Bagged Myself A Job! Finally.. Need Help Though!

[capoot]

Yayy!! After 3 long months since graduating i've finally got a job as a Graduate Sales Consulant, (Which I Really Wanted!)

Yes!!

But i've accpeted the job etc and they have a policy to use your own car but get an allowance as expenses per mile..

I currently drive the VRS below, but im scared of damaging or blowing it up and i am thinking of getting a newer diesel.

How does this work? Could i take it out on PCP for instance using the expenses to pay?? Is anyone else in this situation?

Dan

Edited 30 September, 2009 by capoot

[Hairy Chris]

I'd wait at least 6 months (probation period ?) before considering changing your car. You would then have a fairly good idea as to how much expenses you get each month and be able to work out which way to approach changing your car, either PCP, loan or whatever.

Congrats on your good fortune with the job

[Lady Elanore]

The thing about expenses is you only get them if you incur them (well that’s how it’s supposed to work ). But a PCP means you will have to pay for the car no matter what. It is a type of HP stylee agreement with a balloon payment option at the end.

I recommended them when I sold cars and have used PCP twice in recent car purchase for myself. If the market crashes (as it did) the PCP protected me from owning a large lump of negative equity. You often get and incentive to take them out from the manufacturer, effectively reducing the total amount repayable by a useful amount. I would recommend that you let a salesman talk you through it and then compare the prices of your payment options. Don’t forget you can haggle just as hard with a PCP as you can with regular finance.

[Phil-E]

It depends how much you will use your car for work related purposes really.

I get a small allowance every year (can't remember how much) and then I get my mileage back. If it will only be a small ammount of milage (like me) this will more than cover your expenses for using the car.

The only way you would get the allowance all at once is if they have a company car scheme where you get so much per month towards paying for the car etc.

Phil

[Buster]

Congrats buddy on both counts, job and the one you want!

Let us know how you get on!

[Interphase]

Congrats

My job works the same - I get just over 40p for every business mile I do, payable in arrears. If you want to keep the Octy and have a second car you're potentially into expensive insurance because of having your no claims used on one car.. unless you can get a joint policy, which may be pricey.

TBH I consider business miles boring, so like to do them in a car I'm happy with and enjoy driving

[gadgetman]

Are you only getting per mile rebate, or an allowence as well?

EDIT - remember you'll need business use on your insurance - likely Class 1

[capoot]

This is fantatsic advice guys cheers!

From my understanding its 0.40p per mile i do.

The role is a sales consultant role, with HQ in Leeds and myself being based at home in the midlands. So i'd be covering at least a 240 mile round trip every week to leeds.

I'm just thinking that they said an average sales consultant covers circa 35k per year, my Octy is at 56 now so in a 2 years its going be 110k ish, its in pretty good nick and id rather not ruin it!

Dan

[PastyBoy]

... but im scared of damaging or blowing it up

Is there a reason for this? Are business miles much more deangerous than leisure miles? Does your car not want to work for a living? Is it happy on benefits?

From my understanding its 0.40p per mile i do.

an average sales consultant covers circa 35k per year, my Octy is at 56 now so in a 2 years its going be 110k ish, its in pretty good nick and id rather not ruin it!

Adding extra mileage very quickly is the only real issue you'll face and i don't htink that warrants "ruining" your car.

It however will bring servicing round faster and reduce the time scale for wear and tear parts replacements (tyres, bushes, brakes, etc) so might be worth finding out what the company's policy is be helping out with that.

Also be good to do some backwards math and work out the minimum mpg you need to acheive to make sure you're still being recouped by your work

103p per litre x 4.5 = 463p per gallon / 40p per mile = 11.575 miles

you'd have to be bloody eager to get to your appointments to do 11mpg!!

oh and Congrats on the job btw!

[cheezemonkhai]

FWIW class 1 might not cover you for sales depending on the type of work so do check with your insurer.

Also as above wait until you're settled in the job before you splash out on a new car.

[trundlenut]

40p a mile is only up to 10k miles, after that you can only get about 26p a mile without it being taxed as a benefit.

Also as CM says if you are doing sales (and in particular carrying samples) class 1 insurance won't cover you.

[capoot]

Wow, some wealth of experience here!

So i need to sort the insurance!

I was thinking about having it serviced sooner (due in Jan) then seeing how i go for a bit settling into the job.

I was also thinking that the intense milage jump could do more harm than good, but obviously i'd have to keep an eye on the things that are probally going to wear first, as mentioned above.

I'm thinking i should probally keep the vRS and see how i go for 6 months or so?

Dan

[gadgetman]

I'd be asking for an allowence or a company car myself. Mileage alone wont keep up running costs per mile.

All in, when I last did this calculation, my Mk1 Octavia cost 30p/mile to cover everything (tax, insurance, maintenance, road tax). IIRC it didnt cover the payments.

