Offering Finance

[Mat C 77]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, so thanks for any advice. 

Having worked for PLC's for the last 19 years and after losing my job last Sept, I set up on my own, selling from home ( please don't all scream at me at once ) I am now at the point where I have agreed a lease for a small unit to stock 15-20 cars, selling for circa £5k i'm Vat registered and have a Ltd company.

I have recently lost a few deals as I am unable to offer finance and being a small independent I am not currently regulated by the FCA. What are your guys opinions of becoming regulated, or is there any other path, i.e forward the customer to a broker etc... or are there online brokers available now? I feel like being able to offer a solution would benefit me as I sell a lot to the younger generation who havent got the £5/6k lying around ( usually its the parents that foot the bill!) 

Having been brought up in PLC land, all of this was done for you, so I feel a little like i'm learning again.

Also I have just purchased a iZettle chip and pin reader. Anyone have any experience of these? and the associated cost? is there a more suitable company to use? I'm not tied in with a contract but their handling fees are 1.9% as long as I take over £13000 per month.

Thanks in advance.

Mat

[Gavin@Rousdon 137]

Getting FCA regulated is a hassle and an expense but worth it in the long run. In the past certain brokers wouldn't deal with you if you didn't have a consumer credit license, I don't know if that has changed with the FCA regulations. Hopefully your experience in PLC Land will mean you understand the wording when applying to the FCA, I found it a different language as I think did many car dealers!!!

The money you can make from finance commission should outweigh the FCA fees especially in the £5000 market as you will be able to undercut most the online lenders who only offer great rates if borrowing over £5k.

As for you chip and pin rate is seems very expensive to me, I pay less then that taking over 10 times more. 

[Mat C 77]

Hi Gavin.

Thanks for the reply. Yes I have taken 11 years worth of FCA tests and watched the rules and regulations change. WHo do you use as a broker / finance co if you dont mind me asking.

Also ref the chip & pin, As I have been trading less than 2 years it seems some companies wont help. To be honest I just jumped into this one and as there's no tie in I thought it might be OK. I'll do some shopping around and see if I can get a better rate.

Thanks

Mat

5 hours ago, Gavin@Rousdon said:

Getting FCA regulated is a hassle and an expense but worth it in the long run. In the past certain brokers wouldn't deal with you if you didn't have a consumer credit license, I don't know if that has changed with the FCA regulations. Hopefully your experience in PLC Land will mean you understand the wording when applying to the FCA, I found it a different language as I think did many car dealers!!!

The money you can make from finance commission should outweigh the FCA fees especially in the £5000 market as you will be able to undercut most the online lenders who only offer great rates if borrowing over £5k.

As for you chip and pin rate is seems very expensive to me, I pay less then that taking over 10 times more. 

 

[James Bush 95]

Don't be put off applying to FCA. If you get stuck give them a ring as I found them really helpful and they even saved me a bit of money advising that what I was applying for wasn't needed just to offer car finance. Get yourself an afternoon free and just go for it, there's good commission to be made plus it helps sell more cars. 

I like you had to opt for izettle and never had an issue with them, it works well and 2 days later you have the money. You just have to work it a bit with the customer. If the monies sat in their account the majority are happy to do a bank transfer or pay cash and people paying on credit cards are quite prepared to pay the 2% charge so I rarely lost out. They seem to be the cheapest out there, although it is worth ringing a few of the merchant companies as they all have different rules. 

 

[Mat C 77]

2 hours ago, James Bush said:

Don't be put off applying to FCA. If you get stuck give them a ring as I found them really helpful and they even saved me a bit of money advising that what I was applying for wasn't needed just to offer car finance. Get yourself an afternoon free and just go for it, there's good commission to be made plus it helps sell more cars. 

I like you had to opt for izettle and never had an issue with them, it works well and 2 days later you have the money. You just have to work it a bit with the customer. If the monies sat in their account the majority are happy to do a bank transfer or pay cash and people paying on credit cards are quite prepared to pay the 2% charge so I rarely lost out. They seem to be the cheapest out there, although it is worth ringing a few of the merchant companies as they all have different rules. 

