# hire purchase vs. installment plan  (BE vs. AE)



## zaffy

I guess BE could say this.
_"I'm going to get a new car on hire purchase"_

1. Would AE put it the same way?
2. Could I say this as well? _I'm going to get a new car in an installment system. _


----------



## anthox

Frankly, I have no idea what either of those sentences mean.


----------



## zaffy

anthox said:


> Frankly, I have no idea what either of those sentences mean.


I meant buying a car paying a series of regular payments until all of an agreed amount has been paid.


----------



## Wordy McWordface

zaffy said:


> I guess BE could say this.
> _"I'm going to get a new car on hire purchase"_


No. 'Hire purchase' is a very outdated term. I haven't heard it for many years.  It's a phrase I remember my parents using when I was a child, in the days before credit cards were widely available. People used to buy household goods that way. If you didn't keep up with your payments, the company would come and take your furniture away. That's where the 'hire' comes in. It wasn't yours until you'd paid off all the installments. I don't think younger people have even heard of it.


zaffy said:


> Could I say this as well? _I'm going to get a new car in an installment system. _


That's strangely phrased - 'installment' is right, but not 'in' and not 'system'.

Perhaps _pay in installments _or _buy it on an installment plan_.

Definition of INSTALLMENT PLAN


----------



## anthox

zaffy said:


> I meant buying a car paying a series of regular payments until all of an agreed amount has been paid.


Over here we just call that "buying a car."  

Most people don't pay the full amount outright, but put a "down payment", which is a lump sum of maybe 5-10%, if that, and then pay off the rest in monthly installments.


----------



## zaffy

Wordy McWordface said:


> Perhaps _pay in installments _or _buy it on an installment plan_.



So this is how I might put it, can't I ?
_I'm going to get a new car on an installmant plan. _


----------



## heypresto

Wordy McWordface said:


> 'Hire purchase' is a very outdated term. I haven't heard it for many years. It's a phrase I remember my parents using when I was a child. I don't think younger people have even heard of it.


 Me neither. It was common when I was a child, and often referred it as 'HP'. Or buying something '_on tick_.'


----------



## zaffy

anthox said:


> Over here we just call that "buying a car."
> 
> Most people don't pay the full amount outright, but put a "down payment", which is a lump sum of maybe 5-10%, if that, and then pay off the rest in monthly installments.


Say you buy a used car yet you can't afford to pay all the amount upfront. The owner agrees to get the money in installments. How would you put it naturally?

A: How much did you pay for her if you don't mind my asking?
B: $10,000. But the guy agreed with me paying in 10 installments.


----------



## Myridon

No.  We don't borrow money by "making an agreement with the guy."  You get a loan from a bank or a finance company.  Even if the dealer does it, it's a legal contract to borrow the money.
I paid X down and borrowed the rest, got a loan for the rest.
You can also lease a car - you make monthly payments but, at the end, you give the car back to the dealer.


----------



## zaffy

Wordy McWordface said:


> No. 'Hire purchase' is a very outdated term.





heypresto said:


> It was common when I was a child,



Thanks for letting me know that. Coursebooks use that term and so does Longman, not saying it's an outdated term. So you don't like this example, do you?   "*A lot of new cars are bought on hire purchase.*"

And how would AE put this example?


----------



## mr cat

zaffy said:


> Thanks for letting me know that. Coursebooks use that term and so does Longman, not saying it's an outdated term. So you don't like this example, do you?   "*A lot of new cars are bought on hire purchase.*"
> 
> And how would AE put this example?
> 
> View attachment 76829


I'm not sure why they are saying it's outdated, it's still very much in use. 
Cars on Finance | Explore Car Finance Options at Lookers
HP car finance advice | Car finance hub | The Car Expert


----------



## Uncle Jack

zaffy said:


> So you don't like this example, do you? "*A lot of new cars are bought on hire purchase.*"


As a technical term, "hire purchase" still exists, and it is still reasonably common for cars. I expect that parties to hire purchase ("HP") contracts use the term, because I don't think there is any other term to use, but for ordinary people it is just counted as "finance", without any distinction being made between different types of finance, except a personal loan through a bank. 

Personal contract plans (PCP) are probably a more common form of finance than HP these days. There is also leasing/personal contract hire (PCH), but with PCH you generally don't end up owning the car at the end (although, it must be said, you might not end up owning the car after HP or PCP).


