Keith Gooden: In today’s episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast…
Matt Sims: We unpack everything you need to know about getting financed to buy a motorhome.
Keith Gooden: Plus how you can get your motorhome or caravan cleaned up ahead of winter storage.
Matt Sims: And we answer your questions on winterised motorhomes, choosing insurance and buying a motorhome cover.
Keith Gooden: Welcome to the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims: And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden: Industry insights and expert advice for the world of motorhomes, caravans and campervans, and it’s brought to you by thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe.
Matt Sims: Now remember, if you’re listening, please follow on your favourite podcast app, or if you’re watching click subscribe and the little bell on YouTube.
Keith Gooden: Our product feature of the week, it’s the That Leisure Shop full cleaning range. The time of year has come where you should be polishing up your pride and joy. No, I’m talking about your motorhome.
Matt Sims: There are loads of these. Look at this. We launched an entire range of cleaning products and care products for motorhomes, caravans. And I know Colin in our own That Leisure Shop down at Chelston Motorhomes is using all of these on his cars. I must admit I’ve been using some of them on my car too and they’re brilliant. This is my favourite one. This is the citrus bug remover and they are designed for a kinder clean. It means that we’ve tried to keep them as close to environmentally friendly as we possibly can, and this one is lemon. This is lemon zest, and you spray it on the bug and leave it, and the lemon just rots the dead bug’s body that’s on your bonnet, and you just wipe it off. It’s amazing. Poor bug.
Keith Gooden: Lemon entry, my dear Watson. You know the joke.
Matt Sims: No. Not again. The last thing… yeah. We all know that one. And this is luxury body shampoo. There’s a joke in there for you, Keith. It removes your hair.
Keith Gooden: Not enough for me.
Matt Sims: This is brilliant. Squirt this in a bucket of warm water, it lathers up and really lifts the dirt on the van. And this one has been a hero product too, the black street remover. They are so annoying. You spend hours washing the van, drive down the road and suddenly you have got black lines running down the side as the dirt comes off the roof or comes out of the sun canopy or the awning. This is amazing. Spray it on and just wipe it. Our guys at Motorhome Holiday Company, we hire and sell motorhomes using this all the time just to give the motorhomes a little tweak to make them look clean and new again.
Keith Gooden: Lovely. And nice colours if you’re watching.
Matt Sims: They are really
Keith Gooden: They’re lovely colours.
Matt Sims: It helps you tell them apart once you learn the product range. The window and glass cleaner is superb. You can use this on glass or PVC plastic windows.
Keith Gooden: And that’s the thing, isn’t it? Because a lot of the materials in motorhomes aren’t standard stuff that they use in say, motor cars, are they? You do have specialist compounds and so these I presume are friendly to those as well.
Matt Sims: They are. A lot of them contain soap so they’re not pH neutral because they can’t be. That is water, and that would be a rubbish product frankly. Mind you, we pay enough money to drink it out of a plastic bottle, don’t we? So this has got soap in it and other chemicals too. As I say, this one contains lemon so they are all safe to us, you shouldn’t be ingesting them but they are safe to use, safe to use on a motorhome or caravan where plastic is prevalent. That’s the important bit. They won’t stain it because products like bleach are really, really dangerous.
Keith Gooden: Those things, those seals you were talking about – not the sealant we use in the bathrooms as Matt quite vociferously pointed out to me. It’s specialist stuff. So these are okay with those seals?
Matt Sims: Only because you were going to go to B&Q and then potentially reseal a motorhome with silicon sealant from your local DIY shop.
Keith Gooden: Other DIY shops are available.
Matt Sims: Good old BBC kicking in again. Well done. And this one’s great as well, dash and trim cleaner. This is really good. So you’ve got that plastic dashboard, use it in the car. They just dull or we get loads of fingerprints on them or bacteria on them as well. And you spray this on, give it a wipe and gives it a clean and a shine. It’s really clever. So the team at That Leisure Shop, we spent ages working with our provider and manufacturer that makes these for us. They make them on a huge industrial scale and so we’ve brought them to the market all suitably named, and as you say, beautifully coloured so you can help tell them apart. And you can get yours at www.thatleisureshop.com.
Keith Gooden: And the prices matter – we don’t want to discuss individual prices for individual bottles, but it’s not silly professional prices. These are within the reach of the normal caravan or motorhome, aren’t they?
Matt Sims: Absolutely, yes. They start under £5 up to £10 so they’re really affordable and they really are effective and designed to do the job that you want them to do.
Keith Gooden: Want more details? Go to that www.thatleisureshop.com. It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims: And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden: It’s brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe. The main part of today’s podcast, motorhome finance. We have covered it before, but raising the money for your pride and joy is the big thing, and particularly at today’s prices, they’re big prices. So financing your motorhome purchase, not everybody has got £50,000 lying around and more. Is that why we’re discussing this?
Matt Sims: It is. So screen prices are on the up. I think we’ve established this year they’re not coming down anytime soon. That’s been backed up by our chat with Bailey, a manufacturer, and numerous dealers who are not seeing prices coming down. Also from conversations I have been having with dealerships who are starting to see more people asking about finance. We call it finance penetration and it’s always been really low in this market because people come to it with a nest egg, they’ve sold a house, an inheritance.
Keith Gooden: A pension drawdown.
Matt Sims: A pension drawdown, that’s the big one. And of course things are changing. That demographic is changing that’s coming to buy a motorhome and so finance becomes an option. And I wanted to revisit this and really unpack the different types of finance that you could utilise to buy this aspirational product. I was allowed by Warners to invite Stephen Blake, who is the head of sales at Creative Funding Solutions, onto stage at the recent Malvern show and we did exactly that. So what’s the big benefit then of taking finance, Steve, would you say, other than spreading the cost?
Steven Blake: As you’ve said in a number of your podcasts, the screen prices are going up and up all the time. And the truth of the matter is now that a lot of people just don’t have £50,000, £60,000 £80,000, £100,000 plus just sitting there. And even if they do, a lot of people have got money maybe invested in a pension pot, an ISA, other investments which are working for them in other ways. So even for those people, they will want potentially to take finance. The biggest benefit is spreading the cost and being able to get into a quality of vehicle that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to if you didn’t have £60,000, £70,000 £80,000, £90,000 sitting there. So some people call finance sort of a necessary evil, if you like. We try and unpack that a bit better – we give good advice, we give fair solutions, we understand what a customer wants from their finance package and take them through the journey. But a lot of people like the latest models, they want to upgrade and sometimes that comes too far for their immediate cash reserves.
Matt Sims: So just tell us a bit about the business you represent then, because you’re a broke. You’re not the actual lender, you’re not the man with pots of cash. You’re kind of the middleman.
