Cheapest way to borrow £8k for 25 days?

[FallopianTubeTrain]

Hello. Wondering if anyone has any bright ideas on this one.

The PCP deal on our car ends on 30th May and we are keeping the car and making the bullet payment of £14k. I am due to get a bonus on 23rd June that more than covers that amount but on 30th May when the payment needs to be made we only have £6k in savings so need to make up the shortfall of £8k.

I can do an advance on a credit card but it will cost us a 4% fee. We could also ask a parent to sub us which I have no doubt they happily would but I'd prefer not to only because there's a certain amount of pride at having got this bonus and the car being the last debt we have other than the mortgage, it'd be nice to get over the finish line ourselves.

Any alternative suggestions that might be cheaper than the £320 fee?

Friends or family would be my first thought, i don't know if you can get a bank loan that allows such quick repayment without penalty. Credit card other option.

Can’t you contact the company that you have the finance deal with to see if they can extend the timeframe for you? That would be simpler than having another debt/contract to set up and appear on your credit report.

Can you take out finance through the garage and then pay it off immediately?

Pay the finance company with your credit card if they will allow it?

They usually don't let you pay debt with debt, in my experience, but I've never had car finance.

I'll give them a call and see. I think this might be the best option if it's a goer. I don't want to enter into a new agreement with them if it can be avoided.

When I was discussing getting a car through finance, they said there would be the option to refinance the final payment, to spread it out. And with no longer being allowed to charge early repayment fees, that seems like the best option for you to tide you over until your bonus comes in!

Get a 0% spending credit card or 2 if the limit isn't enough.

I’d just ask parents it’s for such a short period of time and if you think they would lend it you then you may as well

This. Google Stoozing MSE.

Call your bank and ask if they'd give you an overdraft.

I guess it might not be an option with your company but when I was in a similar position, I had a quiet word with the MD that I reported into and the company loaned me a similar sum of money for about a month and then took it out of my bonus - which was of course subject to the usual tax, NI etc so the loan wasn't considered a benefit in kind.

Temporary arranged bank overdraft should sort it. Depending on your account

If you can get an advance on your credit card (or a new one with an offer, look on MSE for money transfer credit card offers) that is interest free but for a fee of 4% you could offset a large part of the fee by putting your bonus in a savings account until the end of the interest free period.

You could get more than 4% on a fix, so the interest earned will offset the fee and just repay at the end of the interest free period.

Or transfer it to another deal to make a bit more free money for a small amount of admin. I've rolled over a completely free credit card debt of around £10k for about a decade and made at least a couple of hundred pounds a year in interest just because I can. Now that interest rates have increased again I might put some effort into increasing it now the potential rewards are higher.

Thanks everyone, we'll explore some of these options. Grateful for the advice.

An interest free money transfer credit card. The fee is only 3% or something and money's in your bank within a few days of applying.

With some credit cards (MNA for example) you can also do a balance transfer for no fee and a low(ish) interest rate.

My current MBNA card is offering a balance transfer for no fee and 5.9% interest. If you pay that off after 25 days then it won't cost very much