Frequently Asked Questions
LeaseLoco is the biggest car leasing comparison site in the UK offering millions of deals. Here our experts answer all your questions about car and van leasing.
- How does Leasing a Car Work?
- What's Included in a Car Lease?
- What are some of the details involved in leasing a car?
- Car Leasing Eligibility - Can I Lease a Car?
- Business vs Personal Car Leasing
- LeaseLoco Website Features
- Amazon Rewards with LeaseLoco
So Amigos, when you lease a car, it is the same concept as leasing or renting a property. You will usually pay a deposit or upfront fee and then pay monthly payments for an agreed amount of money for an agreed amount of time. Similar to in a flat where the landlord owns it, but you live in it and when the contract ends you move out – leasing a car is the same. You don’t own the car or buy it at the end of the contract, you give the car back at the end of contract! Just as a flat or house is inspected when you move out, the car will be inspected when you give it back to see if there is any excessive damage. Don’t worry too much about that though, as a lot more falls into general wear and tear than you would think!
You’ve probably seen numbers like these a lot if you’re searching for a great lease deal. These numbers mean the number of months upfront to be paid + the number of months in the lease term.
For example, if a 9+ deal had a monthly payment of £150 per month, you will pay 9x the regular monthly payment upfront. So you would pay ( 9x£150 ) £1350 upfront and then £150 every month for the rest of the term. Alternatively, you could opt for a 1+ deal where you don’t pay an upfront fee and simply pay the monthly payments. Although this will increase the monthly amount, as the total cost of the lease will remain the same for each profile.
But what does ‘35’ mean in ‘9+35’? The 35 means the length of the contract after the first month. In this case, it is a 3 year contract deal with 35 monthly payments after the first month. If you see '1+ 23', it is a 2 year contract and you pay 1 month upfront and then pay 23 monthly instalments until the end of contract.
The annual mileage is the mileage allowance over the year, for example 10K miles in a '9+35' deal. Therefore over the entire contract you would have 30K mileage. It is definitely worth playing around with the different lease profiles, to see what suits you best and what is the best value. ¡bueno!
When a car is purchased by the leasing company or broker and registered to them before being leased to a customer, then the car will be classed as pre-registered. This is common as it ensures the availability of cars and will reduce the lead time for these new cars. In some cases a pre-registered car will be offered at a discounted price which is pretty cool! When a car is in stock, it might be pre-registered but you can check with the leasing company. One thing to consider is if you are going for a 3 year lease deal, you should check the warranty of the car to check if the last few weeks could be out of warranty. But ultimately, pre-registered cars are typically cheaper, so it shouldn't be too much of a concern.
Mileage options on the website range from 5,000 annual mileage to 35,000, depending on the car. The differences in mileage will mean a difference in price. Every deal on LeaseLoco is completely unique to you, and you can choose your mileage based on your driving habits and how much you want to pay. If you go over your agreed mileage allowance, you will have additional costs so think carefully about how many miles you will need! But don’t stress amigos! In many situations you can have your contract mileage amended quite easily if you think you would like a higher or lower mileage by calling your leasing company during your lease. Read about how to win on your contract mileage.
While for many of us it is difficult to calculate the specifics of exactly how many miles you are doing every year, be realistic about how many miles you may drive in a year, checking your previous mileage and how many you may drive in the next few years – probably add some extra miles for a safety net too! chicos
Check out a clip from Alex and Oliver talking about amending your mileage.
The average monthly cost is an average amount you will pay every month across your lease, including the total upfront, so once you take the total upfront off, the monthly payments that you pay will be lower than the average monthly cost. Once you have decided how much upfront you would like to pay, your payment each month will be set and this won’t change throughout your lease – so it is super easy to budget each month!
¿comprender? To explain how this cost is worked out – the car leasing company buys a car at a price. They will calculate how much the car is valued when the lease term ends, and the difference in these prices is the cost of the lease in total. So for example, if a car costs £30,000 and after 3 years of being leased, it is valued at £22,000, the lease cost will be £8,000. They will add profit and costs onto that, for example £1,000, which makes the lease cost £9,000. This is the amount that can be played around with upfront and monthly instalments to suit you best; but the average monthly cost would be 36 instalments of £250.
First of all, there are so many benefits of leasing including no depreciation worries, getting a new car every time, getting to change your new car every few years, free road tax here at LeaseLoco, fixed monthly payments, flexibility to suit your needs, and of course the number one reason – saving a LOT of money! Due to depreciation and financing costs on a PCP deal, leasing cars would save people a massive amount of money. See the cost breakdown of why you should lease and how you could save you up to £7,730.02 over the course of a term compared to a PCP deal!
