When & how did you pay for your kitchen?

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Last time we had to pay for it all up front - it was Magnet and they accepted a credit card - which gave us a little comfort against them going bust - but the kitchen was badly fitted by them and it took them a year to sort it out, I never really felt they were too bothered about the really bad job they did and part of that was that they had the money already and all I could do was plead - but that's a whole other thread.

So I'm not very keen on paying for the whole kitchen upfront again - but is this what's expected - am I asking for something I'm never going to get?

Did you pay for your kitchen in stages?

£7K including tiling.
About 2K deposit
Half of rest to kitchen company upfront
Remainder to kitchen company upon completion

Paid tiler (also fitter, but did tiling on private contract) seperately, upon completion. Bought tiles upfront though.

Local kitchen co. though, not a big chain.

We used a local kitchen company too & were surprised that we had to pay each tradesman separately (builder, electrician, tiler, kitchen fitter). We thought we'd pay the kitchen co. for everything together.

They did however recommend that we withhold a percentage in case of any problems.

Iirc, we paid a 10% deposit for the kitchen units upfront and then the balance when they were delivered.

Actually, we found it easier to pay in stages after all as it spread the cost a bit.

We got a bank loan for ours and paid I think 10% deposit, 40% on commencement and 50% on completion. Only problem was that due to timings and time off work etc. there wasn't enough time to do a thorough check on completion and there was an issue that the company then wouldn't come out and rectify.

D

bought ours from ikea and paid a joiner to fit. paid joiner, electrician, tiler, plumber on completion of work

The units and appliances came from B&Q so we opened one of their store accounts and had 6 months interest-free (but had to remember to pay it off in time). Never used the account since.

The granite tops and the tiles were bought separately. All the tradesmen (chippy, plumber, builder, plasterer, tiler, spark....phew!) were paid individually as we managed our own fitting.