And how much of your disposable income is allocated to the bike...?
Yep and not a lot thanks to biggish deposit (thanks to tax rebate) 🙂 and on 0%
Disposable income, WTF is that??
It's the money you spend on buying new bits I think
Yep, spent a lot but it's about 4% of my monthly, about 2% joint.
Why wouldn't you take advantage of 0%
Get 0%, save what you would have paid off, clear it at the end so you pay no interest. Takes a bit of willpower but you can actually make a bit from that. The last bike I financed it was about 5% of disposable income so entirely doable.
tmb467 - Member
It's 50% of the money you spend on buying new bits I think
FIFY 🙂
This is all very promising!
As long as you can still negotiate a decent discount with these 0% deals (otherwise you are just paying interest in a different way) I guess there is no harm. But it goes against my golden rule of never borrowing to finance anything unless there is a good chance that it will increase in value faster than the interest rate, which doesn't apply to bikes unfortunately.
The question is IF you lost your job could you afford it?
Forget the shop now pay on the never ever mentality of Labour (and now) the coalition.
Hora the answer is no....And neither could I afford the mortgage
Yes Hora but then the bike would get sold.
At the rate I change bikes I would have had 6 bikes before paying the first one off.
I purchased a new frame with bigish deposit and 0%. Just saved £20 on car insurance and £13 by keeping my old phone and going SIM only per month leaving only £15 to find...which I could probably find by using the car less and the bike more each month.
PPI paid for my last bike purchase, new one is a long term project, paid for as I purchase the parts required.
Don't do credit terms anymore, cash is king
Cash is king. If you've got it.
I'd see the payments as what would be paid on gym membership. Plus commuting on the rat bike will help.
When you buy on 0 percent finance the shops most of the time will only sell at RRP.
In these days of a buyers market the LBS will knock a significant amount off or at least give you a sweeteners to close the deal. If they don't just go elsewhere.
As previously mentioned it's all good until the money stops coming in so just save your hard earned. You will enjoy the bike better knowing it's yours.
And if your bike gets nicked your still paying for it,I don't get credit anymore I've taken the "iff I can't afford it I can't have it" approach towards buying things,the furr coat no knickers doesn't appeal to me anymore.
I dont earn a bad wage but I drive a 2k car and ride a 08 frame.
I 'could' get a Blur Trc frame or a newish BMW but I wouldnt know why Im buying them, what 'I deserve it' craving or who am I impressing?
Spend your money on holidays and doing stuff not a bicycle. Especially if you already have 2+
What would be paid on gym membership? Is your gym 70-100 a month?
25 round my way which buys you sod all bikes! 🙂
But you could buy a 4k bike on 0% and then put the 4k in an ISA earning 4% with the tax break. If it goes south just pay it off early.
Why not just pay for the bike and not owe the 4k?
Bought my Mount Vision on 0% back in 2004, still got it today.
Every other bike since then - Wolf Ridge 6.8, Boardman hybrid, Mango singlespeed, Mekk Potenza, Dolan L'Etape carbon frame - have all been bought cash.
Don't think I'd buy another bike on the tick with hindsight.
I've had a bike on 0%. I have the savings to buy it outright, but it doesn't make any sense to blow your savings and loose the interest you get. As said above if things go wrong I've got the money to pay off the bike. IMO it's always best to go for 0% if you have the savings to cover your purchase.
Why not just pay for the bike and not owe the 4k?
Cos you could be making good money on that 4k assuming you've got a 0% finance deal on the bike.
All depends on total ownership cost though, how much discount you'd get by paying up front compared to what you'd make on the 4k assuming no initial discount on the bike for taking a 0% finance deal.
Personally aside from what someone said above about not taking out finance unless the object appreciates, i.e. houses, I work on the rule of if you haven't got the cash you can't afford it... if you do have the cash, make deal so you make the most of it.
Then OP concentrate on saving a savings buffer for your mortgage and forget the live-now bit. Better to sleep assured/peace of mind that youve got a few months+ mortgage cover?
Soon every month we'll be £800 a month better off when my lad moves from nursery (fees) to school. So a holiday- the first since 2009 is on the books.
Or should I splurge ££ on credit I'd struggle to afford if I lost my job.
Why did the last two governments make debt so sociably acceptable?
It's about offsetting the cost of the bike, if you can save more by paying cash then do it that way but it's worth thinking about.
Cheers all this has definitely given me food for thought. The only thing I have ever had to repay as such is my mortgage. It's easy to assume that you'll have a job etc and be able to pay but it would be foolish to. I think a compromise has to be to put down a quarter of the cost as a deposit to bring down monthly payments to a reasonable level. Or save and buy second hand, I could be waiting a while.
