Great Advice To Avoid End Of Contract Charges

Thursday, 22. January 2009

In my opinion leasing is by far the most cost effective way of funding a car provided you can be flexible and look for the best deals around at the time you take your new car. However, there is one major drawback to leasing and one that I write about regularly in my newsletter, trade press and national press. It is the one area that I receive most complaints about from buyers of my book. It is the end of contract charges. I have had a lot of success in advising clients on how to deal with this issue and my clients are provided with advice on what to do by me as you should from all brokers. Unfortunately you won’t receive the same advice from Internet bucket shops who will simply refer you back to the funder. Whilst I reserve most of my advice for clients I would make one important suggestion and that is to write a letter to the leasing company before the car is due to be returned for a copy of their end of contract condition policy so that you can have the car properly checked by a qualified engineer. You can then take the car to a body shop and have the car assessed and feel comfortable that when the car is returned it meets the criteria as laid down. You should be aware that clients have been invoiced amounts ranging from a few hundred to over £4,000 which can be heart stopping. There is no such thing as a free lunch, so if you find a lease deal that looks too good to be true – it probably is (unless it is a deal of mine) and may cause the funder to look at obvious ways to recoup his losses, unfair end of contract charges being one of them. It would be foolish to go anywhere else for your leasing requirements than GHA Finance, but then I would say that wouldn’t I? By Graham Hill