To HSBC: NEVER AGAIN!

financing the motorcycle with them sharks was a huge mistake, but I learned from that.
Today, I realized I had enough savings to pay off that big chunk of greens that I owed on the bike, so I decided to just go ahead and do it. After 50 minutes on hold, I finally got to someone who took my payment, and promised to send me the title... within a month lol

For those who don't know, I have been riding since 2005. The GS500 was my first motorcycle ever. Bought it new and did not even know how to ride haha. Luckily, I did take the MSF course, and luckily enough, I have never fallen, dropped the bike or 'gently laid down' my precious. 9000+ miles later, we still enjoy going for a ride with no destination.

Cheers  

I financed through them as well... for 1 month.  Made one payment, saw the finance charges and refinanced immediately through a local credit union.  Hate those bastards  .

yep, finance charges are a thing of beauty.

Minimum payment: $77
financing charges: $44
actual amount towards principal: $33

Wow, congrats!    I'm sorry to say I've gently laid mine down a couple times and a couple no so gently.  Gah.

Quote from: calamari on May 27, 2009, 03:43:17 PM
yep, finance charges are a thing of beauty.

Minimum payment: $77
financing charges: $44
actual amount towards principal: $33

Self control and discipline, Grasshopper.

$77 in your savings account each month =$924 a year. After two years you'll have nearly $2000 and the leverage of paying cash to get a good deal on your next GS500. Finance charges make banks rich...well, at least they used too...

yes HSBC still has me for  $4000  on my gs500  it sucks i get $65  ever month interest i have been trying to give them all my extra money so it will go down but taking forever but congrats on paying yours off soon i will be there 

Ahhh yes I'm in bed with HSBC! Xealot I would have been more than happy to go that route but with my heart problem it wasn't getting better and I wanted a couple of good years of riding in case it went downhill. So, to me the extra money is worth it.

As they say Time is Money. With my health time does not seem to be on my side.

Mary

Quote from: Toogoofy317 on May 27, 2009, 05:28:51 PM
Ahhh yes I'm in bed with HSBC! Xealot I would have been more than happy to go that route but with my heart problem it wasn't getting better and I wanted a couple of good years of riding in case it went downhill. So, to me the extra money is worth it.

As they say Time is Money. With my health time does not seem to be on my side.

Mary

I never said that financing a bike was wrong, just seems kinda silly to complain about finance charges when the internet is full of amortization tables for planning payments.

I certainly have never paid cash to buy a house...first one was a VA loan...and if circumstances similar to yours called for it I'd pay a 100% interest rate just to ride a Triumph Speed Triple for a few weeks...

Quote from: flipher on May 27, 2009, 05:01:04 PM
yes HSBC still has me for  $4000  on my gs500  it sucks i get $65  ever month interest i have been trying to give them all my extra money so it will go down but taking forever but congrats on paying yours off soon i will be there 

If I were you I would try and refinance with a bank or credit union.  I too was giving them all my extra money and for what?  A reduction of 20 in principal each month on 4000 plus dollars?  At that rate it would take like 17 years to pay off (of course I am just a student with a students' pay...).  I went to the credit union, got a 60 month loan for what I owed (I know, who wants to pay 60 months... see last parens), and now I pay 70 a month... all towards the principle.

I am not a financial adviser, nor do I play one on TV, but I really think that this is a better way to go if you can do it. 

I'm sorry Xealot I wasn't really aiming it at you. There was a thread a few months ago on the odd's and Ends area where someone was stating that there was never a reason to finance anything! Even a house that you should just save up for it and do it that way!
Guess I just had that stil in my subconscious!
Mary

Financing stuff can be important... a lot of things these days require good credit scores including insurance (getting good rates) and jobs  .  Don't be ashamed to finance, even if it is already in your means.  A friend of mine in the Marines financed his car even though he could have bought three of them straight up.

Oh yea, those limited time interest deals ... and 119 a month payment deals ... well I hate them too ... why, cos they have taken some of my potential customers away ... and I ask them to come by with the finance papers ... 119 a month, 15.99% interest limited time only deal, after 18 months goes to 18.99 and the 119 a month, 105 is interest, $5 was some finance fees, and a nice $9 to the capital on a SV650.

