Cash Or Loan

[ferret69]

I am going to have a new bathroom, the cost is about £7000, I have £35000 in the bank earning 3% so my question is should I get a loan for £7500 @ 5.2% over 3 years or should I pay cash, I am a pensioner with a weekly income of £210.00.

[JaneDoe2]

my daughter has just bought a bathroom from B&Q with whirlpool (jacussi) top of the range bath and 900mm luxury shower, pedestal bath, new tiling and flooring all for under £3000 fitted -so yes - you are well and truly being ripped off.

[factor-fiction]

Well when we shopped around nearly 10 years our bathroom came to £7000 for all the cabinets, toilet, bath, shower cubicle, spoltlights, wall tiles and floor tiles, so I don't see this price as an obvious rip-off- but I agree he should get some other prices

[rockyracoon]

Jane, that might be top of B&Q range, it won't be so from an upmarket retailer.

[JaneDoe2]

so what rocky - you are just paying for the 'name' when you buy from a 'designer' make, but in fact this was a known designer name from B&Q and they looked around independent retailers before going to B&Q and found them to have better quality products and more choice. Its like people who buy pogganpol (sp) kitchens and pay £25000 just to say they've got one - pathetic snobbery. We bought our bathroom suite at a discount warehouse for under £700 and no -the bath does not leak,is not rusty and actually looks very nice, its a keyhole shower bath with vanity pedestal and nice toilet. The tiles cost around £200 from tile discount warehouse and the flooring £150 fitted by Franks factory flooring. £7000 for a bathroom!!! we've refurbished whole houses for that price!!

[rockyracoon]

It's nothing to do with snobbery at all, it's about choice. The tiles for my bathroom were £1000, they were what I liked, I didn't like the similar ones sold in Wickes, my money, my choice, if everyone thought your way, we'd all be living in the same house, driving the same car, wearing the same clothes.

[TheHangman]

Its a couple of hundred pound difference the loan just edging it as being best value. Once you have removed the money from the bank you have no other way of replacing it you have to consider that, but then again @£210 weekly income a loan repayment is a sizable lump to be paying out. In short if you pay it direct from your account it will take just over 7 years to built your money back up to around 35000 @3% the loan will take you 3 years to clear.

[JaneDoe2]

rocky: its your choice of course -but you are not perhaps like the OP, a pensioner on a limited budget who has to take money from their savings to fund the bathroom or take on a loan.

[factor-fiction]

...>a pensioner on a limited budget who has to take money from their savings

I am not sure being a pensioner is that relevant, jane. I wasn't a pensioner and I used savings (I wouldn't have spent that much If I didn't have the savings). The OP has £35000 in savings so isn't exactly a pauper who needs to watch every penny- he just wants to know the best way to pay for it. He can spend on higher quality or on the design he wants rather than what's left over in a discount warehouse

[bednobs]

i'm glad the hangman has given the correct (i assume) answer, as it's gone off on rather a tangent. For all we know, he might be having a walk in bath, underfloor heating, top quality tiles. No-one knows enough to say if it's good value or not!
Also, i never knew tesco did bathrooms!

[sherrardk]

JaneDoe, the op doesn't appear to be strapped for cash, just asking what others think is their best option (loan or savings).

[Psybbo]

She!

[bednobs]

i apologise ferret, she!

[Mick-Talbot]

rockyracoon
Jane, that might be top of B&Q range, it won't be so from an upmarket retailer.



I bought a shower from B&Q For around £200 , whilst I was shopping around for tiles at the 'upmarket retailer' I spotted the exact same shower ......£700+ (in fairness there was the initials of the company engraved on the front )

What you are saying, Rocky is that you would gladly pay the extra for a tin of Aldi beans if they dressed it in a Heinz label.

[NOX]

I'm a huge fan of saving money and always shop at discount warehouses etc for almost everything but the remark about the Poggenpohl kitchens is really not on the money as you might be able to get the same basic 'look' with an inferior brand kitchen, but if you own one you'll realise that the build quality, the durability, the customer service etc is absolutely second to none and it's the one thing I really don't mind spending the extra on, nothing about snob value at all because I'll bet I'm more of a cheapskate than almost anyone on here.

[bednobs]

i have never even heard of Poggenpohl

[Graham-W]

Hangman: Are you calculating the loan at 3% or 5.2%? Ferret has been quoted an interest rate on the loan of 5.2% compared with an income of only 3% on money invested in the bank. Are you sure your calculations are correct?

[makaylagardner6]

I agree with eddie anyway. you have 35k pounds in the bank, you can use it to get a new bathroom rather than to get a loan in a bank, plus you wont worry to pay your loan.

[Peter Pedant]

Pensioners such as you and I spend our time when not on AB listening to such progz as Money Box Live and the rest

and they all say, clear the debt with any savings

so.... pay out of yr 35k

Debt.... terribly bad for a pensioner. It is as someone above says a bit of a no-brainer.

and yeah I agree that 7k sounds a bit much for a bathroom