Let’s be honest – the thought of having to buy a new HVAC system is paralyzing for most people. After all, the amount of cash on hand many families have earmarked for emergencies like this is usually not enough to cover a new system.
Now, over the years, we’ve discussed regular maintenance on heating and cooling systems many times in these pages, and the reality is simple: regular maintenance does yield longer life for HVAC systems. Eventually, though, any system will wear out.
Which brings us back to the real challenge – if you’re confronted by the need for a new system, how do you pay for it?
There are two schools of thought on this – one is that you can merely “fix what’s broken” and not worry about it. With the myriad of Federal changes to approved refrigerants, the costs of reclaiming and disposing of older refrigerants, and the simple inefficiency of older systems, as daunting as the thought of a new HVAC system is, in the long run, it oftentimes makes more sense to go ahead, bite the bullet, and upgrade.
But, if you went to the bank for a loan on an HVAC unit, you likely couldn’t get one.
Fortunately, Air Plus has a few tricks up our sleeve.
Here’s the deal – because we service and install so many units in southern California, we have access to financing packages from manufacturers and institutions that many smaller companies simply can’t offer you.
So what are the advantages to financing a new HVAC system with Air Plus’s finance structure?
First and foremost, we’ve been able to streamline the entire application process and expedite credit decisions from our partners.
From there, Air Plus can offer some financing options that you’d be happy to get from a bank, like:
- No prepayment penalties or annual fees
- Monthly online statements
- Low minimum monthly payments
- Promotional opportunities
- Multiple payment options including online, regular mail and direct withdrawal
- No liens are recorded
- Current credit lines remain available
- No points, fees or closing costs
- No requirement for home equity
- Fixed rates and monthly payments
There’s one more key benefit here, too: we’re able to do this due to our own reputation with national level lenders, not some tiny local institution. As a result, the “traditional” ideas of creditworthiness are not as stringent. This means that we can often provide a financial solution to your HVAC challenges with the sort of documentation you already have at your home – sometimes just a current credit report and your pay check stubs!
Since we’ve eliminated the challenge of how to pay for your new system, how can you decide if you need to replace versus merely repairing?
The simple rule of thumb used to be this: if the system was older than 10 years, the smart money was spent on replacing the system instead of repairing it. Today, though, as we hinted at earlier and have touched on several times in our various articles, with the “phase-out” of R22 in lieu of R410A, many systems that a few years ago could simply have been “fixed” now need to be replaced.
Why? R22 has been illegal to manufacture since 2010 and will not be able to be used at all in the United States in 2020. At the same time, existing stocks have risen dramatically in price. Today, what was once a $200 repair has quadrupled simply due to the costs of refrigerant replacement.
This has been the driving force at Air Plus to demand that our manufacturers help us to offer some type of financial assistance through loans and incentives to our customers and they have delivered. As we look forward to spring, the idea of turning on the A/C and worrying about repair costs is a thing of the past and – especially now, while the weather is still pleasant – it’s a great time to review how a new system might be a smart investment no matter what the overall costs are. We promise you, you’ll be able to get a great deal!