The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

Oh dear, oh dear oh dear! When are people going to start treating car finance as a specialist product and one that must be very carefully considered before taking it out rather than a tin of beans that they can tout around online to see whether Tesco have them on offer this week or are they cheaper at Asda? There are three major comparisons to be made when deciding upon the finance that you are going to take out. The first is the product, the second the provider and the third is the arranger of the finance. In a mini survey that I carried out, asking 10 people (in a pub) that had leased a car over the last 3 years, not one really knew the role of the person on the Internet that advertised the rates. The accepted name is ‘Broker’ but unlike me (I’m an old school broker) most are simply introducers. They are bucket shops searching for the cheapest rates they can find and then hope they achieve enough volume to pay the bills at the end of the month. There is total disregard for the customer beyond getting him to sign a contract and get the car delivered. That’s not to say they are not delightful and friendly, in my experience that is how they gain the confidence of the customer. The product is sold like a tin of beans but the serious point is that you are signing up to a legal document with terms and conditions included that could end up LOSING YOU YOUR HOME! Yes, it’s bloody serious, so the first thing you must do is check the contract before you decide to place an order. You see when you order a car from an Internet provider the order consists of two parts. You order a car and you agree to the finance. Now if you read the finance contract when it arrives you can refuse to take on the agreement, that’s your right in law. But you have also ordered a car, which you are obliged to take, even though you have decided not to proceed with the finance. You will still be expected to pay for it or if you cancel you will have to pay the dealer compensation to cover his costs. These could be high if he has bought the car on the basis of your signed order and he still has to pay for it. But there may be an additional twist. Because he can no longer meet the sales deadline given by the manufacturer, he loses out maybe £2,000 or £3,000 bonus, provided by the manufacturer, which he can legitimately try to claim from you. Speak to the Internet provider and he’s already washed his hands of you as you have cancelled the order, leaving you to fight the problem out with the dealer, something a good broker wouldn’t allow to happen. Similarly, in these difficult times, you may find yourself unable to keep the car that you could easily afford when you took out the lease agreement. You will therefore have a settlement figure to pay in order to hand the car back. We have found in these circumstances that the leasing companies have realistically charged around 50% of the outstanding rentals. However, some are charging as much as 95%. This is outrageous and in fact illegal as there is a legal precedence but I’m one of the few people that is aware of this fact. I’m not going to tell you what it is, unless of course you are a customer of mine, but do you really want to face these challenges alone because that’s what will happen if you have used a bucket shop to arrange your finance and to be fair when they are taking very small margins I don’t blame them. Unfortunately you get what you pay for, there’s always a hidden price to pay. Had a bad experience, let me know? By Graham Hill