Steven Blake: Yes. So we’re brokers, so we have a large panel of funders. So motorhome.finance is part of the Creative Funding Solutions empire. That sounds rather grand, but I’ll use that phrase. So we’ve got a panel of over 60 funders. We do all sorts of funding for different sectors. A very large sector for us is commercial vehicles. We do a huge amount of leisure vehicle finance. We also fund plant machinery equipment. So we do a lot of consumer finance for things like motorhomes, camper`vans, caravans, but we do lots of other finance as well, working with a panel of funders. So we get the customer’s application. We do due diligence to decide which of our funders is the most suitable for the applicant to go to. And we’ll send the customer to the funder hopefully for an approval first time around.
Matt Sims: So your role then really is about pairing the finance product with the consumers’ needs and wants in terms of term, the age of the vehicle, their age, because I assume there’s a cutoff point when it comes to age where someone can only borrow for so long?
Steven Blake: Some funders yes, some no. I think some funders have taken a view that it’s not a good look to be ageist. We have some that will look at, if it’s an older applicant, what pension arrangements look like, affordability for the lend, and they’re not really looking at age. There is one or two that do have a cutoff, whether they should or not is a conversation. But yes, which funder we would go to would depend on lots of different parameters. It could be the type of assets – motorhomes could be slightly different from campervans, could be slightly different from a touring caravan, how long the finance is required for. How old the asset is at the time of starting the agreement could be another option, and also how long the customer wants to fund over. So there’s a number of parameters that go into the decision making on which funder the deal goes to.
Matt Sims: Yes. And that’s where you as a broker have that expertise to help steer that, isn’t it? so can we talk about the different types of finance? I mentioned mortgages, I mentioned pensions, they’re fairly obvious ones. But in terms of borrowing money, there’s lots of different ways and models and structures that we can do that with. One we’re probably all familiar with because we’ve bought cars or we’ve seen it in car garages is HP. So can you just explain for us, what is HP and how does it work?
Steven Blake: HP, hire purchase, it’s exactly as it says. You hire the vehicle, in this case, hire from the funder, and you purchase it when the finance is paid for. So let’s say you do a ten-year finance agreement. The owner of that vehicle remains the finance company until you’ve made the last payment. You’re the registered keeper of the vehicle, but the owner is the funder. And for anyone that’s heard of an HPI registration, they’ll put a register against the vehicle, a marker that shows that the particular funder has an HPI registered against it. That is absolutely critical when it comes to resale. I know we’ll come on to that later, but you clearly can’t sell a motorhome that you own if it’s on finance.
Matt Sims: And I guess one of the big benefits is fixed monthly payments, so it’s a fixed term, the interest rate.
Steven Blake: Fixed term, fixed interest rates. So you could say well, you know, the interest rates could go up, they could go down. Interest rates are relatively sensible at the moment, dropping very slightly. So it’s great for individuals or couples that want to budget certainly. You can put down minimal deposits as well on a lot of these agreements. So limited outlay initially and then sensible monthly payments. In the case of motorhomes there’s up to a fifteen year period now. The term is extended even further.-Subject to age, you can do a motorhome on an up to fifteen year finance agreement now.
Matt Sims: Now on that though, the motorhome can’t be more than twenty years old at the end of the agreement. Is that right?
Steven Blake: Yes, that’s the one that’s best known. With a lot of funders, that is the case. Some of them have slight nuances one way or the other. But yes, so for example, you’re quite right, twenty years end of term, so you could fund a ten year old vehicle now over a ten year term, a fifteen year old vehicle over five years, etcetera.
Matt Sims: Yes. Got it. Okay. What about PCP? We see PCP everywhere when it comes to cars. You don’t really see it in the motorhome world.
Steven Blake: No, I think that’s because of the extended term. So PCP would obviously be generally a four-year agreement with a balloon payment at the end. You can hand the car back at the end of the term. The truth is with a ten and particularly a fifteen-year finance term, the monthly payments will be way lower than a PCP would be because that would only be a five-year term with a balloon. The balloons are set fairly modestly as well. So a ten, fifteen -year term would be a much lower monthly payment and the customer will still have the consumer rights in terms of early settlements as well. So it’s not like if they take a longer term agreement, they’d be heavily penalised if they wanted to settle early.
Matt Sims: So PCPs are generally shorter term?
Steven Blake: They are. Don’t forget, a PCP comes with a mileage restriction, annual mileage restriction as well and has hand back conditions as well in terms of being properly serviced. So there’s certain things you need to keep up to date with and be mindful of, whereas with an HP, you use as you wish, in effect.
Matt Sims: Interesting. Okay. And do you think that’s why then we don’t really see PCP as very prevalent in this market?
Steven Blake: I would say they’re the reasons, yes. The reason it’s more popular in the car market, there isn’t a longer term solution. I know of no funders that do ten, fifteen-year finance terms on standard used cars, for example.
Matt Sims: No. And that’s quite unique to motorhomes really, isn’t it?
Steven Blake: It is indeed.
Matt Sims: With PCP and with hire purchase, the finance is secured against the vehicle. So the lender, as you say, they own that vehicle. They’ve got security of that vehicle. If you stop paying, they just come and take it back. If you were to take a personal loan, that isn’t the case, is it? The finance is pegged to you.
Steven Blake: In effect, with a personal loan, if you’re approved, they pay the money into your bank account. It’s your money to do as you please with. It’s not secured on the vehicle. There’s no recourse back to the vehicle. You’re approved for the personal loan, you get the money, it’s in your account, you pay the dealer for the vehicle. Nothing’s secured on the vehicle at all in that situation, though.
Matt Sims: But that seems to be for the benefit of the lender. I don’t really care. I mean, that’s their agenda, not mine. So surely a personal loan is a better way of doing it, is it not?
Steven Blake: The issue with personal loan is generally a maximum term on a personal loan is five years, occasionally you’ll see seven years. Maximum lend on a personal loan with a lot of funders is £25,000, occasionally £35,000. I mean you’re talking figures way, way in excess of that on a lot of motorhomes and campervans.
Matt Sims: So high monthly repayments is what you’re saying?
Steven Blake: Yes. So you wouldn’t be able to get a personal loan generally for over £35,000. And even if you could get a loan for £70,000, £80,000 over five years, the monthly payment is going to be like a second mortgage.
Matt Sims: So hire purchase then is cheaper, although longer term you pay more interest, but it’s still going to be cheaper in the long run than a personal loan?
