Marine Finance

[melangeoff]

Can anyone recommend a UK Marine Finance company with a decent APR, flexible payment terms, early redemption, etc.?

I guess it would be a Marine 'Mortgage' as it's for more than 25K and personal experiences would also be appreciated.

Ta very much....

 

[Nautorius]

Hi There,

You will need a 20% deposit and can get a marine mortgage for up to 10 years on any boat purchase where the mortgage is £25,001 - £65,000. Above £65,001 you can get a 15 year mortgage but only if boat under 5 years old and a well known brand.

The most Flexible company is Lombared Marine. They do low srart ups, interest only, payment hols, fixed payment over variable time etc. They are miles in front of everyone else. However you may pay slightly more APR (marginal). There are also barclays marine Finance and Bank of Scotland Marine. Both of these just do the straight loans at fixed payment over variable period dependent upon Interest Rate changes. I have been with Bank of Scotland Marine since 1999 and have always found them great. Lombard however, have just offered me the best deal. Current deal is 2.19% over FHBR, Lombard will come down to 2% and if you wait till excel you may get an even better deal...ask Jezbanks (sub 2% over FHBR).

All in all, go with the company you trust.

If you cancel any deal within 6 months you are liable for two months Interest. Apart from that flexible extra payment terms from all but your monthly fee stays the same.

Cheers

Paul /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[pau1gray]

Yep - we are just going with Lombard after a few recommendations. The staff have been really really helpful with everything so far (where's the bit of wood /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

 

[goochie]

Echo above comments. We've been very happy with BOS Marine Finance. I was given a good tip by my dealer, which is to go to LIBS (if that ties in with boat purchase) and basically hop from one lender to another showing them the offer you have from the last guy and ask them to beat it. I too got down to under 2%. (not telling you exactly what though /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif)

 

[DOK]

[ QUOTE ]
Lombard will come down to 2%

[/ QUOTE ]

In my experience, they will go somewhat lower than that /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[redglow]

When I looked at borrowing £30k for my boat the best deal was to tack it onto my existing house mortgage - worth considering!

 

[Petrolia]

What is it with this FHBR ? Seems like a scam to me.

I'm sure from memory 1st Petrolia was only 1.5% above FHBR, but FHBR was 1 % above proper base rate. Surely base rate should be base rate. They shouldn't just be inventing their own base rate. I don't know if FHBR's are all the same ?

For new Petrolia I've financed against the house on which I have a VERY flexible arrangement. It's called a foundations mortgage. They give you a max amount and you can do what you want within that limit. Borrow, pay back, borrow again, etc. It's only 1% above proper base rate so is cheap compared to marine finance.
Phone them up & as much as you want within your limit is ready to spend INSTANTANEOUSLY !!! The only trouble is it's SO easy to borrow it's bl00dy dangerous. Hence new boat !!! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Marine finance was BOS. Foundations mortgage Nat West.

 

[melangeoff]

Thanks for everyone's feedback so far.

It seems the best option will be to chat to the marine finance folks at Excel and try for the best deal.

The FHBR add-on does seem like a cunning way to make a bit more out of us. Although adding a boat to an existing house mortgage could prove to be more expensive in the long run, particularly if the remaining term is longer than the average 10 year marine mortgage.

 

[Petrolia]

Agree it would certainly be more expensive if kept for the term of the mortgage. I see the foundations deal more as a very easy & flexible loan facility rather than a long term mortgate. I would hope to pay it down rapidly. There are no penalties.

Trouble is as mentioned. Pay it down. See bigger boat .., oops, I've done it again !!!

BOS were easy to deal with and no penalties if paid off after 6 months.

 

[woodie1000]

Not sure how flexible they are but HSBC seem to have just entered the market and the quote we got from them beat Barclays and all the rest - plus it's done over Bank base rate and not FHBR. Might be worth a look - if you google marine mortgage the HSBC website link is one of those that appears.

If flexibility is the main aim we have found Barclays to be very good.

 

[Whitelighter]

Petrolia,

FHBR is Finance House Base Rate. It is a rate calculated using the LIBOR (London Inter Bank Offer Rate), and usually sits no more than 0.5% above the Bank of England rate. Beleive it or not this does have advantages.

Consider you home mortgage which might be variable or a tracker type. In this instance everytime the BoE rate goes up, so do your payaments, (though they do go down when it falls).

FHBR requires significant shift in the underlying rate (BoE) because LIBOR is a rate using a rolling average of the last 8 weeks trading between banks. When rate are falling, FHBR takes a while to catch up. It has been 5% for the last 18 months or so, but BoE rates have been all over the place, but never lower than 4.25% in that time. BoE rate now 4.75%, and rising probably to 5% by the end of the year. Also, FHBR moves in 0.5% jumps, again to help smooth out rates and keep consumer payments easy to manage. Should BoE go to 5.25% next year (which it probably will), it is likely that FHBR will stay at 5%. Why? Because the LIBOR also considers the european market, where rates are lower.

 

[redglow]

Don't actually add loan to mortgage, take out further mortgage over 5 years, say. That was lowest rate I could find and for the shortest time I could afford. Worked for me may not suit all.

Kev