What an exciting part of your life, buying your first car! This memory will stay with you forever – but you must make sure you have ticked all the boxes! Have you considered that buying the car won’t be the only expense associated with it?

We recommend you check the affability before buying a car to include all of the below expenses:

Vehicle finance

It’s important to shop around for the best interest rate and understand how much vehicle finance you would be able to qualify for before committing to a certain finance provider. This will help you understand what type of car you would be able to afford and what the monthly premium would be.

Petrol will be an added expense too

Buying a car is not going to be your only expense, you will also need to fill it up with petrol and diesel. Petrol is expensive and the bigger the tank the more expensive and the bigger the engine the more petrol the car would consume. Work out how much travel you would need to use the car for per month and then work out how much petrol you would need every month and the cost – now add that to your budget too.

Car insurance

Be sure to have financial protection against uncertainties like car accidents, theft or car damage and use Compare Insurance to get the best insurance premium by comparing a range of car insurance providers on one website in a few simple steps. Be sure to get your possible monthly premium and add that to your budget too before committing to buying a car.

Service and maintenance plans

Some new cars come with a 5 year and a hundred thousand kilometre plan – this means you will not have this expense for at least 5 years or a hundred thousand kilometres, depending on what comes first. But if you are buying a second-hand car you might need to budget for services and maintenance too. Do the research and understand the cost implication of a new car and a second-hand car and what it would do to your monthly budget.

All of the above expenses add up – so check everything before you buy a car so you are sure to understand what you are in for financially.