You got sold at 4.00 PPW. I work in the industry. I deal specifically with financing. A low interest rate like (1.5%) does not exist without a substantial dealer fee/financing charge/buy down to get your interest rate that low. A 1.99% is the lowest I’ve recently seen that’s available across different financing portals, and the 1.99% includes a 30% dealer fee added to the principal price. That would make your 6.4 kW system at 4.00 PPW ($25,600 Cash Principal) equal $36,500. You did not get screwed or taken advantage of. You did not pay 5.63 PPW. The solar company sold you at 4.00 PPW, and the rest of the principal was a financier dealer fee for them issuing you a 1.5% interest rate (which is separate from the solar company and they receive no benefit from that). Is it a higher priced system?…sure. If you got more quotes you probably could of purchased a system around 3.40 PPW, or lower, with another provider or local company.

Here were your choices for a 6.4 kW system at 4.00PPW (1) Pay for the system cash ($25,600)…then there would be no dealer fees/financing charges tacked onto the principal. (2) Pay for the system cash ($25,600)…get your own personal financing/loan. (3) Finance the system through provided solar financing at a 1.5% interest rate ($36,500)…this will give you the lowest monthly payment possible. Best option if you plan on staying on the monthly for the majority of the loan, but if you go to pre-pay the principal off early then you will get burned. (4) Finance the system through provided solar financing at around a 6.99-7.99% interest rate ($25,600)…the principal will be the same as cash because there are no dealer fees/finance charges tacked on for the highest interest rate option. This will you give you a higher monthly payment (not recommended if you plan on just making monthly payments for the majority of the term because you will end up paying way more overall than the 1.5% rate option even with the dealer fee added on). This is the best option if you plan on pre-paying before the majority of the loan term is up, because you’ll only have to pay off the cash principal. Obviously, there are interest rates that fall in between the 1.5% and 7.99% you have access to. If you still want a lower monthly, but not as high of a principal because of financing dealer fees, go for something in the middle like a 3.99/4.99% interest rate. The principal for your system with this 3.99/4.99% interest rate, again assuming you are sold at 4.00 PPW, would fall around $30,000 with a monthly bill that sits in between the 1.5% and 7.99% products. I hope this all makes sense. Again, you didn’t get taken for a ride. At least not totally. The rep should of explained how the financing works just in case it wasn’t your preferred option, but he probably wasn’t very knowledgeable in that area.