Finance can be a perfectly sensible way to buy a system that will outlive the loan by fifteen years. It only goes wrong when nobody tells you what it costs. This page is how to find that out, from us or from anyone else quoting you.
Everything else on this page is detail. If you only ask one thing, ask for the cash price and the financed price on the same system.
Ask for both prices, side by side
The cash price and the financed price, on the same system, in writing. If they are identical, the finance is genuinely being absorbed. If they differ, that difference is what the finance costs you — which may well be worth paying, but you should be the one deciding.
Read past the headline rate
Establishment fees, monthly account fees, early repayment fees and merchant fees all sit outside the advertised interest rate. The comparison rate exists precisely because headline rates are not comparable.
Check what happens at the end of the interest-free period
Some arrangements are interest-free for a fixed term and then revert to a much higher rate on whatever is left. That is fine if you will have cleared it. It is expensive if you will not.
Confirm who you are actually borrowing from
Solar retailers are usually introducing you to a third-party lender rather than lending themselves. That matters if the retailer disappears, because the loan does not disappear with them.
The STC discount is real, and it is not a limited-time offer.
Small-scale Technology Certificates genuinely reduce the upfront cost of a system under 100 kW. Your entitlement depends on system size, your postcode’s solar zone and the year of installation, and it steps down each year until the scheme ends in 2030. In practice you never handle the certificates: the installer assigns them and credits the value on the invoice.
Which is why anyone telling you the rebate ends this month is telling you something about their sales training rather than about the scheme. Ask for the STC value on its own line so you can see what you were credited.
How we handle it
- Every quote is itemised: hardware, labour, and the STC rebate as a separate line.
- You always get a cash price, whether or not you intend to use finance.
- Any finance is arranged with a third-party lender — we tell you who, before you sign.
- State schemes change often, so we check what applies to your address at quote time rather than publishing a list that goes stale.
- If the numbers are marginal for your household, the quote says so.
Nothing on this page is financial advice, and your circumstances are yours. What we can do is give you an itemised cash price you can take to your own bank, your own broker, or nobody at all.