UK Goldsmiths ending 4 year 0% finance tomorrow!

This cannot be for any other reason than they no longer have the access to tranches of money that they can put to their customers at 0%. Alternatively, were they funding this themselves, their balance sheet & cash from operating activities has taken a battering.

Either way, this isn't going to assist them in selling more watches. 0% finance is the most powerful tool they have to turn the nays to yays.

Think their finance is done through V12 so don't think funding it themselves is an issue. Guessing that V12 may have looked at their supposed money issues and pulled some of their offering to them? As referred to already, that year makes a big difference to cost for the buyer so not sure this is a good thing for them.

There are some good deals in their sale though if anyone needs to take advantage of the interest free (although sometimes you can't get it on sale items).

I think it's more likely that their balance sheet has taken a pounding with the falling values of their watches & that interest rates are up.

The value of platinum is £200 an ounce lower than it was 2 years ago. Gold is steady, silver up & down & extremely volatile. The problem with having 500-600 pre-owned watches is that we know their values are still falling & nobody likes to lend money at any rate of interest, nevermind 0% when the asset is falling.

I've never bought a watch on credit, zero or otherwise. Is the interest free loan secured or unsecured? It's probably unsecured but if it isn't I know I wouldn't be lending money to many if I feared the security is going to be worth 25% less inside 12 months.

It's most likely a combination of a few factors but it's a step they must have been reluctant to take, you'd imagine.

ps that's before you take into account the UK economy in general ffs 🥺

Unsecured, I've done it, makes sense to let someone else take the hit at 0% interest TBH while you leave the cash in an interest bearing account for 4 years. I assume the finance company must take a small charge on each 0% sale or I can't see how they benefit e.g. watch costs £2000, Goldsmiths get £1900, finance company take £100 instead of the interest income? God knows 🤣

I thought it probably would be unsecured. Repo-ing a watch would be a nightmare.

I think that the finance company probably get a bigger share but I'm only going by what banks take from their factoring facility for businesses which can be 25%+. It's kinda the same thing in that the bank is providing cashflow based on the businesses orders/invoices yet to be paid.

It's certainly not cheap money now if you want to put down £2,000 & borrow £6,000;

Total purchase price - £8,000. Deposit - £2,000. Loan amount - £6,000. 60 months EPP – 14.9% APR representative. Monthly payment 60 x £139.51. Total interest - £2370.60. Total amount repayable - £10370.60. Annual rate of interest 7.90% Fixed P.A.

Agreed, was just using that as a rough example. No idea what the margin is on a watch but paying the finance company a fee on lots of 0% interest sales will obviously affect that. Altering the number of years on offer might push more sales onto an interest bearing arrangement which then - I guess - means no fee paid by the retailer as finance company gets all the interest.

It’s unsecured. The deal is, you put down a minimum of 10% of the value of the watch. The rest is interest free, to you. There is interest on the loan but you don’t pay it, Goldsmiths pay V12 or Barclays (the finance companies they use).

Goldsmiths have decided that they don’t have enough margin in the cost of the trade price of the watch and retail price of it to you, to pay that level of interest anymore.

On Monday it reverts back to what it was last year, 20% deposit and the rest spread over 3 years interest free.

Anyone know what they offer now in terms of 0% interest on Rolex watches? I missed a call from them today, will call them back tomorrow, would be good to get one on 0% interest but want to know my options.

I don’t think you can do 0% on Rolex. It’s an interest rate.

Ahh ok, I thought that was the case. I guess I'll go the 0% interest credit card route, I'd just rather split the payments then have the money all go at once.