If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the Payday Loan INsight RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The cost of products and services vary from company to company and contract hire and leasing is no exception. One of the many factors that determines price is residual values (What the contract hire company believes the car will be worth at the end of the contract hire period). One of the difficulties with contract hire when comparing quotes, is that you are often not comparing like with like.
Contract hire brokers generally advertise the most competitive deals available on the Internet. It is important to bear in mind that when you replace a vehicle, if you are to take advantage of the lowest rate available, it is likely that you will be dealing with a different broker on each occasion. This is because different brokers specialise in different manufacturers and will sometimes have a special rate made available to them from a particular dealership with which they work.
Searching the Internet to find a rock bottom price on a car is probably best suited for a company that only has one or two cars, or for an individual using personal contract hire. For companies that acquire a number of vehicles a year, a more practical option would be to find a contract hire broker that is reliable and competitive across the range of manufacturers. Perhaps most importantly one that will not mislead the client on delivery dates as a means winning the business over a broker who is quoting a more accurate delivery date.
It would be quite difficult for a company that buys a number of vehicles, to be dealing with lots of different brokers on different vehicles. When what is really needed is a contract hire broker that can provide a comprehensive service, advising the company when vehicles are coming up for renewal, delivery dates for the replacement car and also provide all the related services that companies need, such as licence checking.
If a client’s requirement is for just one vehicle, then looking on the Internet can be a good idea. The main search engine is Google; this is where the vast majority of searches are carried out. There are about 4,000,000 entries listed under contract hire and more than 750,000 for the key words personal contract hire, so where does one start? Most searches start on page 1 and few go past the first page, although it may be sensible to at least venture onto the second page. The other key words to try are contract hire and leasing vehicle leasing and car leasing.
On the first page you will usually see one or two sites that will advertise vehicles for many different contract hire brokers. Some people don’t like using these sites and want to go into the website of one particular company and see what they are offering; they feel that they are more reliable. If you don’t mind using a site that is advertising different broker offers, then there is no reason why this should not form part of your search. The only thing to bear in mind is that these sites don’t generally police their advertisers; so seeing a vehicle advertised at a particular price doesn’t necessarily mean that it is available at that price.
Of those advertising on the directory websites there will be some well-established and reputable contract hire brokers. They are often not difficult to spot; they will invariably be those that advertise in a very straightforward manner. If the deal being offered is for twenty-four or thirty-six months you would expect the advertiser to show the profile i.e. three payments in advance followed by thirty five monthly payments, or three payments in advance followed by twenty three monthly payments. If they don’t state the payment profile then they are quite likely to be offering something different, which will make it difficult for you to make a comparison.
It is not unusual to find that a company is asking for six initial payments, it’s difficult to see why a company would do this other than to make the monthly rental appear lower than their competitors. When comparing with other companies it is important to take into account the three additional payments that you will be making.
Often delivery dates are quoted, that the contract hire broker knows they cannot achieve. However it does not necessarily mean that a broker advertising an earlier delivery than their competitors cannot deliver the vehicles on time. It may be that the have access to vehicles that others do not, or that they have pre ordered cars. One should exercise caution with any deal that appears far more attractive than others on offer, especially if a deposit is required.
This applies particularly with pricing; there are companies that quote prices on directory websites, which are considerably less than their competitors. Sometimes if you go into their website you will see the vehicle at the correct price, which may be up to 25 more than the price they showed on the directory website. On other occasions the website will also show the wrong price and it is only when the prospective customer phones that they discover that those vehicles “have all been sold” It is hoped that contract hire and leasing brokers will eventually be regulated by the FSA and these practices will stop.
On occasions, when a client is let down by a contract hire broker it is because the broker themselves have been let down. This can happen when a broker that is too small to secure terms with the finance companies, has to use another company’s terms and offers, so they are only as reliable as the company they are working with.
Perhaps one route to follow would be to find say three or four companies offering the lowest prices and then speak to them all; try to establish if they really can provide the vehicle at that price, on the promised delivery date and that they are not going to contact you after a few weeks and change the price, the delivery date or both. Ultimately choosing a company that inspires the most confidence, even if it is 2 or 3 a month more in terms of contract hire rental may be the best option.