Steven Blake: Is it going to be cheaper in terms of the amount of interest you pay? No. As you say, you will pay more. But somebody may be comfortable at £400 a month and may not be comfortable at £1,000 a month, massive difference. It’s walking a tightrope between your monthly payments and how much you’re paying. We have these conversations with customers. And with some customers, it might be beneficial to find the middle ground maybe, not a five-year deal, not a fifteen-year deal. With eight, nine years, does that fix the monthly payment? Well, it’s expensive for us but we can manage that. Okay, you’ll pay less interest overall because the term is shorter. These are the conversations we have with customers to try and find the best fit for them.
Matt Sims: Now I was reading the other day that 100% mortgages are back, which I find incredible. So is a remortgage an option where we borrow against the house?
Steven Blake: Yes, second charge mortgage particularly. We do have some customers who do that. Now, I understand that is not everybody’s cup of tea at all to take out a second mortgage for a motorhome purchase, but there are customers that have got a lot of equity in the house. The rates are typically lower. You could fund it over a twenty, twenty five year period if you wanted to. So it is an option, and we can provide second charge mortgages or other secured products on property to buy these particularly more expensive motorhomes. There are some legals required in that in terms of the paperwork. So that’s not a product that you’d be able to tie up in 48 hours.
Matt Sims: Presumably, the original mortgage lender’s going to have a view on this as well?
Steven Blake: If it’s a second charge mortgage that the first charge mortgage holder would want to know what the situation is, be made aware, they may accept, they may decline. I mean, at the end of the day, let’s say you live in a £600,000 house with your £150,000 mortgage and you want to put another £100,000, there’s no reason at all why the first charge mortgage provider should have an issue there. It’s only if it’s tight to the loan to value on the property that thhey may have an issue. But that’s case by case basis stuff.
Matt Sims: And the other thing I read as well is 0% credit cards, they’re becoming more and more prolific. The lenders try and entice the consumer in. I get 0% for eighteen months in this offer I was recently given in the post, apparently. Is that something worth considering? I mean, there’s no interest then.
Steven Blake: It’s worth considering. I mean, clearly, if you’re buying a £90,000 motorhome, you’re going need one hell of a credit card limit to fund that.
Matt Sims: True. And afford the monthly payments.
Steven Blake: And the monthly payments as well, of course. And then obviously, most of these credit card companies, when you’re past the initial 0% period, there’s a very healthy interest rate. Absolutely. So I would say proceed with caution on that basis.
Matt Sims: Yes. Yes, I would agree. We talk about regulation. The FCA, the Financial Conduct Authority, we’re not going to deep dive into who they are and what they do because it is frankly more boring than the topic of motorhome finance.
Steven Blake: You’re welcome!
Matt Sims: But it’s imperative we understand what it’s all about. And the FCA exist for our benefit, the consumer, don’t they? Can we just talk about the differences between regulated and non regulated lends?
Steven Blake: Absolutely. So regulated is really consumer finance. So if it’s Mr. Smith, Mrs. Smith buying a motorhome in their own names, that’s a regulated finance agreement. Nonregulated is business finance, to keep it in simple terms. So if you wanted to finance a motorhome through your limited company, that will be non regulated, that will be outside of the Consumer Credit Act. So the vast majority of customers, obviously, in the leisure space are consumers. So 99% of the agreements written would be regulated.
Matt Sims: But if you want to hire the motorhome out, it becomes a business lend.
Steven Blake: That’s a can of worms, that one. So yes, I’ll unpack that one for you. We have quite a lot of customers – well, a small percentage, but over the course of a year, it works out to be quite a few. They come to us and say, I’ve got a hire purchase agreement in my name on my motorhome, my campervan. I want to start hiring it out. Can I do it? So the answer to that question, if you read the finance document, is no. The truth is if you want to hire out to friends and family, there’s no financial gain there. I think the cutoff is when there’s a financial gain that comes into it. Some of you might have heard of GoBoony.
Matt Sims: Well, they’re like Airbnb.
Steven Blake: Airbnb for campers. Yes, there’s lots of them. We’ve had conversations with them as well. From a finance point of view, that model doesn’t work. The only way that model works is if you set up a company, ABC Motorhome Hire Limited, and get a proper set of terms and conditions like you would if you went to hire a van for the weekend. You’d have to sign terms and conditions for it, have a proper contract, then a funder will look at that and will potentially approve you for financing in the limited company name because you’ve satisfied the terms and conditions, made sure in the event that the customer walks away with your motorhome or it’s a write off, you’ve got a watertight contract in place.
Matt Sims: So I’ve borrowed money. I’ve taken HP through you. And we’ve got this motorhome. We’re not using anywhere near as much as we thought we might. And we’ve been looking at hire and think, gosh, we can make a grand a week here, easy money. We just give the keys to this couple we’ve never met and off they go. I make it sound daft. And I have a motorhome hire business, so I know what it’s like. But what you’re saying is, it doesn’t fit for the finance company, but how are they going to find out?
Steven Blake: The only reason they’d find out is if you started to not pay – that’s an example there. If they were starting to speak to you and got to the point of wanting to repossess their asset, and they found out that their asset was 3,000 miles away in Greece or something…
Matt Sims: Croatia.
Steven Blake: Then it’s a big problem. The truth is if people don’t tell us, there’s nothing we can do about it and we will crack on. But just if people want to act as per the terms and conditions and not get caught out and not have any risk, pretty much every regulated finance agreement will say an exclusion of usage is hire and reward.
Matt Sims: hire and reward, that’s the key, isn’t it? Word to the wise there, if you’re thinking of renting out your motorhome, don’t do it. And with a non regulated agreement, there you don’t have the options to pay it off early and not pay all the interest. Can you just unpack the benefits to us on a regulated agreement of that, ending it early? So I’ve taken a ten-year term. I’ve sold the van and now I’m going to buy a boat. So I’m going to pay the finance off. A regulated agreement is very different to a non regulated one.
Steven Blake: Yes, it is. On a regulated agreement, you’re protected by the Consumer Credit Act. So on a regulated agreement, you’ve got your monthly payment. Let’s say you do a ten-year finance agreement, you’ve got your monthly payments, you can pay up to £8,000 a year over and above the monthly payments without penalty. So if maybe someone gets a bonus once or twice a year, they can pay it off that way. If it’s over £8,000 a year, the funder can charge 1% on the amount you’re paying off on the whole amount. So if you wanted to pay off £8,000 a year, there’s no penalty. If you wanted to pay off £12,000 a year, you have a £120 fine because it would be 1% of the whole amount, just to be clear on that. When it comes to settlement, you’re protected under the Consumer Credit Act rules on early settlement. Everybody on regulated has to apply by the same rules. So it’s not like if I go to this funder, I might get a better settlement figure or if I go to this broker. The same rules will apply. It’s roughly two months penalty interest. It’s complicated – the actuarial method calculation is complicated. We won’t even begin to go into it.
Matt Sims: My understanding is two months interest.
