By Ross Williams
Alpha Contracts Leasing Ltd
ALPHA Contracts are ‘A Broker, not a Lender’ as it says on our telephone line when you call us. However, as a broker we do understand how the lending market works. Our core business for the last 26 years has been arranging contracts for businesses needing company cars and vans, but increasingly in recent years the amount of retail business we transact is increasing, year on year, as we supply cars on Personal Contract Hire (PCH). Many of these are supplied to the company car driver opting out of a company car to avoid Her Majesty’s Government’s increasingly punitive taxation regime.
The lenders make their decision on approving the finance for a PCH car on different criteria to the normal business to business lending. Many customers think it’s all about their credit score, however this isn’t strictly true. Whilst lenders will take account of an Experian report (for example) they also look at underlying trends in an individual’s credit history. But it remains true that maintaining a good credit record will help the application process, so how can this be achieved and what can affect your score?
Your score will go down if you are close to the limit (90 per cent) or actually ‘max out’ a credit card or have a continuing balance of £15,000 or more on a credit card. Of course you should maintain your regular monthly payments on any agreement you hold, you should avoid at all cost a County Court Judgement and certainly not default on an agreement.
In order to improve your score then obviously you should do the opposite of the above. Regularly check your score for any missed payments so these can quickly be rectified; keep your balance on credit cards below 30 per cent of the limit; avoid taking on new credit cards and don’t change the ones you have.
All of that seems to be extremely obvious, however many decisions are made automatically by computer algorithm so it’s worth paying attention to the detail. It might pay off when you want your next dream car!
A couple of months ago I wrote about hybrid cars, since then we’ve had some new models announced for 2020. We can look forward to the Electric Mini (93 mph top speed); the Audi E-Tron 50 with 186 miles of range; the Peugeot E-208 which Peugeot say is ideal for the city with a huge boot and VW’s ID.3 range claiming 260 miles of range. There’s lots happening out there in the marketplace, it’s hard to keep up!
Whether you’ve tidied up your credit score or not for help and advice on your next vehicle, Personal or Corporate, put a call into the team at Alpha Contracts Leasing Limited. As you can see from the above it’s a very fast moving marketplace and we are doing our best to stay on top of it. Call 01604 756620 to talk through any questions you may have or email
Safe motoring.