Getting Out of Your Vehicle Lease Contract
24 January 2009
How to Get Out of a Car Lease
Many people and businesses have realised the benefits that car leasing has over outright vehicle purchase. Numerous small businesses now lease their commercial vehicles on van leasing contracts enabling them to run top quality vans with fixed, known monthly repayments. Leasing provides many advantages including peace of mind over vehicle maintenance concerns as well as tax advantages.
But what if changes in finances or business mean that you simply can’t afford to maintain the monthly payments? Normally, terminating a lease agreement before the agreed time period has elapsed will incur penalties. Most leasing companies will provide a quotation of what it will cost to terminate a Car Lease lease before the agreed termination date.
The current economic downturn is forcing many individuals and businesses to tighten their belts and to look closely at their expenditure. One significant expense that they may want to terminate is their monthly vehicle lease payments.
One way to avoid the early termination penalties is to find someone else to take over the lease. You might be lucky enough to find a family member of close friend. Alternatively there are websites that will put those who are looking for someone to take over a lease with those who are offering a vehicle lease.
One such website is leasetrader.com. Based in the US this site charges a one time fixed fee of $249 which is often split between the buyer and the seller. The service is very rigorous in checking the credit rating of prospective buyers and screening all communications between buyers and sellers. Formal contracts are drawn up and signed by both the buyer and seller.
In the UK a similar service is provided by swap-a-lease.co.uk. A listing fee of £39 is charged to car or van lease sellers.99 and then they charge a success fee equivalent to one months rental when letters of intention are exchanged.
Swap-a-lease explains that different leasing companies charge various fees for transferring vehicle leases. They provide assistance in dealing with these variations and navigating the transfer process which they estimate as taking from 14 to 28 days in total.
Companies like these, offering lease-transfer services, are a new phenomenon. With the credit crunch biting ever deeper, forcing people and businesses to re-evaluate their financial commitments and budgets, it is likely that we will see more of these services springing up in the near future.
This story posted by LeaseTrader.com, the automotive service company that lets people transfer out of their Car Leases early. If you're looking to swap a lease or transfer out of your car lease, please visit www.leasetrader.com