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Unless you work in the finance industry you may not fully understand the term ‘credit crunch’. It is simply the running out of money to lend, hence the reason why the Government is having to step in to inject more money into the economy and provide money for the banks to lend – in theory. Of course all they are doing is using the money to bolster their balance sheet making the ‘cash in bank’ look a little healthier. The problem for you and me is the ability to borrow money, Read more »

It has been reported this week that many people do not see the distinction between credit crunch and recession. For those that lived through the last recession, as I did, you will know how hard things got before we turned the corner and things started to dramatically improve. And this was all down to a recession, which was pretty much left to run its course by the Government. Whilst it seemed pretty harsh at the time it was a way of streamlining business in the UK and weeding out the good from the bad. Sadly, Read more »

One of the biggest problems with running a car either privately or through a business is being able to predict the true ‘whole life’ cost in order to select the most appropriate way to fund the car. Few of us actually enjoy playing with figures so we tend to concentrate on the car itself (much more exciting) and relying upon advice from friends rather than doing the calculations to work out the most Read more »

CAP who provide vehicle valuation guides based on achieved auction prices have said that they are about to launch a significant downward price review based on the continued drop in prices achieved by fleet sellers in auction. This will have the affect of putting up lease rates unless the leasing companies can counter this with greater bonuses from the manufacturers. And be dismal news for those who Read more »

As if to support my comments made over the last few weeks market analyst Datamoniter has recorded a growth in vehicle leasing in the fleet sector as more companies release cash tied up in their vehicles and reduce exposure to market conditions by selling off the cars they own and replace them with leased vehicles. New vehicle sales generally slumped further in August from the July drop of 7.3% to an unprecedented 15.6%. Consumers, unaware of the cash flow benefits of leasing new cars, have really Read more »

If you are the sort of person who still likes to own your car then at some stage you will need to sell it again but according to contract hire company Lex it depends where you live as to how much you will get for your old car. If you have gone green and now own a hybrid or electric car you will be better off in the South especially around London as a result of the affects of congestion charging. Conversely Read more »

As the credit crunch continues to have an effect more brokers are reporting difficulties with underwriting. As many of my readers know I have a column with Motor Finance – the journal of the motor finance industry and many brokers that contact me, as a result of my column, have reported that lease enquiries are still running high but finance declines are running higher than ever as funders become more selective as they prepare for the anticipated recession. Read more »

Whilst identity fraud continues to increase and cause concern to the leasing companies that often pay out tens of thousands of pounds for cars after receiving just a few signed documents and an advanced rental cheque, often for less than £1,000, motor finance fraud is relatively low compared to say credit card fraud or online purchase fraud. But there has been a steady increase in some more sophisticated organised fraud that results in professionals having their identities used in order to Read more »