Steven Blake: Yes, it’s slightly front loaded. Let’s say you took out a ten-year finance agreement and wanted to settle it in month two – it would be slightly more painful than if you wanted to settle it three or four years down the line. If somebody knew they were going to settle the finance agreement after six months, they shouldn’t take a ten-year finance agreement out.
Matt Sims: Well, because we all understand that the first payments are all interest. 90 something percent is interest.
Steven Blake: You still get a large rebate under the Consumer Credit Act rules, but you would never be massively penalised on a regulated agreement. Non regulated is different. Limited company funding, the gloves are off in terms of the funders. They can give you almost no rebate. So if you do a finance agreement in a limited company name and want to settle two years into a five year deal, that could be quite painful.
Matt Sims: You might end up paying three years of interest.
Steven Blake: Yes. Some rebates, but it will be far more penal than if it was a regulated agreement, put it that way.
Matt Sims: And it’s totally down to the lender’s decision as to how much you pay, isn’t it? You have no protection at all from the FCA or the Consumer Credit Act. It’s totally unprotected. And hence, it’s called non regulated. So if you are looking at taking a business loan, very aware of that, be very careful. Let’s talk tier two loans. So that’s what you call a weaker prospect for finance. So someone may have a poor credit rating. A poor credit rating doesn’t necessarily mean you’re precluded from borrowing, does it? But it does mean the terms may not be so favourable.
Steven Blake: It depends how poor the credit is. That’s one of the main things I’d say there. Some funders will take a view – if someone has had some missed payments or has had a bit of a problem with their credit file, but their affordability looks strong, so let’s say they want to borrow £500 a month from the agreement, but they’ve got very good income, they’ll probably turn a blind eye. But they’ll make a decision based on the fact that they’ve got income. A lot of the funders now are very driven by affordability, servicing the debt. If the funder thinks you can service the debt, they might take a bit of a view some missed payments here and there.
Matt Sims: And affordability, that’s quite a recent introduction by the FCA, isn’t it?
Steven Blake: Funders are under quite a lot of guidance now under responsible lending. So we see some ridiculous applications come through. I’m not joking here, a 21-year-old working at Tesco’s on £15,000 a year wanting to buy £70,000 worth of new Mercedes, for example. That’s not going to fly. But even if it did fly, we would potentially be in hot water there under the rules of responsible lending because clearly, we would have helped service a debt that is way beyond the customer’s profile. But we have got homes for finance for customers who have had some missed payments and some difficulties. If someone’s got loads of defaults, they haven’t paid on hire purchase agreements, they’ve defaulted on credit cards, they’ve got county court judgments, that’s probably not one for us.
Matt Sims: No. Okay. And not one for anyone, really.
Steven Blake: Not one for anyone, really. And if it is one for somebody, the interest rate will be absolutely exorbitant. And we, as Creative Motorhome Finance, we don’t want to be going down that route with huge rate finance. That’s not for us. We’ll let someone else do that.
Matt Sims: Let’s talk about interest rates. So the benefits of fixed versus variable. With an HP, we know it’s fixed. But are there merits, pros and cons to either or?
Steven Blake: Yes, we haven’t really got a variable rate product in the leisure space. Obviously, you could do a second charge mortgage perhaps on a variable rate. We don’t see much of that. Rates seem relatively static at the moment. I’ve been in this sector ten years. I’ve been in finance thirty years. I could tell you on one hand the number of variable rate deals we’ve done. So certainly in the leisure space, not a driver at all.
Matt Sims: No. So fixed interest rates makes it affordable in the sense that we can plan. So we know it’s going to be – you gave the example of £400 a month, it’s going to be that for ten years, which with inflation becomes cheaper over time, I guess.
Steven Blake: And of course overpayments can be made to bring that down.
Matt Sims: Then of course, you talk about affordability – we need to budget for other things, don’t we, in terms of running the motorhome because it has other costs. So insurance is one. Servicing – what other costs do you want us to consider when considering affordability?
Steven Blake: Yes, I mean, funders I don’t think will drill down in quite that level of detail. Yes, of course, there’s lots of ongoing costs, like maybe an ongoing warranty, extended warranty, you’ve got your fuel, your ongoing maintenance. The funders won’t look at that from an affordability perspective. They’ll keep it quite simple on, okay, this is the cost of the vehicle, this is the deposit, this is how much they want to borrow -over how long can they afford it? They won’t factor in other sundry costs.
Matt Sims: And then the can they afford it bit, how is that determined? I mean, they ask for six months of bank statements and they see all your other outgoings and then they work out what’s left?
Steven Blake: Yes, so some of the funders will automatically associate certain outgoings to customers by looking at ONS data. Office National Statistics say that people who spend this average this amount on the holiday, average this amount on this, this amount on that. And then they’ll ask questions regarding, do you have any dependents in terms of childcare or whatever it might be. Look at the income. An important part of this is looking at other outstanding debts as well. So somebody might have a very good income, but they might have three credit cards maxed out. They might have two hire purchase agreements. The funding phrase there is heavily committed, already heavily committed. We see it quite often – someone with a good income is actually turned down because the funder believes they’re overcommitted with current arrangements.
Matt Sims: And also, my understanding too is if you’ve got available credit to you – so I’ve got a credit card that I don’t use, and I think there’s a £20,000 limit on it. I don’t use it. But that could weaken my case to apply for finance, because I could go and use this £20,000 and suddenly become over committed once you’ve said yes.
Steven Blake: Say you’ve had over the years two or three hire purchase agreements and you’ve always paid them. That’s a massive tick in the box. If you’ve got a credit card, if you don’t use it at all, that’s probably almost like a neutral on your credit score. Let’s say you put £500 a month on the credit card, but you pay it off every month. That shows good planning from a financing point of view. So that would definitely be a positive. Paying your mortgage every month is clearly a big positive. Being on the electoral register is an important one as well. So there’s lots of things that go into making a credit score.
Matt Sims: Would you say in the lead up to applying for any finance for anything really, it’s good practice to do that? So put your weekly shop on the credit card and pay it off to show that you’ve got respectable behaviour when it comes to borrowing?
Steven Blake: Would I ever encourage someone to put money on a credit card? I suppose if you definitely have the means to pay it off, then… what you don’t want to do is to leave outstanding balances on the credit card if you can avoid it. Because rather than a competitive APR on a hire purchase agreement, you’re paying, as you said earlier, 20 whatever percent on a credit card. You don’t want to be doing that.
Matt Sims: Sure. Another thing I want to ask you about, Steven, is a deposit. So traditionally, if you’re applying for finance, it would be expected you would put 20% down on a brand new motorhome and maybe 10% down on a used one. But that’s not necessarily the requirement, is it?
