Thursday, 11. February 2010
The Treasury Select Committee has questioned whether individuals should be charged for copies of their credit report. At the moment it costs £2 or you can obtain a copy for free but it requires you to apply online to one of the credit reference agencies, provide credit card details as though you were going to pay monthly for anytime access, then cancel as soon as you’ve downloaded your current report, Read more »
Saturday, 30. January 2010
Business Insurance specialists Premierline warned employers that when they allow employees to work from home they are still responsible for their welfare in the same way, I guess, as employees that use their own cars for company business. According to the Department for Labour the employer has the same responsibilities as he would for any other employee at work. Whilst it is accepted that some controls are Read more »
Thursday, 28. January 2010
I’m not sure how useful this information is or what real conclusions can be drawn but I found it interesting so am passing it on. Under the Freedom of Information Act the BBC obtained data regarding MOT failures and Business Car analysed the figures to identify which cars had the highest pass rates and which cars had the highest fail rate. The statistics are based on 2004 registered cars that were MOT tested for the Read more »
Wednesday, 27. January 2010
Cleaning up your credit file has never been more important. Less money is available to lend which means that you really must make sure that you have no errors on your file and anything that can be corrected is corrected before you apply for finance. Even using a bad broker, who makes multiple applications to several finance companies, using your single finance application, can cause you to have your credit Read more »
Saturday, 23. January 2010
When a driver takes out a fully comprehensive insurance policy he is probably aware that when the policy states that he is insured to drive any vehicle provided he has the owner’s permission he is usually only covered for the basic requirements under the Road Traffic Act 1988, ie. cover against third party only. However, few are aware that this cover does not extend to named drivers, they are only insured to drive the car on which they have named driver cover. Check your policy carefully before driving any vehicle. By Graham Hill
Wednesday, 20. January 2010
As we know credit has been harder to arrange of late with some vehicle finance funders down to around a 20% acceptance rate. But if you foolishly believed that the situation would ease this year, considering the fact that bankers are again paying themselves some massive bonuses, you would be wrong! You see years ago credit card companies were credit card companies and leasing companies were either part Read more »
Wednesday, 20. January 2010
A few years ago I was a consultant to Yes Car Credit, a company that I hugely respected because, in many ways, they got it right! However, becoming the UK’s largest seller of used cars in about 4 years carried with it a number of problems that the UK press, as always, was eager to pounce upon. The company was selling nearly 50,000 cars per annum at the point of its demise and I would admit that the combination of Read more »
Wednesday, 9. December 2009
One in a hundred company vehicle drivers is within a point of a ban according to recent research. One in five company car drivers is one offence away from a ban with 20% having between 3 and 11 points on their licence, hence the need for regular licence checks to be carried out on drivers’ licences. The research, carried out by CFC Solutions, shows that a driver who is one offence away from a ban is a significant Read more »
Saturday, 5. December 2009
It’s your last call for PCP’s if you are to benefit from the 15% VAT. If you take out a contract before 31st December the price paid for the car by the leasing company will include VAT at just 15% with your repayments remaining fixed for the contract term. After the 1st January VAT returns to 17.5% so if you are thinking about changing your car you could save yourself some money by doing it sooner rather than later. By Graham Hill
Friday, 4. December 2009
Companies and consumers are experiencing the long term results of choosing lessors who set out to capture the gullible by offering low contract hire and PCP rates 2 and 3 years ago. As used car prices continue to drop after a period of sustained increase throughout 2009 lessors who cut their margins finely look to recover losses by overcharging clients for refurbishment work at the end of the contracts with Read more »