Customers Being Conned By Lease Adverts
Sunday, 21. November 2010
We all know the expression ‘A little knowledge is a bad thing,’ and it couldn’t be more true at the moment in the area of car leasing. As small businesses and consumers look for ways to reduce their costs, car leasing is being discussed more and more, then armed with sketchy information many are embarking upon leasing without knowing exactly what they are getting into. This isn’t being helped by confusing and conflicting advertising on the Internet as well as some very strange promotions from manufacturers set to confuse those that don’t fully understand the product. One of the most common tricks is to make the monthly rentals look low by increasing the initial rental to 6 months in advance instead of 3 or a fixed amount, in advance, in excess of 6 months. You should think of the total amount payable as a pool of money that can be split up in various ways. The solution is to calculate the total costs before comparing, don’t simply compare the monthly rentals. Also bear in mind that the more you pay upfront the less interest you should pay within the total cost. This shouldn’t be substantial and will only amount to a few pounds on the average agreement. A trick introduced by Saab on their latest 9-3 promotion has been to quote a rental for a car based on 6 rentals upfront followed by 37 monthly payments. This makes it a 38 month agreement so not only have they loaded up the initial rental they’ve added on two months to the agreement. Very naughty as those with a little knowledge would not understand this and could easily sign an agreement thinking they were saving money when in fact they will be paying more. With little control over the industry vulnerable people are being sold into bad contracts with terms and conditions created to cause financial pain. Great care needs to be exercised. The best solution is to use an established broker to arrange your finance who is a member of a professional body and carries professional indemnity insurance. They are obliged to give you best advice. For more information on what to look out for go to my blog and download the free guide to car finance at www.thebestcarfinanceblog.co.uk Had any bad experiences – please let me know? By Graham Hill
