The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

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 »

Brokers don’t work for the leasing companies, they actually work for their clients, in the same way as an accountant or a solicitor does but without the need for a qualification, just a Consumer Credit Licence, which can be obtained fairly easily if the program about loan sharks aired by BBC’s Panorama is anything to go by. When I started as a broker, many years ago, the situation was the same, we worked for our Read more »

It was earlier this year when I warned that money was tight in the vehicle finance sector that would mean only the squeakiest of clean business would be written. In some instances I heard that acceptances were down to just 20% of applicants, not because the vast majority of applicants were poor credit risks but available funds meant this was the maximum number of applicants that could be accepted. Many Read more »

Three times this week I have had discussions about APR for absolutely no reason. The bottom line question to be asked about any finance arrangement is how much will it cost and can I afford it? I am completing a book listing over 40 ways to fund a car and I point out at the very beginning that APR is not important in many cases. I have compared an HP agreement with a PCP the latter of which has a higher APR but Read more »

Underwriting is becoming a bit of a nightmare with lenders seemingly running out of money. It’s all very frustrating as I have loads of enquiries and proposals but far too many are being declined for credit, a situation that will only get worse. Applicants need to take more care over their credit and avoid any adverse or suffer the very severe consequences. Also consider the amount you are prepared to pay up front Read more »

There is growing evidence that SME’s and consumers are moving over to leasing as a way to fund their vehicles. The old reasons still exist, having a fixed, known monthly cost, no risk in uncertain resale values and benefitting from hidden substantial bonuses provided by manufacturers to leasing companies but SME’s and consumers  have identified a new benefit. Read more »

Fuel is coming down, the sun is shining and the banks are lending again. Well 2 out of three can’t be bad! I think the email from the Government to the banks must have got lost in cyberspace somewhere or maybe they sent it in the post without a large letter stamp attached. Either way I am still waiting, as are most in the finance industry, for the glimmer of light that suggests that Chancellor Brown oops I mean Darling did the right thing for us common people or whether things will continue to deteriorate. The annoying thing is Read more »

Staying on these two misleading articles they also point to the dangers of taking finance on cars and the problems faced by those who want to get out of their current large or gas guzzling cars and into smaller more efficient cars but are unable to because of the negative equity position with the settlement costs being far in excess of the resale value of the car on finance, ie. negative equity. The drivers are therefore left with cars that they don’t want to drive because they have no way out of the finance. Again this is a generalisation that simply isn’t Read more »