Also remember if on HP, you may have a mileage restriction over which the hire/lease firm will bill you for.

[auroan]

Also remember if on HP, you may have a mileage restriction over which the hire/lease firm will bill you for.

Which HP agreement you looking at that says that ? :confused::confused:

Lease maybe but not hire purchase. And you would only incurr mileage penalties on a PCP agreement if you were using the option to hand it back and walk away.

[gadgetman]

If you default or use a hand back clause, there is almost always a mileage penalty. SMBO works in this area where cars are handed back, and she has to recover the costs for mileage, wear/tear, removing none std items, and recovery of those people swapped out before they got it back (alloys, ICE/sat nav etc).

PCP or lease it's 100% certain.

[auroan]

Like I said only if you hand back on PCP, but you said HP which is totally different to a lease or PCP. You don't agree a mileage limit on a HP agreement at all.

[Lady Elanore]

Another neat feature of PCPs is they are nearly always based on an HP type agreement (it will state on the forms). This not only gives you the advantages listed earlier, but gives you the confidence of HP’s rule of halves and thirds. Once you have paid a third off the finance company will need a court order to repossess the car (hopefully unlikely as you will meet all your payments) but the really useful feature is the fact that once you have paid off half the cost of the car (this includes the deposit and the figure is usually quoted in teeny print somewhere on the contract) you can hand the car back to the finance company and walk away free. This means you don’t have to go all the way to the end of the PCP agreement and it is something I exercised when I had a SEAT Toledo. It owed a lot more than it was worth so I handed it back. The car was in very good condition (reasonable wear and tear is allowed) and within the agreed PCP mileage agreed (otherwise about 6p/mile would have been incurred to the excess mileage) and a transporter turned up, the car driven on and that was that! Very easy and sweet. There is a possibility that the Finance company may not want to lend you money again as they really don’t want a car being returned, they are after all, a finance company, not a dealer.

It really is worth taking a calculator and a pen and paper to a showroom.

[gadgetman]

Like I said only if you hand back on PCP, but you said HP which is totally different to a lease or PCP. You don't agree a mileage limit on a HP agreement at all.

Indeed, but these days as Amanda mentions, ALL car finance these days has clauses about early termination. Above average mileage is likely to incur costs.

As I say, SWMBO deals with car finance defaults/handbacks etc all day long. She has to ring smug people that have walked away after 1/2 term and actually inform them they owe monet for something or other - usually mileage and damage.

As always, check your finance agreement carefully

[auroan]

All I can say is of all my finance agreements ( I've kept everyone for each car I've bought on finance) only the PCP one has the milage clause in the small print.

[antrich1968]

If you are going to have a fairly new car I think you should be looking for a monthly car allowance (remember this will get taxed) and also paid so many pence per mile on top when you use the car. Something along the lines of £500 pcm car allowance and 12p - 14p a mile towards the fuel.

I have just scapped a 1993 2.0 Cavalier Diplomat that I bought in 2003 with 21k mile on it for £2300, I ran it for 6 years and put in total 64k miles on it, Servicing the car myself, tyres, mots ect came to £2700 (this excludes road tax and insurance), I had a vauxhaul trade club card, which kept the costs of genuine vauxhall parts down. Over the past 5 years I put approx 19300 business miles on it, at 40p per mile. After taking the cost of the fuel out of this I was left with £5k. I paid about £1k less for my new Octavia than someone who had nothing to scrap (forget the sales BS of the £3.5K scrappage allowance off list, no one ever pays list!). Effectively I had 6 years free motoring,

I would not want run a failry new car (at 40p per mile) which still had plenty of deprecation to go, and be doing about 30k miles a year, as someone else has said once you go above 10k miles a year the rate drops to 26p per mile. I think you will end up out of pocket unless you get a monthly allowance and a mileage rate ontop.

[gadgetman]

All I can say is of all my finance agreements ( I've kept everyone for each car I've bought on finance) only the PCP one has the milage clause in the small print.

I think this is only a recent thing to stop finance firms getting stung by HP handbacks that are returned with significant mileages leaving them with a huge loss.

[auroan]

How recent ? My A4's HP agreement from October 08 doesn't have anything in it about mileage. The only reason I'm querying it, is because under the consumer credit act I'm sure a straight HP agreement can only penalise on the condition of a car at the 1/2 rule hand back not the mileage.

[KenONeill]

Which will be in better mechanical condition (assuming both dealer serviced by the book and same date of first registration), a car that's done 50_000 miles or one that's done 150_000?

[auroan]

beside the point really, we're talking whats written in a HP agreement not what the value of a car is at a possible hand back.

[capoot]

:S Wow, totally lost me there guys!!

Interesting read though, as stated above, im probally going run the octy for a few months till im settled, past probation (sp) etc. Then i can be sure i get on with the role, possibly look for something a touch newer..

I'll be certainly taking into account all thats been said in here so far!

Dan