An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir May 2018 www.dfmagazine.ie 34 | By RoBERt hALPIn, FInAnCE oFFICER At AnSAC CREDIt unIon 1. Avoid Over Stretching Pretty much everyone has a budget in mind when looking to buy a car. But not everyone sticks to it; those quick-witted car sales people tend to be pretty good at their jobs after all. Here at ANSAC, we'll be expecting a surge of car loan applications in the run up to July and what I can't stress enough to our Members is - Don't commit to too high a repayment! your car loan could be for a period of 5 years and what you can afford today just might not be feasible a few years down the track. 2. Avoid Under Stretching Also ask yourself how long you plan on owning the car? If you expect to be changing it again in three years' time for ex- ample, do yourself a massive favour and make sure your repayment schedule will see your loan cleared by then. 3. The new or second-hand conundrum It's all about circumstances with this one. yes, depreciation in the context of a new car is a nasty, nasty word but does it really affect you? If you were to buy a new car for €20,000 that you plan to keep for 10 years the resale value isn't really a concern. In basic terms, the car has cost you €2,000 p.a. Equally a second-hand car you purchase for €6,000 that you keep for 3 years would cost you €2,000 p.a. less what little money you could claw back when selling it on. There's also the maintenance costs to consider when deciding between new and second-hand. 4. Consider the budgetary knock-on effects. We always remind our car loan customers to think of the triple whammy here – insurance, tax and fuel! It's easy to just look at the loan repayments when assessing the affordability of a car. Don't be afraid to get a few insurance quotes based on a perspective purchase before you go ahead with your decision. Sometimes it's just better to follow your wallet and not your heart. 5. Haggle While I've mostly been talk- ing about what you can af- ford to repay in terms of your loan, there's no better way to have lower repayments than to get a more favour- able price in the first place. Dealers often have quarterly targets which determine whether or not they get their bonuses. So don't be afraid to push a little harder at the end of a quarter. And shop around – there's nothing like the fear of losing your custom to a rival to make a dealer pull out all the stops. 5 TIPS ON FINANCING YOUR CAR Call 018554489 to talk to ANSAC Credit Union about a Car Loan TODAY

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