buy brand new and pay a large deposit, at least half up front and take the rest on tick over a couple of years to pay the least amount of interest you can
Agree with this, also better taking a bank loan rather than the dealers finance as there are no additional fees with a bank loan and the van will belong to you straight away, not the finance company.
In my experience in the motor trade, a finance house won't often ask for additional security for their loan other than that of the vehicle they are financing if the applicant has a good credit rating. However, if you take out a personal loan, there is a greater probability that the bank will ask you to put your house up as security for the loan. They aren't going to hand over a large sum of money without a guarantee that they will have some recourse if the loan goes pair shaped.
So although the interest rate will be lower, a bank loan/overdraft could come with more strings attached.
Many Mortgages allow you to borrow against the value of the house. Take money out of the excess you have accumulated in the pot, so the 'loan' is repayable at a low interest rate.
Economic sense is that you borrow as little money as possible. Business however, looks at this differently. Why spend your money now on something you are going to earn back later. Better you pay it back at the same time you are earning it. However, you need to always have a small reserve pot in case of those occasional lean months.
Finance deals are a very personal thing and what makes sense to you may not make sense to someone else. Leasing a van is one of them. Leasing leaves you a final payment at the end of the contract which will give you a lower monthly repayment. A Lease Purchase is another form of lease for the van where you have to pay the final payment for the van to become yours (Finance lease is similar to Contract Hire where the vehicle will never become yours. But a Purchase Lease is different) That final payment will be what the van is expected to be worth at the end of the contract with X amount of miles on the clock. If you intend to replace that van every 3 or 4 years with a new one then leasing can make sense as you are leasing and paying interest on the depreciation rather than the full original price of the van.
And yes, the motor manufacturers love this type of deal as it keeps you in a replacement vehicle cycle every 3 or 4 years.
For me doing limited annual mileage, physically worn out and generally knackered, it doesn't make sense to buy new or lease. But that's my opinion. I'm seeing this through my eyes. A much younger person who has a long working career ahead of them will see things differently, as I once did. No one else knows your business better than you.
There is plenty of advise on websites that look at the pros and cons of each finance deal.
