start building a bit of a financial cushion.

It's a lot easier when you only have to worry about yourself.

[crazy canuck]

I was looking around a bit and it seems to me the salary sacrifice EV buying company my employer is signed up with is little more than a scam.

Like, the net cost quotes they were giving me, I am pretty sure I could get the same rates on the market. I am saying pretty sure because the market ones don't include insurance so I'd have to do that myself but I have done some googling for averages on that.

So they are drastically overpricing their offers so swallow all the gains I could made by using my pre-tax salary for the purchase.

Essentially their proposal is that instead of paying my tax after a portion of my salary, I should give that tax amount to them rather than the state, for the DUBIOUS benefits of not having to sort car insurance myself and the added complexity of having my car rental lease linked to my employment status.

Yeah, that sounds weird.  Normally fleet discounts are pretty good.  And also, normally if an employer wants to give an employee a car as a perk, the car is provided, and then the value of that perk is a taxable benefit.

What you're describing doesn't have much of an upside so I wonder why your employer is even doing it?

[Sheilbh]

It's not for providing a company car.

Basically it's a lease from the employer which the employee pays from gross salary. So the employee's tax bill is reduced because they're paying from gross not net. The financing company does a deal with the employer over payment of the payroll tax (which includes it as a benefit in kind) but I think there's normally a tax benefit for them because they're normally for socially "good" things.

It's common here for things like childcare, travel (EVs, bikes, train season tickets etc). But the perk is you pay from gross salary not net disposable income - not the provision of, say, company cars or workplace childcare.