Steven Blake: No. Mean we do zero deposit deals on both new and used motorhomes and campervans. It’s all down to the affordability. If you’re buying a £100,000 motorhome and you say you don’t want to put any deposit down, funders are to have to be fairly comfortable with the credit profile. But if you demonstrate through your credit search and you can demonstrate via payslips or whatever that your income supports it, they’ll do it. It’s income driven.
Matt Sims: Right, okay. So the value of the deposit is not a leveraging factor to whether you’ll get lent to?
Steven Blake: Yes. Imean, again, there’s some variation between funders. Some funders will want a deposit. There’s one of the mainstream ones I know who will want a minimum of £1,000. But if you’re buying a £100,000 vehicle and you can’t come up with a grand, you probably won’t get it.
Matt Sims: Something looks dodgy already.
Steven Blake: Maybe that’s not quite the right purchase. But everyone has their circumstances.
Matt Sims: I’d like to dip into consumer protection and just bust a couple of myths, I think. We get a cooling off period of fourteen days after we’ve bought the motorhome or we’ve taken the finance – or are they the same thing?
Steven Blake: It’s from the signing of the finance document, I believe. Execution of the finance document, I think is the answer. You’ve tested me on that one. The execution of the finance document, I think, yeah.
Matt Sims: Okay. So there is a fourteen day cooling off period where you can go, no, no, no, I don’t want it. And obviously, if you’ve got the motorhome at that point, you’ve got a problem, you’ve got to fund it. Let’s talk about fit for purpose. This is a phrase that Facebook loves. It’s not fit for purpose. And I’ve known dealers where customers have gone back in and there’s a problem with the motorhome and they say it’s not fit for purpose. And the dealer said, why didn’t you bring it back two weeks ago? Oh, we were down in Croatia on holiday in it. But it’s not fit for purpose and you’ve just had six weeks in it. How is it not fit for purpose? If you take finance on a motorhome, though, you get far stronger rights with a dealer when it comes to fit for purpose and the potential of having it resolved and returning it. Is that true?
Steven Blake: Yes. I mean this is generally MQ – merchantable quality issues is the industry terminology.
Matt Sims: So how involved would a finance company get in a situation where I’ve got a problem with my fridge, my tap leaks, my roof light isn’t closing properly? I’ve got this long list of things, how involved does a lender get?
Steven Blake: Clearly the first port of call is can the dealer fix the outstanding issues? I mean, most people wouldn’t go straight to the lender of course, they’d go back to the dealer and say I’ve got X, Y and Z wrong with the vehicle. Can you fix it satisfactorily? A lot of the time that will be a yes. Occasionally that will be a no. And if that becomes a no, then there’s the potential to have to unwind the finance agreement. The lender will want both sides of the story in writing in that scenario. So they’ll want the timeline from the dealers to what they’ve done to repair and when they’ve done it. And they’ll want from the customer a timeline of what the issues are and how they came about. If there are issues with the vehicle within thirty days, they can hand it back and wave bye bye. Simple as that.
Matt Sims: Even if the dealer offers to repair them?
Steven Blake: Well, within the first thirty days, they can reject.
Matt Sims: Right, okay.
Steven Blake: Between thirty days and six months, they have to give the dealer an opportunity to put right any outstanding issues. If they do, great. I mean, we get a lot of these all the time. Probably 95% of the time, agreement is found and the repairs are done, fortunately. But occasionally, you get some that stick. And in that scenario, the funder would need to get involved and then if the funder agreed with the customer, all parties would have to return the customer to the same position they were in before they took the agreement out. They’d return the deposit and everything, put them back to the same position they were before they walked into the dealership, in effect. After six months, the onus is on the customer to prove that the issue was there with the vehicle at the point of purchase and not subsequently. That’s a tough one. You can imagine some of the well it was, well it wasn’t. You can imagine some of the toings and froings on that.
Matt Sims: So it’s important then if you are having challenges with a motorhome – if you’ve got finance on it or not, it’s important that you’re documenting emails and you are reporting in writing the issue so things are date stamped.
Steven Blake: Hearsay is absolutely no good in this sort of scenario. Absolutely. It has to be documented.
Matt Sims: The lender is going to want to see that written and dated evidence from both sides.
Steven Blake: 100%.
Matt Sims: Okay. And how involved will they get? Will they step in and start a conversation with the dealer and with you, the consumer?
Steven Blake: Yes. And obviously, as a broker, us as well, we’ll all try and find agreement. It might mean that all parties might have to come the table to get a resolution. If the funder says, well, we partially agree with the customer, we’ll give X, and the customer says, well, no, that’s still not good enough, the customer then has the right to take the whole matter to the financial ombudsman, and they’ll make a ruling. There’s various approaches, but the timeline is slightly different depending on at what point you’re raising the issue for the first time.
Matt Sims: So would you say then that it’s beneficial putting your product on finance or some element of it to give you better protection if something goes wrong?
Steven Blake: Yes. That would definitely be a benefit. I mean, you have to be careful on that. Let’s say you came to us and said, well, I’m buying a £90,000 motorhome, but the only reason I’m putting it on finance is because I want the protection. So I’m going to give you an £87,000 deposit and I’m to finance £3,000… and we do see this happening occasionally. We probably wouldn’t be overly keen to transact that deal, in truth. We would if we needed to. But in the same way as a motorhome dealer’s income is the sale of the vehicle, our income is commissioned from the funder. That’s our income.
Matt Sims: If it’s unstitched, that’s all refunded.
Steven Blake: And if it’s unstitched early, literally that’s a paper pushing exercise. But if somebody says, listen, I want to finance half of this a), because I’d like to finance half of it, but b), because it gives me that extra protection, no problem. Let’s crack on.
Matt Sims: Right. Okay. Okay. So what about selling a motorhome? So I’ve bought my motorhome. It was £90,000 new, and I’ve £50,000 of it on finance and it’s a ten-year term, but three years later I want to sell it and there’s finance on it. Now, I’ve decided I’m going to sell it privately because I was lowballed an offer by the dealer. So I think I can get more for it privately and I’m happy dealing with tyre kickers who don’t turn up. That’s my risk. How do I sell it with the finance on because I haven’t got the settlement figure in the bank to pay it off?
Steven Blake: That’s a challenging one. So in most cases you’re probably not going to be dealing with a customer that is prepared to pay you the balance to clear.
Matt Sims: But could they pay you, the lender, and then pay me the balance? So they pay my finance off and then I pay the balance.
Steven Blake: A lender will want clear title. They will not pay a deal out until there is clear title. Remember that the funder will show an HPI interest on the vehicle.
Matt Sims: So you’ve got an HPI footprint on it.
Steven Blake: Yes. The funder won’t pay out with another HPI footprint.