You might be thinking ‘Is car leasing for me?’ A lot of people are put off from leasing because they have children or pets and think this will leave them with a big fine at the end of the lease if there are crumbs in the carpet or stains on the leather. But a lot of these things will fall under general wear and you are allowed dents up to 10mm in diameter; scratches up to 25mm – of course with conditions. But it’s possible to have nearly 2 inch scratches on every single wheel that falls into wear and tear. That would be a different story trying to sell your car!
PCP, a Personal Contract Purchase, is when you will own the car, the V5 will be in your name, and at the end of the deal, you have two options. You can choose between keeping the car and paying the balloon payment off or that you don’t want to keep the car and you want to give it back. A Lease Purchase is very similar to a PCP, but you are obliged to pay a balloon payment at the end of the contract so the car is yours. Contract Hire is what LeaseLoco offers on our website, so instead of owning the car – you lease it! You pay an upfront fee, which you decide if it’s going to be one month or up to twelve months upfront. Then, at the end of the contract, you give it back, start a new one and get a brand new car again! Arriba!
I’m pretty sure I know what sounds best. Watch Alex and Oliver discuss the difference between PCP, Lease Purchase and Contract Hire.
If a car says it is in stock then it means it has already been built and will be available pretty quickly to you, usually within 2-3 weeks. You will choose from a pre-selected range of features and colours as the car will already have been built and is ready waiting for you to lease it! A factory order is a car that is not in stock and has not been built yet. So this will take a little longer, around 3 months, but you get to choose your colour and paint from the manufacturer’s options! Watch Alex and Oliver talk about what does it mean when a car is in stock.
No, you don’t always have to pay a huge initial upfront fee. One of the best things about our website is that you can use our filters to find a deal and payment profile that suits you best. On our website you will find many deals where the initial upfront payment is the same as your monthly rental. Also – don’t worry about it costing you in the long run if you have a lower upfront fee – all deals cost the same overall regardless of how many months upfront you pay. Watch Alex and Oliver in a video answering your question of 'do all lease deals have a huge initial rental?'.
Once your lease contract comes to an end, all you need to do is hand back the car to the company, who will usually collect it for free! They will check the paperwork, inspect the car for any damage and check the car is within its mileage limit. It is never expected for a lease car to be in brand-new condition at the end of the lease, and wear and tear on the car won’t constitute for damage costs to be paid. If you plan ahead and are taking another deal, you could get your new car delivered at the same time as the other is being collected – avoiding any long waits in between!
A GAP insurance policy will cover the difference between your insurance payment and the full value of your car, should the car be stolen or written off. This means that you won’t need to pay for any costs if your insurance’s pay out doesn’t cover the entire finance, which with leasing would be the remaining finance owed on the lease. You shouldn't be required to get GAP insurance by the funder through our leasing partners, however for your own peace of mind it may be something you wish to consider.
Yes! You don’t need to worry about this, this will be all sorted with your lease deal! See our page: What Else is Included in My Lease Deal for details.
Some lease companies may offer packages with insurance included in the monthly lease payments. However, it is more likely that insurance won’t be included with the deal and it will be something that you need to organise before the delivery date of the car. Every motor on the road in the UK is lawfully required to have insurance and this goes for leased vehicles too! It’s almost the same as insuring a car you have bought, but the biggest difference is that the leasing company will be the registered owner of the car instead of you. The good news is that this means they are responsible for road tax on your car.
Good news amigos! More and more manufacturers provide free breakdown cover for the warranty period of the car, meaning even more peace of mind for you!
This will be something you need to check with your leasing company specifically. Usually, the costs of maintenance and servicing aren’t included automatically in your lease deal, but our leasing partners will be happy to quote for this if it is something they provide and will likely roll this into your monthly payments. Although, as the car is brand new, there will be a lot that is covered by the manufacturer's warranty but for extra peace of mind you can opt for a maintenance and servicing package.
Delivery is completely free, you will get your car delivered straight to your door. And you can make everyone jealous. At no added cost. Your friends, your colleagues, everyone.
This will depend on whether you order a stock or factory order. A car in stock will usually be 2-3 weeks, while a factory order usually takes around 3 months. You can check this with the leasing company.
Your broker will keep you updated on the timeline of your car and as they are taking care of your delivery, you can arrange a date – anywhere that is most convenient to you! The car arrives on a trailer. The car rolls off the trailer. You sign the docs. Then you’re ready to go!
