Leasing a car from Nationwide Vehicle Contracts is made as easy as it can possibly be by our Customer Advice Team, but before you even get to the stage of looking at the many cars and vans that we have on offer, you yourself need to do some self-research to make sure that when you apply for the vehicle finance that you will be undertaking that you can actually afford it.
There is no point in looking at leasing an Aston Martin DB9 convertible when in reality you can only afford the finance on a Hyundai i10. And. yes, I know that is looking at 2 extreme cars, but it helps us understand that applying for leasing finance is very much like applying for a credit card or loan.
Finance companies will investigate your credit history before making a decision whether to accept your application, so it helps to initially find out if you are actually eligible for personal leasing finance by taking Nationwide Vehicle Contract's finance eligibility interactive questionnaire here (or here for Business Finance)
Once you have done that, and hopefully passed, you will need to fill out a Finance Application form, depending on whether you are looking for a Personal Finance Deal or Business Finance.
Personal Customers fill out a Personal Finance Application form which will ask for details of marital status and dependants, address details for past 5 years, employment details for the past three years, bank details, and income and expenditure over the month.
And Business Customers will fill in a Business Finance Application form which asks about Company details and address, Business details, Director details, and Business bank details.
And once this is passed, a decision has to be made about the type of leasing contract that can be offered for either Personal Leasing or Business Leasing.
So how do you set a budget for all this in order to be able to pass the tests?
Firstly, you need to look at what money you have available for a deposit/Initial rental.
Whatever type or car you choose, you will need to pay a chunk of money up front for a first months payment, before the monthly payments kick in.
Then you need to make sure that you have the Nationwide Vehicle Contracts Processing Fee available to pay. this covers all negotiations and documentation, and is £198 inclusive of VAT.
Then you need to make sure that you can afford to pay the monthly repayments on the vehicle. In the case of a personal lease car such as the popular Nissan Qashqai, this can be from £183 a month upwards, depending on length of contract, trim level chosen and optional extras - and in the case of a more expensive stand-out car, the personal lease on a Mercedes-Benz C Class saloon you are talking upwards of £405.
On top of all this you will have to arrange insurance on the car (despite giving you a lot of things including road tax and free delivery it is up to you to sort this out), and allow for your fuel costs too!
This is why we ask about your financial incomings and outgoings when you fill in the application forms.
Your initial look at your finances will give you a good idea of your budget, and the ability to look at our available cars by make, model, type and (importantly) price will certainly help you.
It is vitally important that you don't stretch yourself to the very limit of your budget (because you never know what is around the corner), and also that you don't rely on thing necessarily happening in the future (because these thing have a habit of not always working out).
That is why our Customer Service Representatives ask as many questions as they do, and offer the advice that they give - it is for your benefit as much as ours, even though it might not seem it at the time.
A recent article by famous car review company Parkers revealed that over 20% of people getting car finance actually do no research at all into their options, which is why our Representatives take the time to explain everything to you in plain English. And you can also check things out for yourself on our FAQ pages here.
Our Representatives will explain all details of the financial implications of the lease, from initial and monthly payments, to interest rates, contract lengths, excess mileage charges and types of leases - and having worked out your budget beforehand, you will be able to discuss your options fully with them.
So make sure that you sit yourself down to work out just what you can and can't afford, and then Contact our Customer Service Department to discuss your options. A little planning goes a long way.