Matt Sims: I’m selling it three years later for, let’s say, £50,000 for the sake of round numbers. Your settlement figure to me is £30,000 and I’m selling it to this gentleman here. And I said, look, there’s £30,000 left to pay on my finance. Here’s the settlement figure. If you pay Steve £30,000 and get rid of the finance, in a week, the HPI footprint is going to disappear because you see we’ve no longer got any interest in this vehicle. But you’re buying it from me for £50,000. So then give me the £20,000 and it’s yours. Can I do that?
Steven Blake: You could do that. There’s a bit of trust, isn’t there, on the part of the person paying the settlement figure off that you’re not going to disappear!
Matt Sims: Well, this gentleman is going to ring you first, and he’s going to have a direct conversation with you to confirm the settlement figure and that you’re bona fide. Am I allowed to do that, though?
Steven Blake: Funders would allow another party to pay off the settlement. Be mindful of the fact that funders will always check a vehicle for HPI clearance before they will release funds on it.
Matt Sims: Yes. So if the gentleman is borrowing to buy it, we’ve got a problem. So will his lender pay you?
Steven Blake: Will his lender pay us as the broker?
Matt Sims: Or pay my lender who is brokered through you?
Steven Blake: No.
Matt Sims: They won’t. So a lender won’t pay another lender?
Steven Blake: No, not in the consumer space. They will on commercial finance, not in the consumer.
Matt Sims: Even if I’ve borrowed from you and you’ve set me up with – I don’t know, let’s say Close Brothers, and the gentleman says, yes, I’ve got finance with Close Brothers before and I’m going to do Close Brothers. They won’t pay themselves off?
Steven Blake: You could probably have a conversation with the funder if we’re getting down to contra settling an existing agreement with the same funder. That will be the only scenario that that may work in. Contra settling – sorry, it’s getting complicated here. Contra settling between consumer funders is generally a no-no.
Matt Sims: Right. Okay. Interesting. So when you’re buying a motorhome, if you’re buying one privately, get an HPI check. They’re tens of pounds, aren’t they? It will tell you if the vehicle has ever been written off and if there is still finance on it. And if there is, you know now what you need to do. Ideally, you want that HPI footprint cleaned off. It does take about a week, doesn’t it, for the HPI database to catch up?
Steven Blake: It does. But funders can provide a settlement, a letter of clearance which funders will accept even if the HPI hasn’t updated. So that’s not a problem.
Matt Sims: Okay. So Steve, you’re a specialist broker. I mentioned Close Brothers. We can go direct to Close Brothers, can’t we? You go into a dealership and often many dealerships have Black Horse signs everywhere. But you’re a specialist broker, and as you said, you have access to 90 lenders. What are the benefits of going to a specialist broker rather than the finance product offered by the dealer when we go in there?
Steven Blake: This isn’t a cheap used car purchase. This is, in a lot of cases, a very considered £70,000 to £100,000 purchase. Customers want to understand the arrangements. Our sales team talk to people every day about the different options. We talked about the secured, the unsecured, the HP, the other scenarios that we’ve got, the second charge mortgages. There’s loads of options there. Just putting some figures into a computer – you’re not going to get any feedback there. We actually have a proper conversation with customers. And as well, rates wise, because we do a hell of a lot of business with a lot of these consumer funders, we can often beat the dealer rate as well. So it’s a combination of competitive rates and actually some understanding of the process, the different products. You talked earlier about early settlement, what are the rules and how does that work? We’ll give advice and give customers understanding.
Matt Sims: And people can ring your team, can’t they, and get advice?
Steven Blake: Personal number, personal service, there’s no big call centers. It’s all us.
Matt Sims: And one of the people that answer the phone is Steve’s wife, who’s the loveliest woman I’ve ever met. And she is super helpful. And if you ring up, often, she’ll answer the phone. So I can speak first hand for this. So one of the things I want to ask as well Steve is, in terms of getting a quote from you, people can do that via your website, can’t they? You can do it today on your phone. It’s dead easy. You can go to motorhome.finance – I’ve given it a plug for you. And you can put the value of the motorhome in. So you could be looking at one today and say, well, I am going to put a deposit in and I want to borrow it over… you now know the twenty year, fifteen year term, twenty year rule, end of term age, that is. And they say, well, I want to buy this over ten years and it’s five years old, so I can. And it will give you a monthly payment, won’t it?
Steven Blake: It will. It will be a pretty accurate monthly payment. The only thing it won’t take into account at that stage will, of course, be someone’s credit banding because we haven’t got to that point yet. That can affect the rates slightly. But if you’re thinking, well, how much is £50,000 going to cost me to borrow over ten years? It will give you a very accurate picture of what that looks like.
Matt Sims: It’s actually a really useful tool because going around, if you’re thinking, well, if I get an extra £20,000, I can have that Burstner. And you can go and find out really, really easily with absolutely no obligation.
Steven Blake: That’s quite dangerous, because you’re in a £120,000 vehicle before you know it.
Matt Sims: You end up walking out with a far bigger, better motorhome than you came to buy. But even then, it’s very easy to press apply and then your wheels start turning, don’t they?
Steven Blake: Yes. And it’s important to say that if you do an application on our website, it comes through on our system, we will do a soft credit search. And for those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a credit search which doesn’t show up on your credit file. So a hard credit search is a search which, if too many of them are done, will have a slight detrimental effect on your credit score because it looks like you’re applying for finance all over the place. But we just do a soft credit search. We then have a conversation with the customer, understand what their requirements are, and then we’ll choose what we believe is the best lender to put the application to. They will do a hard search, but it’ll be one hard search. What we’re definitely not, and some brokers give the industry a bad name, they’ll get a customer and they’ll fire the deal off to six, seven, eight funders at once. All of a sudden, you’ve got a whole load of hard credit searches. And you can bet if you do that often enough, the next person will be somebody that’s just about to get their mortgage signed off, and all of a sudden, you’ve got a problem.
Matt Sims: You’ve got a hammered credit score. And is it worth applying for finance and going to a show like this or into a dealership to make a purchase with finance pre-approved?
Steven Blake: Yes, I think from the customer’s point of view, yes, they know that they can budget and purchase up to X amount for a vehicle. From the dealer’s point of view, I hear people say, well, am I likely to get more money off my vehicle because I’m going in saying I’ve already got my finance approved elsewhere? The truth is you’re probably less likely to get money off the vehicle if you do that. They want to sell their own finance. I’m not really doing myself a favour by saying that, but that’s the truth. But you might well find that our finance has been more competitive than what the dealer’s quoted anyway.