----------



## Tegs

You can buy furniture in this way too. I'd just say "we're paying it/the car/the sofa off in instalments".


----------



## zaffy

And how else can I say this example in BE and AE? "I bought my first car on hire purchase."


----------



## Tegs

"I bought my first car today. I'm paying for it in instalments."


----------



## zaffy

Say I'm in a small shop/store and looking at a nice washing machine. I can't afford to pay for it in go. So I ask the seller if I can pay in instalments. Do these work? 

_1. Do you offer an instalment plan? 
2. Do you offer instalment payment?
3. Could I pay for it in instalments? 
4. Can I get this washing machine on an instalment plan? _


----------



## Tegs

I would say 3 works. The rest strike me as a bit odd. You can also ask "Do you offer financing options?"


----------



## Myridon

Do you offer financing? (In the US, installment plans actually administered by the store are a thing of the distant past. You're really signing up for a credit card with some credit card company if you finance a washing machine.  The store has a relationship with some company that does this for them.)


----------



## heypresto

'Hire purchase' isn't wrong, but it does have a very dated feel about it.


----------



## JulianStuart

heypresto said:


> 'Hire purchase' isn't wrong, but it does have a very dated feel about it.


 
Hire purchase and rent-to-own are quite different from taking out a loan to purchase something. In the latter, you own the item and owe the bank. In the former, you don't own the item. - you owe the seller. Technically they could both be called "installments".


----------



## kentix

Hire purchase is completely unused here (because we don't use hire that way).

Here furniture and cars use somewhat different terminology. You finance a car by getting a loan which is always understood in normal circumstances for average people to mean paying it off in installments. You don't really specify that, it's just a given. You either pay cash for your car (which is not necessarily literal but means you pay the entire price) or you get a car loan (which means installments). If someone says they financed their car, that means they have a car loan that they pay in installments.

Those are standard arrangements. If a private individual sells a car to another individual they can make whatever agreement they want. They could agree the car gets paid off with money one month and cartons of eggs the next, if that's their agreement.

With furniture, you could also use the word finance but there is no common thing known as a furniture loan. We do have a term "rent to own", which is often used with furniture. You pay weekly or monthly rent on the furniture and at some point you own it, if that is part of the original agreement. Generally those places serve lower income people and everyone else pays "cash". For some people that will mean buying it outright and for others it will mean using a credit card that they pay off over time.

A mortgage on a house is basically the equivalent of a car loan for a car. But it has it's own terminology.


----------



## zaffy

kentix said:


> If someone says *they financed their car*, that means they have a car loan that they pay in installments.


But is that what you say in conversational language? I don't think this sounds natural, does it?

A: Nice car. Must have been expensive.
B: Yes. It was. But I financed it so....


----------



## elroy

zaffy said:


> A: Nice car. Must have been expensive.
> B: Yes. It was. But I financed it so....


"I financed it" is 100% natural in American English.  What's not natural is "must have" instead of "must've." 

The opposite of "I financed it" is "I bought it outright."  "I bought it" doesn't specify.


----------



## zaffy

elroy said:


> "I financed it" is 100% natural in American English.


Could BE speakers share their thoughts about it, please?


----------



## heypresto

It may be used in the BE car selling industry, and by some BE car buyers, but it's not something I would say.


----------



## Tegs

I just can't imagine having this conversation in real life!  

Someone might say "Waw, nice car!" and the reply would be "Thanks" and some other comment maybe (e.g. "I just bought it last week" or "It's lovely to drive"). But generally speaking, it's seen as rude here to comment on how expensive things look and what you paid for them, so people never talk about money like this. 

I've never talked to anyone about how much I paid for my car. Why would they want to know? So this whole situation seems like an interesting question for a learner, but not based on anything that might happen in real life.


----------



## Delvo

Car loans & financing aren't functionally different from installment plans. We just call the same thing different names depending on what we're buying.

When buying land this way, with or without a building already on it, it's a "mortgage". (The T is silent.)

When buying a vehicle this way, it's a "loan", a "car loan", an "auto loan", or "financing". Financing is slightly different from the others because you get it at the car dealership from a car salesperson. If you're using a loan, you get it somewhere else and use it to pay the car dealership all at once, then start gradually paying back whoever else you got the loan from. Paying for a vehicle all at once instead of borrowing for it is called paying "cash" even though you don't use cash. (In this usage, "cash" is an adverb.)

