Transfers - Monthly instalments - how does it work?

I just started a new game with Real Madrid and I have 8 mln transfer funds + 70 mln in balance. I always thought that even though I have small transfer budgets I can always try to sign some players by offering the payment in installments. It seems I was wrong, I wanted to buy Vargas from Fiorentina, I have offered 5 mln in cash and 15 mln in 12 months installements, Fiorentina has accepted the offer, the player has accepted the contract offer and yet I got a "delay transfer?" message saying that I do not have enough money at the moment. Can anyone explain to me how does this work? Why can't I pay in installments? Why does it say I don't have enough money? What should I take under consideration when making such offers?

i THINK YOU GOT TO HAVE 25% OF THE MONEY YOU ARE OFFERING. So if you got 8 mil you could pull off a 32mil deal over 48 months.

You pay the first 12 months up front, or a quarter if you do it over 48 months. Making a bid of 20m over 12 months is the same as bidding 20m to your budget.

if that's the case... what's the point of having such option in the game anyway? Oo

Well, if you pay over any length of time greater than 12 months, it means that you can spend more on players straight away, as the bids will take less out of your transfer budget. If you pay over 12 months, then arguably its better for the finances of the club, as you spread payments gradually.

you need to do it for at least 24 months, then it will only take 50% of the value out of the budget, or 25% for 48 months

On a slightly related yet altogether different note...

When signing a youth player, sometimes a message will read 'X team will receive X compensation, possibly rising to X'

What governs the raise in due compensation?

Things like first team appearances, goal, international appearances etc. I don't know if there's a way to find out before you sign him though.

Nice one Joe. Just signed a couple of 15 year old regens and it'll be years before they start gettin first team action. Is there a time limit set to this, for example once they sign their professional contract?

No, there's no time limit to clauses.

Have a look in your transfer centre, then go to clauses. Should say in there.

Interesting but more for GD.

So let me get this straight.

Say I have a £5m budget. I make this offer for, say, Guiseppe Rossi:

£5m up front

£15m paid over 24 months

This means i will do not have enough money for the transfer to go through?

And if it was this:

£5m up front

£15m paid over 48 months

I would have enough money?

I don't think you would because you'd have to pay the £5m upfront and part of the £15m, and you can't afford that.

So let me get this straight.

Say I have a £5m budget. I make this offer for, say, Guiseppe Rossi:

£5m up front

£15m paid over 24 months

This means i will do not have enough money for the transfer to go through?

And if it was this:

£5m up front

£15m paid over 48 months

I would have enough money?

Yes, in the case of the second example you could bid £20m. Bear in mind though that losing £5m a year will likely impact on future transfer budgets you receive.

So let me get this straight.

Say I have a £5m budget. I make this offer for, say, Guiseppe Rossi:

£5m up front

£15m paid over 24 months

This means i will do not have enough money for the transfer to go through?

And if it was this:

£5m up front

£15m paid over 48 months

I would have enough money?

No I don't think you would have enough in the 2nd case either.

If it was this:

£1.25m up front

£15m paid over 48 months

then a £5m budget would cover it.

So let me get this straight.

Say I have a £5m budget. I make this offer for, say, Guiseppe Rossi:

£5m up front

£15m paid over 24 months

This means i will do not have enough money for the transfer to go through?

And if it was this:

£5m up front

£15m paid over 48 months

I would have enough money?

Your funds wouldn't suffice in any case.

In the first example you would need to have a budget of 12.5m.

In the second example you'd need a budget of 8.75m.

5m plus half (a quarter) of what is payable in instalments.

In answer to why is the 12 month option there, remember if you are making a bid mid season (say January transfer window for England) and you offered 10 million over 12 months. 5 million would come out of this seasons budget and 5 million would come out of next years budget (assuming you get your new transfer budget in July).

In answer to why is the 12 month option there, remember if you are making a bid mid season (say January transfer window for England) and you offered 10 million over 12 months. 5 million would come out of this seasons budget and 5 million would come out of next years budget (assuming you get your new transfer budget in July).

On top of that there a slight advantage in interests, especially if your balance is in the red.

Yeah, i think that it could be very useful if you are a team like Atletico Madrid or another Champions League qualifier contender. Because if you qualify, the finances would inevitably be boosted so you are spending a part of next season's budget this season. But obviously it could backfire. But maths was never my strong point, so i'm still trying to understand this installments thing

On top of that there a slight advantage in interests, especially if your balance is in the red.

And also the money comes out of your balance on a monthly basis so rather than a crippling one off fee in July...

I didn't know R.Madrid are so poor. I just got a BSN team to premier league and in my 2nd season. (I narrowly missed relegation) and I am given a really huge transfer budget. 48 mil. It is considered huge for me because I have played most games with 0 transfer budget or just 800k budget while in the Championship.

Reason for having only 8mil as a transfer budget the first year at R.Madrid is because you just bought C.Ronaldo, KaKa, and Xabi Alonso...

As stated, the advantage of paying over X months is to help prevent you from getting a straight hit in your finances

Same reason why you might prefer to buy a TV with 12 payments of £100 instead of paying £1200 up front

Of course in the TV example, you would actually pay more long-term, but APR bollocks doesn't get applied to transfers within FM thankfully... but that's a whole other can of worms lol

i notice a lot of people on here use the 48 month method of payment and get many top players. am i the only 1 that will only spend money that i have got and wont 'borrow' future money?

iam proud to say i do very well at the game, stick to my budgets, only do immediate transfer deals and generally make money for the club im at over a season instead of making a loss.

i notice a lot of people on here use the 48 month method of payment and get many top players. am i the only 1 that will only spend money that i have got and wont 'borrow' future money?

iam proud to say i do very well at the game, stick to my budgets, only do immediate transfer deals and generally make money for the club im at over a season instead of making a loss.

You aren't the only one

Infact, most people do this so they can pay over the odds for superstars, and quite frankly it can be a dangerous practise, even more so if you don't bring success

Tbh, I will tend to use 24+ month deals when selling players, especially to lower team that I know wouldn't be able to afford that fee upfront

It's very easy:

Whatever you offer upfront, you need to have it in your transfer budget, and it will instantly vanish from your bank account once the transfer is made.

Whatever you offer in monthly installments, you need to have enough transfer budget to pay at least the first 12 months of the payment, although the money will be drawn gradually from your bank account.

This is logical, since the first 12 months of the payment correspond to this year's transfer budget, so you can't spend more than that. The next 12 months of the payment are supposed to be taken from next year's budget, which is still unkown but is estimated to be around the same of this year's, and so on.

So:

- For 12 months payments or less - you need to have 100% of it in your transfer budget

- For 24 months payments - you need to have 50% of it in your budget

- For 48 monhts payments - you need to have 25% of it in your budget

Pretty simple.

The advantages are:

- You can make an offer of up to 4 times your current budget and most of the times it will be accepted, although it's your own risk if you're not successful later and end up being screwed.

- The money will be taken from your account slowly rather than all at once, which means that the spending could be compensated with your earnings (sold tickets, etc.) and that way you could avoid getting into red numbers, which can have very nasty consequences if the board decide to wipe out the debt by selling players at will.