The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

Have you heard of log book loans? Do you know what they are? As more people find themselves out of work and desperate to raise some cash to pay bills or attend interviews they are looking at some of these grey areas of raising cash. There are of course the loan sharks that everyone should avoid but there is one area that seems to have an air of Read more »

A few weeks ago I had a bet with an old friend of mine over one of the critical sectors that I believed had been omitted from the new EU Consumer Credit Directive (CCD) which came fully into force from 1^st February. The question was over Hire Purchase. I knew that the sister product, known as Conditional Sale, was included but it was my understanding that Hire Purchase was excluded and was therefore simply controlled, as it always has been, by our existing Consumer Credit Act. Confused? It gets Read more »

It’s been a busy week this week, I attended a round table discussion hosted by Motor Finance, the journal of the industry and one for which I have written a regular column for many years. This was followed by the annual dinner of the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA), attended by 1400 guests, all movers and shakers in the finance and leasing industry. Recession – what recession? Anyway, going back to the round table, one of the main items on the agenda was the new EU Consumer Credit Read more »

If you were to have some major surgery, I’m sure you would need to know that the person carrying out the work was a qualified and capable surgeon with a history of successful operations. If not you may end up a paraplegic or worse still not survive the operation, so I’d say that it was quite important to feel confident that you are using a professional who is good at his job. On the other hand you may have a faulty gas appliance and need a repair carried out. Who would you call in to carry out the Read more »

I am, without doubt, the leading expert in car finance in the UK. However, wherever you look there are ‘experts’ who will not fail to give bad advice. This seriously winds me up because it can cost people a lot of money and in some of the worst cases, their home. It’s bad enough when this bad advice is given by well meaning friends down the pub or an accountant who is really not specialist, as I am, in vehicle finance. Read more »

For those that like to own their vehicles and have a penchant for hire purchase there is some good news, you can now receive treatment for this condition, known as ‘bonkers’, on the NHS. OK serious stuff. I reported last year that the EU had issued a directive that meant that, amongst other things, the ability to voluntarily terminate your agreement once 50% of the full cost has been repaid would no longer apply to Read more »

A report from the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) showed that their members financed £5.6billion of consumer expenditure on new cars in 2007 and a third of total expenditure on cars throughout the year. Interestingly, new car finance was named by FLA consumer finance members as the most important use to which consumers put their funds, with used car finance the 4^th most important Read more »