paying off tools

[taylorboi]

i have now gone in dept with my snap on dealer i use to buy my tools cash all the time and then i got my roll cart i dropped $200 down and i pay $100 a week well the box is paid off but yet im still in the hole $1171.95 they found a way to make it much more easy for them to get money from me all they say now when i go there to get something is "wanna put this on your tab" and like a idiot i say yes its really bad i started doing that but they give me better deals and its only $100 a week intrest free but my bill always goes up from buying new things so thats kinda like intrest im hoping to pay it all off soon and go back to buying with cash and not going back into dept

 

[poprockcrusher]

you need tools to make the money
it is like buying an extra tank of gas

 

[poprockcrusher]

True. With truck tools interest is built into the price. If the dealer won't give a discount for ca$h let them finance it and demand receipts.

give the man a cigar - a winner

 

[mrholeshot]

I have never worked flat so I have a question. Can you guys that keep saying you need to spend 2-300 a week to buy faster tools. Besides the basics or an air impact, fine tooth ratchet, ratcheting wrenches, maybe an electric impact driver. What other tools do you have to keep buying to get your times faster?

Oh My God! The list is unreal. Then there are the tools you have to build because nobody sells it yet.

 

[RIVERWEST AUTO]

for the home mechanic. pay off all your stuff. i have a shop "vw only" this is to limit my purchases of specialty tools. timing sets for like 5 diff engines, 1 set hub tools/adapters basically fit all vws, etc. shop manuals cost $ so dont need all them. as far as tool truck for me. i still have to upgrade but more like once a month, not every week. and pay it off or dont buy it. unless its a big ticket item. you take a loan on a car for $20k but you dont borrow money to put gas in it right?

 

[KEH]

Interesting on the built in interest charges. I'll have to be sure I'm getting a cash discount in the future.

The bright spot in these big expenses is that they are tax deductible.

KEH

 

[Romanova]

I'm a home mechanic and I only do work on my cars and some friends cars. I like SO tools and am fortunate enough to have a dealer that stops by my house every week to take care of me. I have a SO credit line of $15k that I'll never max out... I have my KRL on there, but I pay $100+ a week on it, so there will be a little interest but not too much. For smaller purchases, I use the truck credit and get $2-300 worth of stuff, then pay it off before getting anything else.

I'm sure I'd be just fine with Craftsman tools for what I do, but hey... I'm addicted to shiny polished chrome.

 

[loj]

Latest and greatest ****, or just a tool that makes a job easier, like a certain size ratcheting wrench, or a certain size 12 pt socket, or a crows foot, or a new specialty tool, or long wrenches, or stubby wrenches. And you know us if we buy one we gotta buy the whole matching set. And not just the latest and greatest tools, but the oops tools like taps dies drills extractors, diagnostic equiptment, basically any job you run across a tool you need that would make it easier and you for see yourself doing that job again in a reasonable time period.

I myself only have a year in of actually wrenches, i had some time as a shop ***** and a service writer, so my tool collection is still in it's beginning stages.

Interesting. I've never worked flat $ either, so the idea is a little foreign to me. It seems like one of the few jobs where you're someone's employee but you bear the expense of almost every item required to do your job. It's like someone shows up for their first day at a desk job and they're required to bring their own desk, chair, computer, phone, software, and networking cables. Except all of those items together cost less than an empty KRL box. Tough biz.

That's why I can't imagine being $x,000 in to a guy on a tool truck on a $20/week deal. The loans on my wife's PhD. are huge, but they're at 4.5%.

I also can't imagine competing with the dude in the cube next to mine as to who has the fanciest tools. I'm proud of my work, but I'm the one bringing value to the table, not my tools. They're interchangeable.

 

[Vinko]

Interesting. I've never worked flat $ either, so the idea is a little foreign to me. It seems like one of the few jobs where you're someone's employee but you bear the expense of almost every item required to do your job. It's like someone shows up for their first day at a desk job and they're required to bring their own desk, chair, computer, phone, software, and networking cables. Except all of those items together cost less than an empty KRL box. Tough biz.

That's why I can't imagine being $x,000 in to a guy on a tool truck on a $20/week deal. The loans on my wife's PhD. are huge, but they're at 4.5%.

I also can't imagine competing with the dude in the cube next to mine as to who has the fanciest tools. I'm proud of my work, but I'm the one bringing value to the table, not my tools. They're interchangeable.

Good post. Since I'm not a mechanic, I've got to believe what some of these guys say: that they make money with their tools.

There have been a few SO tools I've used at work that "paid" for themselves right away. But I can't imagine a lot of the basic ones like wrenches and sockets are those. Might as well do the industrial tools for a lot less, or Crafty or HF if you can't provide the dough up front.

 

[crewchief888]

over the last 25+ years as a mechanic, when i 1st got started, i carried small truck accounts, under $200.
as my pay increased, so did my tool collection,
at one time i was paying $150 to SO, $40 to matco, $15 to mac per week. i did this for 7 -8 years. when i left that dealership and moved 1200 miles, i payed everything off before i left. all my tools and tool boxes were mine , free and clear.

in the last 10 years i dont buy much, unless i really need it, or get a good deal.
i havent had more than a $300 balance on any truck.
home tool purchases are all cash.

 

[brian90505]

Funny thing I like to do once in awhile is pay a little more than I owe so I can joke that the Snap-on man owes me money.

Like others, I try to keep a zero to $200 balance.

 

[Coach James]

....I myself only have a year in of actually wrenches, i had some time as a shop ***** and a service writer, so my tool collection is still in it's beginning stages.

I'm not up to date on the "in" terminology. What is a "shop *****"? I know what it means in prison and I hope it's not the same in a garage.

Coach

 

[t100]

...... but there are a few dealers i have dealt with the won't deal even if you pay cash so I will carry a balance and keep my money in the bank.

that's f*&^ retard.

I don't even use credit card to buy tools, cash or debt card.

 

[Teken]

I don't even know the word credit when it comes to tools. All cash babee, all cash, no one is coming to me at work or at home asking about what I owe!

Zero . . .