Matt Sims: But also it’s about making yourself agile in terms of knowing what you can afford and realistically looking at motorhomes that you could buy rather than ones that are still a pipe dream. So I’d say go and do a check and see what it would cost a month. And if you think you can afford it and you want to go to the next step, it’s probably worth doing. What other tips would you give people as we wrap up in terms of gearing up for finance, in terms of choosing it?
Steven Blake: I think you’ve covered some of it there already. In terms of your monthly payment, it would be easy to say, well, I can afford £500 a month, but if I take the finance over, say, a fifteen year term, I can get it for £350 per month. That’s fine, but do factor in you’re going to be paying a chunk more interest over the period. So I’d say whatever you’re comfortable with, fund up to that amount. Don’t go a lot less just because you can extend the term years and years and years further. If you can afford £500 a month and you can do that over six years, do it. Don’t do £300 a month over ten years. It will cost you more in the long run.
Matt Sims: But if you think, well, I can do ten years, therefore, I get another extra couple of hundred. My £500 a month is going to go further in terms of the capital spend, the screen price – then I guess it’s being smart and understanding how much you’re going to pay at the end of it. And let’s face it, most of us aren’t going to keep that motorhome for ten years. We’re going to keep it for three or five years. So budget, how much interest am I going to pay for the time I’m going to have it? And budget two months’ interest as a penalty for paying it off early, assuming it’s regulated.
Steven Blake: Yes. Another thing, we do have quite a lot of customers that come to us and say, because I knew I was going to apply for finance, I paid my credit cards off last week because my credit score will be better. The credit reference agencies take at least six to eight weeks sometimes. Once you pay the credit card off, that’s not an overnight update on your credit score by any means. It can be two months down the line sometimes before that shows up. So if you going to apply for finance and you’re paying off lots of things before you do it, give yourself a couple of months ahead of time for that.
Keith Gooden: That’s you and Steven Blake. He’s the sales manager at Creative Funding Solutions. A real insight there, Matt, about how you might finance your next or your first motorhome.
Matt Sims: Absolutely, yeah. And it’s really important to get clued up. Education is key here. So people often think, how am I going to raise £10,000, £50,000, £100,000? Whatever it might be. The team at Creative are super helpful. As we said Steve is a broker. And his team, they broker the deal. They are not the lender, so they will help find the right finance solution for you or advise you against one that they can offer and suggest you do something else. And you can find out more about them and go and do a no obligation quote on their website. If you’re looking at a motorhome and you think, I wonder what that would cost a month? Go to motorhome.finance – simple as that, no .co.uk. motorhome.finance – go and check out their quotation tool and see what you might be able to afford and what it might cost.
Keith Gooden: If you want to check them out further you can go to Motorhome Matt Approved as well because they are. That’s the place, the list of companies and services that Matt has done his best to delve into what they do, what they provide and how they operate and he’s prepared to put his stamp of approval on it. It’s at mhmp.info/creative. Matt, some people think VPNs are just for hiding what you’re watching online. Is that really all they’re made for?
Matt Sims: No, not at all. A VPN like Nord is really about safety. So if you’re on campsite wifi, a coffee shop hotspot or even using mobile data abroad, you don’t know who else is on that network. NordVPN protects your data so no one can snoop. It keeps your banking safe and it stops your internet provider tracking what you’re up to. And here’s the thing – it’s not about having anything to hide. It’s about protection. It’s like locking the door on your motorhome. Not because you’ve gold bars inside but because you don’t want anyone poking around trying to steal your valuables.
Keith Gooden: I suppose that’s a fair way of putting it.
Matt Sims: NordVPN is fast, easy to use and runs quietly in the background. I use it every trip. Click the link description and you can try it with a discount and a thirty day money back guarantee.
Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims: And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden: It’s brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe.
Matt Sims: Remember, get 15% off your insurance premium by using the code MOTORHOMEMATT over the phone or simply click the link in the episode description.
Keith Gooden: It’s our Q and A, the questions and answers. You ask the questions and Matt, he’s the expert, he will give the answers. If he doesn’t know, he’ll make jolly sure he finds somebody who does. First of all, Belinda is in Swindon.
Belinda: Hi, guys. This is a question for Matt. Towards the end of this year, I plan to buy a motorhome which I will be living in full time all year round. I am getting confused about which motorhomes are winterised or winter proofed, which have grade three insulation and which don’t, or do they all have it? And do I need to install a diesel heater because it seems to be much cheaper than the gas? What should I be looking for? Please help and keep up the good work. Thank you.
Keith Gooden: Cheers, Belinda. Much appreciated. Thanks for the kind words. So I suppose many motorhomes, to be honest with you, are made by European manufacturers and in Europe you don’t spend so long in them as you do in the UK. So her question is quite relevant, isn’t it?
Matt Sims: Really relevant, yeah. But European motorhomes tend to be used all year round as well. The Europeans holiday generally in short, sharp stints and they are built to withstand really cold extremes so that if they’re being sold into Scandinavia or Norway, obviously it’s a lot colder than here, and their ability to carry weight on the roof in snow is also a factor. But that said, an increasing number of British built motorhomes are being built for winter use and all round use because it’s a trend we’re seeing here in this country. The word winterise though is massively overused. What does it mean? It means different things according to different manufacturers. It fundamentally really is about the insulation in the van and how insulated the water system is. So where is the fresh water tank? Is it under the van or is it inside the van? Assuming you’ve got the heating on, you’re not going to be minus two inside, therefore the fresh water isn’t going to freeze. But where is the waste tank? Normally that’s outside the van. Underneath, that is going to be very prone to freezing. But is it heated? There’s a number of ways you can do that. You can either wrap the tank in warm air, you can blow warm air into the tank – Truma and Alde both do this – or you could buy a tank blanket which is a stick on pad that’s a low voltage, generates warmth enough to get that water in the waste tank above zero so it doesn’t freeze. We’ve been skiing in a motorhome when the kids were younger. We would leave the waste tap open, just pour warm water down the sink frequently so that it didn’t freeze in the waste tank and would just come out on the ground or into a bucket and then we would keep the waste tank empty. So being winterised, as I say, is fundamentally about that. What’s the thermal capability of the walls in the motorhome? Grade three insulation is a rubber stamp that’s physically a sticker on a motorhome or on the spec. So doing research is key. This is where a motorhome or caravan is put into a cold chamber and taken down to minus 21. We have a great episode with Lee from Alde and he unpacks how this works and the tests that they undergo on motorhomes. So you can go and check that out and find out what the grade three heating test actually means. And then in terms of diesel heating, if you are going to be using it all year round, then it’s a great accessory to have. It’s not expensive. The EcoTherm heater is brilliant. If you’re not sure where to go to get this installed or how it might be installed, talk to Bluefix. They are a fantastic company. Mark and Luke are super helpful with their team. They will talk you through how to fit one and how one might be fitted into your van and the cost of doing so. They are Motorhome Matt Approved as well. They have fitted loads of them. So definitely talk to them. I’d say that’s a must have accessory if you are going to consider using the van through the winter and perhaps where gas is hard to come by because that’s the alternative energy source. If you do contact Bluefix, make sure you say Motorhome Matt sent you.
