How Do You Pay for Home Improvements

Ali*

Gold Member
Hi guys,

Totally random and totally off topic, lol!

I want a new bathroom! Do I ...

a. Add a few thousand onto mortgage

b. Buy it on a repayment deal (like B&Q)?

c. Use my good old savings

I'm not exactly after gold plated taps but I don't want the loo to collapse under me either so a mid range bathroom suite (fitted) is probably going to cost in the region of £3000 :eek:

Has anyone got experience of this?

Is that a reasonable estimate?

Cheers x
 
In the past I've done a bit of savings & a bit of credit card.

If you put it on your mortgage remember you will be paying interest on (say) £3,000 until the end of the term which could work out a very costly borrow.

How about getting an interest free on purchases credit card & paying off as much as you can each month, if after the deal expires you still have a balance transfer the balance to another 0% deal. That way you won't be paying much to borrow £3,000.

If you use your savings it depends where the are, in the bank? well the likelyhood is you won't be earning much interest on your money at mo so taking the cash won't be too bad. But if it's in a fixed rate deal then you really don't want to be taking money out & losing valuable interest.

HTH
 
I had a new bathroom a few years ago and it cost me about £3000 which really suprised me because it was the size of a postagestamp! My only bit of advice is that baths come in different thicknesses. The cheaper the bath the thinner it is. I think I paid extra to have a 6 or a 9mm bath as neither me or the OH are exactly small people and we were having a shower over the bath - extra pressure in certain points! We got into a number of baths in the show room as OH has wide shoulders and is 6ft plus so it had to be the right one. Also think about taps/bath fillers, by the time we had our multitap fitted in the middle of the bath (had a solid shower screen to make cleaning easier) I realised it was a mistake. SHould have had taps in the middle but the bath filler at the other end with the plug. Hey ho! Best of luck.
 
Hi guys,

Totally random and totally off topic, lol!

I want a new bathroom! Do I ...

a. Add a few thousand onto mortgage

b. Buy it on a repayment deal (like B&Q)?

c. Use my good old savings

I'm not exactly after gold plated taps but I don't want the loo to collapse under me either so a mid range bathroom suite (fitted) is probably going to cost in the region of £3000 :eek:

Has anyone got experience of this?

Is that a reasonable estimate?

Cheers x[/QUOTE
Hi,
You could phone your bank up and ask for a personal loan.
1. mortgage - will cost you a lot of money in the long run. because the interest is over a longer period.
2. B & Q or any other credit or store card has a very high interest rate compared to a personal loan.
3. 0% interest deals are good, only if you can repay the money back before the 0% runs out. after that the interest rates shoot up.
4. savings - will you put the money back again and how long will it take you.
5. with a personal loan you can make the monthly payment to fit your budget and pay it of quicker. Barclays has a price match guarantee. If you are a client they will beat any price you get from a competitor.

Sorry its a long explanation. Its just I work with this every day.

Good luck
 
Savings every time - assuming you have them! - interest rates for savings are so poor at present, it is false economy borrowing to pay.

Of course if you do not have the savings then it is a choice of saving up and wait, or the cheapest option between adding to mortgage or a loan.
 
These days - savings. We have got to the point where everything we have is fine (house is a fine size for us, kitchen and bathrooms functional and ok to look at) but not our 'dream'. To move up a level with anything now we have vowed to only use 'cash' - so if we want to move to a s****ier pad we have to first pay off our mortgage and then save enough to pay cash for the next place (realistically aka we won't move now until the retirement bungalow!).

I have done stuff on the mortgage (i.e. got a bigger mortgage than we needed when moving house to allow 15K or so for improvements) or with loans in the past though.

Yes, sounds like a reasonable amount (does that include tiles/fitted furniture etc?).
 
If you can, try to buy your suite online, we got an enamel bath and white loo and sink for around £200. Good quality too. The taps came from Ebay (all new) and they were around £100.
The tiles were just bog (pardon the pun!) standard white tiles but look superb.

I would say don't pay for B&Q or similar to fit, look for a plumber locally.

All that aside, I'd say don't add it onto your mortgage for such a small amount, I'd use savings.
 
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