DH's xmas present

[youvegottobekidding]

I've bought something for DH for Christmas, something he's wanted for quite a while for his bike, it cost around £250. I work part time so I don't earn a great deal so I'm not left with a huge amount at the end of the month. I managed to get the item on 0% finance, so I'll be paying for it over 12 months interest free. I'll be able to do it.

I've managed so far to keep everything hush hush, emails have been forwarded to my other email account which I don't usually use. The only suss thing was I screenshot a picture of the finance agreement to print & DH was looking at the photos on my phone & saw the logo for the finance firm, I quickly made some silly thing up & told him it wasn't anything & deleted the photo!

Anyway, his present arrived yesterday & im excited I've managed to keep it a secret & can't wait to surprise him on xmas day! This morning he's been looking at this item & excitedly tells me there's £100 off it in a shop! He then asks me if I have gone ahead got it for him on finance as he doesn't want me paying over the odds for it & although if I have got it for him it's still a wonderful surprise & he's really appreciative & it's such a fantastic thing to do for him, he doesn't want me to pay more for it when he can get it a cheaper price & I can still wrap it for him for Christmas. I stood my ground & said I hadn't got it him & I can't get finance blah blah blah.

So, what do I do? thing is, on one hand I kind of know we're tight with money at the moment, every penny counts so I'm about 90% certain he'll not buy it from the shop. He says it's such a good deal, but then we have this to pay for & that & will have to wait til after Christmas. Do I come clean & tell him I've already got it & cancel my finance agreement, effectively spoiling my surprise, although, it's his Christmas present anyway.

What would you do?

Could you get in touch with the shop you got it from and see if they would price-match?

(Some of them do that even after the event - Boden definitely do for clothes, for example.)

Return the one you've got. Buy the one he's spotted instead.

I too would try to cancel the finance agreement (I think there’s a cooling off period) and return the item, then but with the discount.

I wouldn’t tell dh and if he decides to go and buy it, you can always return yours.

First contact the shop to see if they'll match the price, threaten to cancel the order etc. Then actually cancel the order, do you have time to reorder at the new price with a credit agreement? If none of this works, i would come clean with DH and tell him, so you can save £100. It's still a lovely thing you did, even if the surprise happens now rather than in 2 weeks.

Actually yes DownHere has a good idea, ask the shop if they will pricematch.

Thanks for your replies, they're really helpful.

The place where I purchased the item from was online & I think the nearest shop is quite far away (like 50+miles) the minimum spend to be able to get finance was £250, so I was just 'in' if you know what I mean, I couldn't of purchased outright as I don't have that sort of money!

It's a different place to where DH has seen the other one, which is a local shop.

I'll have a look through the agreement & see about cancelling, after all I only applied for it on Friday gone.

I've a feeling he knows I've done it, he's just trying to get me to admit it! And he wouldn't want me to pay £250 (even though I have the option of paying monthly instalments) if he can get if for £170, even if it means paying for it outright, he'd have to just put it in the credit card, I suppose he could do that & then I could pay him back each month.

I've still got a couple of other little surprises for him, so alls not lost I suppose.

Honestly, it is not worth "losing" £80 just to keep it a surprise, if you can cancel and buy it cheaper. Clearly, the difference wll be less than £80 is you end up needing to use your credit card, so it is also wirth doing a quick calc of the interest.

Or, just to add something else to the mix, contact the online store where you bought it, tell them you are thinking of cancelling unless they price match, but to still qualify for the minimum amount for the credit agreement, ask them to give you a 'freebie' (value up to £80).

From Which:

Under the Consumer Credit Act you have 14 days to withdraw from a credit or loan agreement. The legislation applies to all credit agreements, whether made in person, on the internet or over the phone.

After you've cancelled, could you get a card with 0% on purchases for 12 months and buy it on that from the place that has it £100 cheaper?

def cancel it and get cheaper. A lovely surprise is all well and good but not worth £80.

Thank you everyone for your replies!

I presented DH with his present, he kept on a bit about the 'great deal' they had in the local store & asked me again if I've already purchased anything - I'm terrible at trying to keep a straight face!

Anyway, he was quite overwhelmed by what I'd done, the fact I'd gone ahead & 'brought' it, arranged finance etc. He's really grateful but doesn't want me to commit to paying just over £20 a month when I don't have much left as it is after paying the dreaded council tax!

And it makes sense that to get it from the other store we'll be saving £88 as he'll get a further 10% off as he's got a cycling card or something.

So said present has been returned. He's still getting one and was still surprised, in a way!
I still have a 'novelty' gift to give him on xmas day 😁 that he has no clue about!

If you add to credit card it may cost more in the long run.