noob question alert - I've never bought a car on finance before so this is new territory for me.

When you buy a car on HP finance.....

1) what does that mean in terms of insurance. i.e. would I be the registered keeper and owner, or would I be the registered keeper and the finance company is the registered owner....?

If the finance company must be declared as the owner:

2) how does this affect the cost of insurance (if at all)?

3) at the end of the finance deal, presumably the car automatically gets transferred to me. Does this now mean the car has had 2 owners, when I come to sell?

Usually you will be the owner and keeper.

But you must have fully comp insurance whilst there is finance on the vehicle.

you'll be the registered keeper, or else you wouldnt be able to tax it, as insurance and v5 would be in different names, which for insurance point of view makes you the owner,

as your probably aware its illegal to sell the car on with outstanding finance on it, and if you do it comes under fraud should the HP company wish to prosecute you for selling.

A tip for if you do buy on finance, take it out for as long as possible normally 5 years, this reduces your payments.

after 2 and a half years, order your next one, then call your finance company up and ask them to come and collect your vehicle, once your in possession of your new one of course

There are no come backs either as once you have paid half of any agreement you can walk away

So you could have a new car every 2 and a half years if you wanted, even sooner if you go the 4 year route

You hand it back sooner usually as its traditionally when half of the agreement has been paid, and there would normally be a deposit.

Cheers.

I've already ordered (back in Nov)...on the 1.5% flat rate, over 3 years....with the intention all being well to pay it off in half that. The amount of finance is < 50% of the price of the car, and I plan on keeping it for 3 years at least.

Confused.com ask for "who owns the car" and "whose name is on the registration document" - when I specify "company" as the the owner, a lot fewer quotes come back.

I know I should really ask the dealer this - I'm just lying low for a bit as they're meant to be contacting me about handing my p/x at the start of Feb, before I get my car in March, and I'm not looking forward to getting a nasty loan car for a month. The longer I kep my car for the better!