If you’re choosing a factory order lease car, you get to choose the colour and paint from the manufacturer’s options. If you’re going for a car that is in stock, you will be choosing from a group of vehicles that have already been manufactured and that are ready to be delivered. That means there might be a more limited supply of specific colours with stock orders – so if you see your dream car and colour – go for it!
You can! But there are a few things you will need to do before installing a personalised number plate onto your lease car. The main thing is getting the funder’s permission, and once you’ve got this, there really isn’t any reason you can’t add your plate to a leased car!
The car leasing company will usually allow certain small and reversible modifications to the car as long as these modifications are made at your own risk and can be removed without damaging the vehicle. Tow bars, dash cams and roof racking are all examples of acceptable modifications – but best to always check! There may also be the option to add one on at the order stage to include in the cost of your car lease.
This will depend on the leasing company themselves. Some companies do not allow people to pre-pay for their lease in full, however there may be some that give the option for people who want to completely pay off the entire lease amount up front. It is also worth considering that you can pay a larger upfront cost which will reduce your monthly payments. This means you are paying most of it off, without actually pre-paying the full amount.
You can, and its not nearly as scary as people think it is! There will be an early exit penalty fee so make sure you ring up early with your funder to find out what that early settlement charge will be. If you’re coming to the end of your contact, Oliver gives a tip about exiting your car lease deal early.
Once you have placed an order and would like to cancel, you will need to get in contact with the leasing company. You will have a 14 day cooling off period where there will be no early termination fees and any administration fees will be refunded. However, if the company has already ordered the vehicle, there may be a fee to cover the costs in ordering the car up to that point!
If you currently have a car that is paid outright and you want to offset it against your new lease vehicle if you are leasing for the first time – there may be the option to! A leasing company may offer to cover the initial payment or reduce this in exchange for your old car, allowing you to get rid of your old car and reduce your upfront costs – getting two birds with one stone hombres!
From April 1st 2020, the government changed the Vehicle Excise Duty or Vehicle Tax, which only affected cars that are registered after this date. So any cars registered before are unaffected. Under the new tax, only electric cars are exempt from Vehicle Tax. Any car producing C02 emissions, including hybrids, will be taxed. The amount of VED due to be paid will be dependent on how much C02 it produces in the first year of it being registered. Then it is a standard rate of £140 a year. But lucky for you, your road tax is included in your lease deal, so you don’t have to worry about having to organise this separately as this will be rolled into your monthly payments.
This will be down to the leasing company. Some companies may allow you to extend your lease, potentially with a charge for doing this, while some won’t allow this at all. If you’re considering extending your lease – get in touch with your leasing company to find out for sure.
Absolutely! You can save any cars that you like to your ‘Garage’ on LeaseLoco where it will keep you notified of any price changes. There is a possibility that a specific deal may change if the price goes up or down, or a leasing company may run out of stock if it is a stock order. However, we work with a large number of leasing companies, so this shouldn’t be something to worry about too much!
The minimum age to lease a car is 18 years old. And there isn’t a maximum age limit to leasing cars! While you can start driving at 17, the law is that you can’t have a finance contract if you haven’t reached 18 yet. Another reason is that people under 18 years old usually don’t have a credit profile yet, and therefore it's near impossible for finance providers to know if they can afford the monthly payments.
You sure can! There isn’t any prejudice for new drivers when looking at car leasing. There will be a few things to be wary of, though, including credit checks and car insurance.
This depends on what insurance your car is covered by. Other people are allowed to drive your leased car, if they are covered by your insurance policy.
Finance companies will examine your credit history before deciding whether to accept your application to lease a car. The general rule is that most funders ask for at least a ‘good’ credit rating for car leasing contracts. However, it is not a credit score alone that is used to decide this, and other factors are considered including any debts you may have or your ability to make regular payments on time. There are options though, if you think you have poor credit rating, opting for a lease deal with a higher upfront fee could potentially increase your likelihood of being accepted.
In the past we have had exclusive deals to provide discounts for NHS staff. However, at the moment, LeaseLoco does not offer NHS discounts as we compare on a like-for-like basis. However, some leasing companies may offer discounts for NHS staff so it is definitely worth looking into!
A personal one is going to be in your own name, set up for use by private individuals. On the other hand, a business one is where your company leases one or multiple cars that are going to be in the company's name.
Leasing a car is a great option for self-employed individuals and is definitely worth it. There are tax advantages when leasing a car if self-employed including offsetting 50% of the leasing VAT if you’re VAT registered (100% if you’re leasing a van). Also, if your leasing payments are a cost to the company then you will be able to claim back this against your tax return. Leasing a car also means regular payments that your company can budget for, and road tax is included, freeing up that additional expense from your company expenses.
