RV Loans and Other RV Ownership Expenses
A recreational vehicle is a major investment for most folks. As such unless you are very wealthy, such as a professional golfer or other touring athlete, then you need to carefully weigh the true cost of ownership before purchasing a vehicle and obtaining your RV loan.
Your RV loan is but one component of the considerations regarding the costs of overall operations and maintenance. It is not dissimilar to owning a house; however, its value does not really increase with time as a property is expected to. However, owning an RV is definitely not as similar to owning a car as most people would think. The costs of repairs and the management of the insurances, special driving licenses and other documentation mean the RV ownership is not for the masses.
Obtaining an RV Loan
As in the purchase of any major investment, if you are planning on borrowing money to finance the purchase, your credit history is very important. For those with excellent credit, it is likely that your interest rate will be low and little or no down payment will be required. For those with bad credit obtaining an RV loan may actually be quite difficult.
A recreational vehicle is certainly not considered a necessary object as a house or car would be. It is, therefore, most likely that if your credit is poor or degrading your RV loan provider may well question what your motives are in owning an RV. In such cases either renting an RV or finding a friend to buy it for you might be the answer.
RV Ownership
An RV will most likely cost upwards of $50,000 even for the smallest model that was previously owned and is in good condition. There are, of course, tow-able campers that are cheaper, but they are not RVs. Assuming that your RV is new and relatively small, then your costs of ownership should include about another $300 of preventive care a month. Should you be driving the RV then you must add in your gasoline costs. The smallest RV does about ten miles to the gallon. A thousand miles a week will require one hundred gallons of gasoline and cost $300!
Assuming that you have a small camper and have financed over five years then your RV loan payments should be no more than $1000 a month. The total costs of owning a touring RV are, therefore, over $2,500 a month, or 30,000 a year. That makes the ownership of an RV a major investment. Rather bizarrely, for a touring RV you can expect that your RV loan is not the major component of your costs over time. Today gasoline is.