Every other purchase you might make in multiple small payments instead of one big payment can be an "installment plan". Those are common for jewelry, furniture, large equipment for your house (air conditioner, heater, water heater, refrigerator, freezer, stove & oven, laundry machines), and house modifications (things like adding a room or replacing the siding or roof).


----------



## Hermione Golightly

I'm going to pick you up on one point. You seem to be referring to a car with the  feminine pronoun 'her' or maybe it's just a slip. "How much did you pay for her if you don't mind my asking?"
That would be as outdated as hire purchase.


----------



## mr cat

zaffy said:


> Could BE speakers share their thoughts about it, please?


To me this would be confusing, if someone says 'I financed it' it would suggest they paid for it, put the money up for something. I might say "I put it on finance".

I would say things such as -

B: Yes. It was. But I took out a loan / got it on HP / bought it on tick / borrowed some of it.

'Instalments' is superfluous to me as virtually all types of loans are paid for in instalments, maybe I would use it if I was prefacing it with a number - "I'm paying for it in 3 instalments".

As for Tegs point about people not asking the price, maybe in Ireland but where I live it's one of the first questions (perhaps mostly with second-hand cars).


----------



## zaffy

mr cat said:


> if someone says 'I financed it' it would suggest they paid for it,


That would be the first thing that came to my mind as well.


----------



## Uncle Jack

We might still use "finance" though, as you will see that I did in post #12. However, it is more likely to be a noun than a verb. "I got it on finance" or "they offered finance" or "I used a finance plan".

I am not sure that these are terms that you are likely to use when talking to a friend, but at the car showroom, you may well ask "do you offer finance?" or "what finance do you have?"

Note that, as others have said, buying a car with a loan tends to be talked about in a completely different way from buying a car with a finance plan (see post #12 for types of finance plan). If you got a loan, you would probably just use the word "loan", which is something everyone understands.


----------



## zaffy

This black person was offered to buy a laptop and he asked the seller: "Can I pay installmentally?"
Is that a common way to put it? How do you like it?


----------



## Edinburgher

zaffy said:


> Is that a common way to put it?


Absolutely not.


----------



## Wordy McWordface

Installmentally??


How do I like it?
🤢


----------



## heypresto

Are you sure it's not meant as a joke? It's very funny. 😁


----------



## Myridon

If I'm reading the Internet correctly, it seems to be Nigerian English.


----------



## zaffy

heypresto said:


> Are you sure it's not meant as a joke? It's very funny.


It was a prank, but the black man did mean to ask if he could pay in installments, thinking the price would be high.


----------



## Edinburgher

zaffy said:


> thinking the price would be high.


But the price is $3.


----------



## zaffy

Edinburgher said:


> But the price is $3.


Yes, but he didn't know the price was so low.


----------



## zaffy

In this prank video he was trying a sell a brand new iPad for a dollar. Obviously the buyer was astonished so the prankster asked: _"Is that too much? Why? I mean *I can do installments*, 25 cents a month, maybe."_

Now, could he have said "*I can sell it in installments*, 25 cents a month, maybe."?

_

_


----------



## kentix

You could say that but "do" is more casual in a personal conversation. "I can do" means "I am willing to" (make special arrangements for you).


----------



## Myridon

zaffy said:


> Now, could he have said "*I can sell it in installments*, 25 cents a month, maybe."?


In "I can sell it in installments", "it" would seem to refer to the iPad. The iPad is the thing being sold. I'll sell you 1/4 of the iPad each month.


----------



## Roxxxannne

If I were going to use 'installments,' I'd say 'You can pay it off in installments, like over four months, 25 cents each month."


----------



## heypresto

Off topic, perhaps, but 'insta*ll*ment' appears to be a rare (unique?) instance of an AE spelling having a double letter where the BE spelling would have a single letter. We spell it 'insta*l*ment'.


----------



## JulianStuart

This goes back to the root verb and there are a few.
AE install, BE instal is preferred or possible.
Enroll, enrol 
Extoll, extol
Instill, instil
(more if I remember them )


This is a bit different from the travelled/traveled type of difference where the root verb only has one terminal consonant in both AE and BE.


----------