Yes was going to take them 20 years to pay off, and payments reset when interest resets, to some 300 a month. Anyway, the bike broke something in the FI and will come on in check more and blink and blink and blink ... well before the first payment even came due ... not to mention he picked a nail in the rear tire and lightly dumped it even before that.
The geniuses said it was a bad fuse, fitted on a fuse, charged him 35 bucks for it sent him out only to have it do it again the very next day if I remember.

Warranty ... bah ... you really need to try to get somehtign done under warranty to realise how exactly worthless it is.

Cool.
Buddha.

I used the motorcycle as a stepping stone on rebuilding my horrid credit which i hosed as a teenager. I put the down payment on my bike on a credit card, and ge money bank financed the rest. The credit card was interest free for 6 months, so i made minimum payments on it for a few months, then paid it off in full.

The bike was financed with the terms of 200 a month for 3 years. Extremely high interest! Ive been paying more each month, and plan to have it paid off by the 2 year mark. Ive already spoken with them about the settlement terms at 2 years. It seems in the end ill end up paying around 5750-6000 for the bike.

While its a high price for a new gs, i can get credit cards with a 7% intrest rate again. Had to start somewhere.

I was taught old school by my parents never to take on loans (except for house) but to save for what you want.  This myself and the wife did for some years and never needed credit till one day our washing machine blew up and had no cash on hand to buy a new one....

I had no credit rating at all so the finance company looked at me as super high risk and would not loan me money.  Had to get the wifes parents to go guarantor for the loan.

Funny how you do the right thing and it works against you hey.

That bike is hawt.

Congrats on paying it off.

nice bike, and you have to look at financing in terms of opportunity cost which makes it better than buying something outright.  the logic is that if you can finance something at a lower rate than you can get a return on that same money than it is a good idea to finance and invest the money, if not than buy it outright.

for example, if you can finance a bike at 7% for 5 years or invest in a mutual fund returning 10% over those 5 years, than you would be losing 3% if you bought it outright.  obviously, there's more to it than that (taxes, return volatility, etc.), but that's the simple explanation.  and I am a financial advisor but I don't play one on tv.

Dude I need to talk to you I don't know how to get out of the hole I'm in thanks to medical bills!

Anyway, when we goin' riding? Unfortunately I think the rainy season is upon us alas!

Mary

Quote from: tripleb on May 28, 2009, 06:41:17 AM
nice bike, and you have to look at financing in terms of opportunity cost which makes it better than buying something outright.  the logic is that if you can finance something at a lower rate than you can get a return on that same money than it is a good idea to finance and invest the money, if not than buy it outright.

Wow, that's a great piece of advice.  I never thought about it that way.

Quote from: Toogoofy317 on May 28, 2009, 03:34:19 PM
Dude I need to talk to you I don't know how to get out of the hole I'm in thanks to medical bills!

Anyway, when we goin' riding? Unfortunately I think the rainy season is upon us alas!

Mary

1) have the doctor's offices you've been to (all of them!) call the insurance companies and check coding. coding errors mean your bills are higher. have them fix it.
2) get on welfare. no really. medicaid and being poor is the only way the healthcare here ( US ) will pity you and allow you to negotiate a new debt.
3) negotiate that debt.

repeat steps 1-3 until you finally get something manageable. i know personally how oppressive medical debt is mary. not making light of it at all.

4) beg them to write it off. no really. REALLY. BEG. some of them will. we've had 80-90K written off just by asking, begging, and pleading. we really can't afford that kind of debt. we're working stiffs, like you.

5) PAY THEM !!! sure, you can't all at once, but you can make payments. send them a thank you note.


*******************************

now then, about fiinancing a bike: glad you've paid it off. convince some of the new comers to save their money please. teach them. i'm done with trying. i can't make logic compete with a shiney new steed

CONGRATS !

to be honest, I lived really really frugal for several months in order to pile up some cash. In fact, I believe I was only using half of my paycheck for the last 3 months or so. that's how I got enough to pay the few grand i had left on the bike.

On a completely unrelated note: my roomate (against my advice) financed a motorcycle, and (against my advice) started riding before taking the MSF, because she wants to "get some experience" before taking the classes... 

I guess people will always do whatever the hell they want to do anyway, lol