Finance

When you’re in the market for a new vehicle, one of the key things to consider is how you plan to pay for it.

Some people decide to save so that they can buy a new car outright, but many others choose to split the cost into regular monthly payments. Using a finance calculator is often the first step in choosing which finance option you go for, as you can work out the monthly costs and contract lengths that suit your circumstances. You can find more information on the different types of car finance below.

There are several things to consider before taking out finance against your vehicle. Would you like to own the car at the end of the term? How much deposit do you have? And what are your annual mileage needs? These are all things a car finance calculator will use to help create a tailored payment plan for you.

At Brown and Gammons MG, we offer flexible finance packages to suit everybody. These include:

Personal Contract Purchase (PCP)
Purchase Plan
Personal contract Hire (contact us for a quote)
Business contract Hire (contact us for a quote)

Read on to discover which of these may be best for you.

PCP finance calculator

PCP is a flexible payment plan that can be tailored to your needs. You can decide what deposit – if any – you would like to put towards your new car, as well as how many months you would like to pay for. Once you provide your estimated annual mileage, the PCP finance calculator will then determine how much your monthly payments are going to be. All payments have fixed interest, so what you pay remains the same each month, with no surprises.

PCP finance is different to some other options as it gives you three options for what you can do at the end of your payment period. You can either:

1. Make a final payment and keep the car.

2. Hand the car back to the finance company with no further payments (as long as the mileage limit hasn’t been exceeded and there’s no damage to the car beyond reasonable wear and tear)

3. Part-exchange the car for another vehicle using the equity towards your deposit.

With the above options, PCP is a particularly useful finance option for people who like to change their car on a regular basis.

Purchase Plan finance calculator.

Another option to explore using our car finance calculator is a Purchase Plan. As with PCP, you can choose whether you wish to finance the whole car or put down a deposit so that your monthly payments are reduced. You also choose how long you want to pay the car off for, and enjoy fixed interest rates throughout the duration.

With this straightforward loan option, the car is yours at the end of the term.

Using our car finance calculator

To start your finance quote, click on the Santander finance calculator above. Next, use the sliders on our calculator to create a tailored payment plan based on your deposit, monthly budget and mileage needs.

If you have a monthly cost in mind, it’s easy to toggle the various options until you land on the terms that best suit you. Switching between our Purchase Plan and PCP finance calculators is also recommended so that you get a full overview of which option could work best for you.

Other things to consider when calculating your finance

Before using our calculator, it’s important that you have a clear idea of your budget and what you can afford to pay. Things that you may want to consider are:

Other monthly outgoings and commitments – is there room in your budget after your other bills to keep on top with the regular monthly payments?

Travel requirements – exceeding your mileage allowance can lead to fees at the end of your payment period, and so you should be confident that the miles you’re agreeing to take into account any holidays or unplanned trips as well as your work commute

Financial security – are you comfortable that you could keep up with the payments if your financial situation was to change, such as a change in salary or unexpected bill?

By keeping these things in mind, you can use our car finance calculator to generate a personalised quote that you’re happy with. Once you have a quote, you can either save this as a PDF or take the next step of getting in touch with us. Use our calculator at the top of the page to generate your own personal quote.

Brown and Gammons Ltd an appointed representative of ITC Compliance Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (their registration number is 313486) permitted activities include acting as a credit broker, not a lender, for the purpose of financial promotions.