This question is a bit of a tricky one! There may be companies that specialise in leasing taxis, however it will be difficult to find a company that will let you lease a car in order to drive it as a taxi. This is because there will be a lot of wear and tear involved with taxis, as well as a lot of additional mileage, resulting in a quicker depreciation. You will be best finding a broker that specialises in lease taxis.
No catch chicos y chicas! Just a great selection of cars at incredibly good prices. As we are the UK's biggest car lease comparison website, we make it super quick and easy for you to filter and compare millions of deals from the UK's leading car leasing companies to best suit your needs. You will be able to compare all the deals available and contact any of the leasing companies directly from the deal page. The reason that the deals are so cheap is because you get the best discounts when a broker, funder or dealer takes on a huge pool of cars to get that volume discount and they cannot fulfil that order. So then they cut the prices and you get to benefit from all these discounted cars. Now you know that at LeaseLoco we compare millions of deals, so you can have the confidence that you’re getting the best deals from us.
This is a pretty cool feature we’ve made for you to use which is essentially a virtual garage where you can store all of the cars that you’re interested in. We’ll track the price movements and notify you when the price drops. So get saving cars to your garage now! Watch Alex and Oliver explain what the LeaseLoco Garage is and how it works.
You will find a Loco Score on all of our deals! This is the most powerful value score in the market, to help you find the best lease deal. With this, we convert an accurate value metric into a meaningful score out of 100 so it makes perfect sense of what’s hot and what’s not, adjusting it with your mileage and lease term length to see what the best value for you is. If you want to know more, read about the Loco Score for an explanation of what is a hot Loco Score and what’s not! You can also watch Alex and Oliver explain the Loco Score. Happy car hunting!
Lease deals tend to go up and down more often than you think. So we have historical price charts to track these movements so you can be confident that the deal you’re looking at today is actually a good deal. You can also use the Loco Score to make sure you’re getting a hot deal! Watch Alex and Oliver explain what the price historical charts are.
Yes it is, unless you decide to add on any optional extras to the car then the price may change. Very rarely, in the time between an enquiry and going to place an order, the price may change due to retail price increases or model specification changes.
The motor industry has been criticised for dishonestly and a lack of transparency, but we’re changing that! All of our partners are bound by our Ethical Code of Conduct and we have the highest advertiser partner criteria in the industry. These are to give you every confidence that you are only dealing with the very best Brokers and Dealers, allowing us to set the highest standards in the industry for honesty, trust and transparency.
We do! As you search on our website, you can select a 1 month upfront fee, which is pretty much a no deposit lease as you will start out paying your first monthly fee. ‘No deposit’ deals allow you to take a car lease agreement, but with no large deposit costs upfront and the overall cost of the car lease is the same! Just remember that your monthly payments will be slightly higher through this, and as you will effectively be asking for more credit with no deposit, it will be a bit of a stricter credit check so not the best for those with poor credit. Alex and Oliver explain lease deals and their initial payments a bit more.
All of the leasing companies that we work with have the responsibility of supplying and updating the prices of their lease vehicles that they advertise through our website on LeaseLoco. The prices may increase or decrease as they are constantly being updated by the leasing companies for reasons including retail price increases or model specification changes. That’s why we recommend taking a look at the price historical chart on each car to make sure you’re getting a good deal for that car!
On some occasions, when there is a great deal with a great loco score, and if it is a stock order, it may run out of stock. When this happens, the leasing company will pull their deal from our website, meaning the deal you were considering has expired.
If you see a deal that you like and are interested in, all you need to do to make an enquiry is call or message the car leasing company from our page. When you make an enquiry, this doesn’t mean you are obliged to lease the car! All you are doing is getting in touch with the leasing company about a specific deal, and once you have contacted them, then you can decide if you want to secure a deal. Read more about how to make an enquiry.
Once you have made an enquiry through our website (either telephone or email), and once you have placed an order as a result of that enquiry then you can use your order number to make a claim for an Amazon Reward Voucher. Once we have received your claim, we will send this information to the advertising partner who verifies the information. Then once they have confirmed your details, we will email your Amazon voucher to you. Read more in our LeaseLoco Rewards T&Cs.
Unfortunately, if you have seen a deal on our website, and you go directly to the website to enquire instead of enquiring through LeaseLoco, we are unable to pay out our Reward to you. Amazon Reward Vouchers are available on LeaseLoco when you make an enquiry and then go onto lease a car as a result of that enquiry.