Car Allowance for new job. Where do I start?

[VannaB]

My new sales job has a monthly car allowance of �450. I am free to do whatever I wish with this cash, be it buy my own, hire etc.

Is it better to do a contract hire whereby I pay monthly and at the end of 3 years give it back, or do personal finance whereby I pay monthly then can opt in or out at the end? I'd only have a maximum of �1000 for a deposit.

Also, how on earth does the tax work with a car allowance?

help!!

[Toureman]

http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/companycarta x/cartax_exp.html

Some places have interest free no deposit deals, you will have to do some research.

[BenDToy]

Good luck - this sounds like a reasonable sum but do be careful. Remember that it will be taxed as income, Also, if the worst happens, please remember that you will still have to continue to pay for the car if you have entered into a long term contract. Perhaps it may be worth doing something with a shorter term commitment for a few months until you see how things are going. For examplw maybe you could buy something cheap which you could sell.

[VannaB]

I'm hiring a car for the 1st month but that's very costly (even for a Corsa which to be honest will be too small for what I need & all the motorway driving) and I can't really opt to buy something cheap for now as I will be travelling over half of the UK and I don't fancy something worth �1000 (which is the max I'd have) as the chances it'd have problems doing that many miles will be more worrying than taking on a car loan!!!

I suppose I'll just have to hire for a month, choose carefully and make sure I stick at the job!!! Failing that make sure the replacement job also has a car allowance!!