To pay on finance

Buy on credit.

And if you want to but a particularly expensive piece of fitness/exercise equipment such as a cardio machine, do you ask for a loan to buy it or do you ask to have it financed?

BTW, is the above sentence correctly written? If not, would you please rephrase it?

Thank you

If you want to buy something for which you do not have the full price, you can:

Borrow all the money (get a loan) e.g. from a bank, relative, friend etc, then purchase the item, paying the full purchase price. You then repay the lender, often in regular instalments. A bank will charge interest.

Or:

The store may offer "finance", where the store lets you have the goods - if you sign a finance agreement: you might pay a deposit (a percentage of the price) and pay the rest in regular instalments. Interest is charged.

The sentence looks OK.

Thank you very much for the excellent explanation indeed. Thanks again.

It depends on what you're buying. If you're buying electrical goods the interest rate charged is usually higher than a bank loan, or in some cases, even higher than that charged by a credit card.

Furniture, especially sofas, often have interest free credit where you only pay the cost of the items, ( +delivery).

There are some pitfalls. The 'interest free' amount can be larger than you would pay in cash for a comparable item elsewhere, and the store might attempt to sell you additional products, such as stain protection insurance on items such as a sofa or a carpet, warranty insurance, to protect you against the cost of some repairs, payment protection insurance (PPI), designed to cover your repayments if you lose your job or fall ill and can’t work. These additional products tend to be expensive, and some might be unnecessary if you have decent home insurance.

What do you call those societies/companies that offer finances? Do you call them "financial services companies"?

Yes. Or more specifically, consumer credit companies. They are a type of financial services company.

What is the difference between "finance" and "financing" when they are both used as nouns?

Again, many, many thanks for your kind help.

Finance used as a noun can be used in a general way for anything to do with money. I work in a finance department. It is called the Finance Centre. It deals with all the finance (money) matters of my organisation - payments in and out, audit, governance, etc. Financing used as a noun usually has a more narrow meaning, to facilitate or arrange the money aspects of a process or task - the bank will handle the financing of my car purchase (it will lend me the money and make an arrangement with me for its repayment).

The financing of the Channel Tunnel project was carried out by two UK and three French banks.

I feel I should jump in here because I write on business credit for my current job.

When companies are first starting out, the owner(s) can try what's called trade credit. That's where they make an arrangement with a vendor to give them what are called Net 30 terms. It means they have 30 days to pay for something or other like maybe a printer or coffee supplies, without interest accruing until the 30 days are up.

Companies can do this not only to get better credit but also to work with their local suppliers and thereby improve the economy in the area. This helps them establish relationships, so the new company (maybe it's a health club) gets Net 30 terms from a local office goods company. Both companies do better with a deal like this, because the health club gets their paper and stuff on a regular basis and if they are buying it in bulk they might be getting a discount on top of 30 days to pay. The advantage for the office supply store is they have a regular, paying customer and might even have minimum guaranteed orders.

This is the way a lot of small businesses in America get their start. Once a small business is beyond the hobby stage, people often start to think about how to get a loan to expand, and having a good experience with trade credit means they can build a reputation in the community that shows they will pay back their debts on time.

I realize this wasn't exactly what you were looking for, but hey, the more I write about this stuff, the better I get (and I hope the information is of some interest).

Is it equally correct to say/write, "the bank will handle the finance of my car purchase"? If not, would you please rephrase the sentence using the noun "finance"?

Again, thanks a lot for your kind help.

If you say the bank will handle the finance of your car purchase, you mean the bank will handle all of the money aspects of your car purchase. It won't. It just lends you the money. It "finances" your purchase. You cannot rephrase the sentence to use 'finance' as a noun. If you think otherwise, you have not understood what I wrote above.

Are 'grant', 'give', 'provide' and 'allow' some of the verbs to use with the noun "financing"?

Yes. You should realise that the noun 'financing' is also the gerund form of the verb 'to finance'.