Keith Gooden: Absolutely, 100%. Jane – we don’t know where she is, but we do know she’s Jane.
Jane: My husband’s Kevin. We’re picking up a new motorhome on Tuesday. And could you recommend a good insurance company? Because Kevin’s having a problem at the moment. And, also, we want to get a lock for the steering wheel. I wonder if you could recommend that as well. Thank you, Matt.
Keith Gooden: Jane and Kev. Kev and Jane picking up a new motorhome. Could we recommend an insurance company? We jolly well could.
Matt Sims: Definitely check out Ripe. They sponsor this podcast. Use the code MOTORHOMEMATT. Go to mhmp.info/ripe and you will find their listing with us. Click the link and it will automatically apply the 15% discount. My recommendation if you are shopping around for insurance is don’t go to these comparison sites because you could end up with a bank or a supermarket supplying insurance for a very specialist pastime. Go to an insurer that understands the product and has a motorhome or campervan specific cover. It means that they will cover European trips for extended periods, it means they will cover your contents. There’s loads of stuff that motorhome specific insurers will cover that a traditional insurer that you might use for home insurance won’t cover. So be wise to this and make sure you’re asking for a motorhome or campervan specific cover. Steering wheel locks – Stronghold are a benchmark for any form of security, wheel clamps as well. I would favour, if you’ve got room for it when you’re travelling, a lock that covers the entire steering wheel like a big disc. You know the one. They’re called a disc lock. And they go around the steering wheel and you can’t get to the steering wheel. The risk is we want a bar that goes diagonally across, great visual deterrent, but it would be possible to cut the steering wheel and remove it. If someone’s got time and intent they could do that. They’ve got to get in the motorhome obviously to do it. A big circular disc one that’s security approved by someone like Stronghold would be the one to go for but they are big and bulky. Also remember, if you tell your insurance company you’re fitting that – check with them – they might require you to have it fitted when you’re on a campsite as well. So again, word to the wise.
Keith Gooden: Yep, and remember there are lots of different insurance companies, not just Ripe. Brands in the market include Caravan Guard, Safeguard and Ceta.
Matt Sims: Yes, just some them. There are many of them. Adrian Flux – there’s lots out there. Even the Farmers’ Union, NFU, will offer you a motorhome specific product, but that’s the key. So shop around and find the one that is the best fit for you. And check out our episode with Ripe we recorded recently where Mel came on and she unpacks why they may not be the best for you and what you should do to ensure you can get the best quote.
Keith Gooden: Yeah, and the one that stuck out for me from that episode was when people are going and getting a quote and they’re asked what claims they’ve made, they’ve forgotten that they had a chip on the windscreen and you have separate insurance cover, don’t you, for your car for windscreens. snd you usually don’t get penalised when you get charged your next premium, do you? So you go through it, you do it, they come round, they fit the windscreen and then an insurance company says, well what claims have you had? And you just honestly forget to tell them.
Matt Sims: None.
Keith Gooden: And then you’re red flagged when they do the computer checks. And it’s not your fault. It’s not their fault. But, you know, remember, things like those windscreen changes do make a difference to your quote. Graham Robinson’s in Guildford. “Hi, Matt. Since coming across your podcast, I’ve been playing catch up and found some excellent advice and information. We are brand new to this motorhome scene, although we have owned a narrowboat for some years and so indulged in aquatic motorhoming. My question, probably daft, is,” there’s no daft questions, “We want to buy a cover for our Auto Trail F-70. Simple enough until I explain it has a solar panel on the roof which I wish to use while the motorhome is not in use to keep the vehicle battery topped up. Do you know of any manufacturer covers who make one with a clear roof panel so as to allow the solar panel to work?” Graham says many thanks. And that’s the thing about solar panels and people without them forget – I have them – it’s that it’s light. It’s PV, it’s photovoltaic. It’s the light, not the heat that charges your battery. So can you buy a cover with a window in it?
Yeah. You just to want to go on about solar panels, don’t you? We’ve started him off now. Yes, you can and there are a number of manufacturers that would do them. Two I’m going to give a shout out to, fantastic businesses. Specialised Covers, they do them, and Tailor Made. Some of these companies you’ll find at shows. What you will need, Graham, is the dimensions of it precisely where the panel is on the roof of the van and they will create a clear panel, a see through panel. Let’s call it that, I’m not sure what it’s made of. It’s where the sun and these PVs can penetrate and keep the solar panel working. So they will do it. There are manufacturers that did make a front third, middle third, back third and they were much cheaper, but I’ve not seen those around so much. But these two guys, Specialised and Tailor Made, will make a cover specifically for your motorhome precisely where the panel is.
Keith Gooden: Matt, if someone’s after a motorhome and just needs theirs looking after, where would you send them?
Matt Sims: Well, I’ve gone to RV Supercentre for years whenever I’ve needed Rollerteam spare parts in particular, so I know first hand how helpful they are. They’re not just about parts though – they’re The UK’s one stop shop for motorhomes whether you’re buying new, used or even an ex hire if you’re after great value.
Keith Gooden: And they do servicing as well, don’t they?
Matt Sims: Yes. Full service centres, parts, accessories, bodywork repairs that are insurance approved, and their NCC accredited workshops too. What I like is it’s a small and super friendly team but with nationwide sites. They’re in Toddington, Edinburgh and Belfast. So they’ve got that local feel but with a huge reach.
Keith Gooden: Sounds like the full package.
Matt Sims: Exactly. You can find out more at www.rvsupercentre.co.uk and we’ll stick the link in the episode description too.
Keith Gooden: Okay Matt, how do people get in touch?
Matt Sims: We would love it if you did. I always say this – if you have a question, please ask it because as Keith said, is no such thing as a daft question, just the one you’ve got. So head to mhmp.info/askmatt. You can fill in the form and we’ll read it for you, or click the orange button and record it – but please tell us where in the world you are.
Keith Gooden: And if you’re looking for trusted brands and services then make sure you visit the Motorhome Matt Approved directory. It’s at mhmp.info/approved
Matt Sims: Remember to follow on your favourite podcast app, or if you’re watching on YouTube, click subscribe and the little bell.
Keith Gooden: Thanks for listening to the Motorhome Matt podcast. Remember to check back here for more episodes full of hints and tips and helpful advice. We’ll see you soon for another Motorhome Matt podcast brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com.