Disposable income, WTF is that??
Money that you throw in the bin.
£15 per week direct debit into a savings account called bike account and when I need anything bike related, I use money from this account, obviously builds up over time!
@ jinny rm - I really admire your financial discipline. 😀 Nice one dude, why have I never done this? 😳
I bought a frame on 0% in 2011 no one was offering deals other than finance at the time. I had the cash in an interest bearing account but why loose the interest on my savings when there was no cash saving to be had?
However, buying a bike that you can't really afford a on poor rate finance deal is a totally different proposal. It didn't stop a younger version of myself blowing most of my wages on motor bike finance deals at 27.9 APR!
"Why not just pay for the bike and not owe the 4k?"
Same reason i do all my day to day spending on a 0%cc and make minimum payments each month - meanwhile sticking the rest of the monthly payment in my savings(although atm its premium bonds as they seem to be giving me a better return) then at the end of the 0% i pay it off in full.
If your buying the bike anyway and can get a decent deal on 0% then itd be silly not to. Especially in todays bike industry where popular models and sizes are selling out and dont require discounting
FFS, nearly a full page and no-one has got the correct answer yet!
It's the Mrs radar innit?
£100 per month sounds better/is less detectable than £4k in one chunk.
Keep up!
People will buy a FOUR GRAND bike on credit?
Madness. If you dont have the income why spend so much proportionally? I buy bits, used or strictly reduced bits.
Each to their own and all but still I buy a secondhand frame- it loses not much. I buy new/RRP I'd lose thousands in just over a years use. Theres me agonising over spending a grand on a road bike.
Werent we taught about debt as children?
But why is debt so socially unacceptable ?
Folk seem to shy away & get awkward about it, like it's some shameful thing that needs to be hidden.
Saving up for something & buying does net you a good feeling, but if using 0% just reverses the process of saving up, why is it so bad...
It's splashing £4k on a bike that worries me. 😕
Like Hora, I go SH, these days, & drive older cars. Just don't get the kick from new stuff any more.
It's probably our age Hora... 😐
I know but Ive never bought a brand new mountain bike.
My CK wheels back in 2004 were built by Big Al/bikeshack Scotland as the cheapest grey import. The only full price item I bought was a 04 Heckler frame on 0%. Everything else was reduced or 2ndhand. If I earnt 100k I'd buy a 4k bike. If I earnt 30k and lived in a pokey flat, rented or shared I wouldnt.
0% means nothing if it loses 50% in a year. Anywaaaaay
If you're gonna buy a bike on tick, there's only one way to do it - 0% interest credit card.
This is how I bought my iMac. I had the money in the bank, Mrs PP gets a discount at Apple stores, so I walked in, paid nearly £100 less than the RRP, then had 14 months to pay it off whilst my money sat in the bank and earned a bit of interest. Win-Win situation!
I've currently got £2000 sitting on another card after changing my motorbike (that's the price difference plus accessories) which I have 24 months to pay off at 0%
Don't be using store credit, play them at their own game.
" but if using 0% just reverses the process of saving up, why is it so bad..."
It doesnt though
What it does is encourage folk to look at the monthly and go - yep i can afford that see it all the time in colleagues
With no thought to how long they need to afford that and how much more than the ticket its costing them.
How ever when we went through a round of redundancies recently they were crapping it - as the little montlys soon add up to be a big monthly. - the new iphone at 40 quid a month , the new (rented) audi/vw/ bmw at 4-500 a month plus what ever house hold goods they have on it.
+1 trail rat. I could buy a Audi on credit or lease car.
If I lost my job what then?
You could sell the bike but you'd be 2k down overnight, no bike to ride and still paying off the balance ontop.
Savings in the bank are savings intimes of need (food and mortgage) Peterpoddy- not to service your shiny debts though. Live within your means and save.
If you can get stuff on interest free credit and at a decent purchase price you'd be a fool to pay with real cash, even if you had it. Obviously you have to discipline yourself to make sure you're not over stretching yourself with monthly commitments, but the vast majority of people can do that. I usually pay less that £100 a month and only have one bike on the go at any one time. My wife easily spends that on clothes every month, whereas I buy maybe one pair of jeans and a T-shirt every leap year so I spend less on bikes than she does on clothes. That's my justification anyway.
I've bought all my bikes on either 0% or C2W, I wouldn't dream of actually saving up and paying for a bike with cash! Most shops run their 0% deals based on the actual sale value so you can still haggle on price or buy sale bikes.
Hora is delighted with his shiny new wheels
[img] 
[/img]