 

Cheers James,

Looks like its an afternoon of FCA'ing for me soon then! 

I was planning on staying with the bank transfer angle, as its not caused me an issue yet, and the odd credit card customer can fund the charge if needs be. Just helps having it available to offer I guess.

Thanks again

Mat

[Gavin@Rousdon 137]

I use MotoNovo for finance who have always done me ok. For card processing I use Worldpay (used to be streamline). I get charged a set fee in pence for debit cards and a percentage for credit cards. I always pass on the charge if a customer wants to buy a car on credit card and most people accept this.

[Rosemotors 31]

Another vote for Worldpay here. When I first opened, my bank's preferred provider wanted a business plan before they'd even come and see me. Worldpay came out and set me up. It took a few weeks, but it was worth it to be able to take debit cards for pence.

Close Brothers were very helpful as a finance house but all of them wanted 12 months trading before taking me on.

[Rory RSC 596]

If you speak to the right finance companies and seem like a good fit for their business (maybe a few good facebook/google+ reviews etc) then the rep should be able to come out and help you do the FCA thing as they will have done it before.

We used Close brothers when starting offering finance and it started us off with a really good rapport with the rep having had him spend a couple of hours with us getting things set up. I would recommend this option.

We use global pay for the merchant services and it was really straight forward to set up. Think they made sure we had a business bank account, soft credit search on both me and business partner and a week or 2 later all done and dusted. You don't want to be paying a percentage like that on debit card transactions. That sounds awful.

[Mat C 77]

Thanks for all the replies.

I have my iZettle machine now, however as soon as I have a move in date I will be applying for a worldpay account. Also I reckon speaking to close or motonovo or someone similar will be next on the cards.

Thanks again everyone and have a great easter

Mat

[Mat C 77]

Got a meeting with Close Brothers once im settled in

 

FCA help and should all be up and running within a month

 

Thanks for your help everyone

Mat

 

[ArdenBlue 1]

Hi Mat, I am too a newbie on here thought i'd start off replying to you! We've been trading for nearly 2 years now and started off using brokers such as carfinance247  - as I understand it you need to be FCA registered to use brokers too. We are now direct with a number of finance houses including Close Bros who have been great. They have a very easy system with quick decisions and fast payments. It is still worth signing up to some brokers as you can use them for those customers who don't get approved by Close - the commissions are much less but could save the deal. 

We also use Worldpay and pass the credit card charge to the customer.

 

[Mat C 77]

Hi Arden, 

Thanks for this. Hopefully get the keys tomorrow so can shift everything in over the weekend and next week.

I have signed up to worldpay, but am waiting to get in and phone lines working etc before pressing the button on a montly fee etc...

I have doen a few C Card transactions now with Izettle and although max limit per card is £5000, customers havent squealed about the charge. also it gets reduced to 1.5% as I take more so actually works out cheaper than worldpay for credit cards at least!

Good luck and hope everyone has a prosperous month

 

Mat

 

[Beautiful South Martin 24]

Hi Mat

Don't want to put a damper on things but I think your being a bit optimistic about up and running with the FCA in a month. I applied for mine on the 16th October 2015 and it came through on the 28th February 2016! Then another couple of weeks to get up and running with Close Brothers, so it was 5 months in total. Maybe mine was exception to the rule but it certainly won't be a month.

All the best.

[Mat C 77]

 

On 4/16/2016 at 0:35 PM, Beautiful South Martin said:

Hi Mat

Don't want to put a damper on things but I think your being a bit optimistic about up and running with the FCA in a month. I applied for mine on the 16th October 2015 and it came through on the 28th February 2016! Then another couple of weeks to get up and running with Close Brothers, so it was 5 months in total. Maybe mine was exception to the rule but it certainly won't be a month.

All the best.

Hi,

Close rep told me a few he's done have taken 3/4 weeks. Guess its luck of the draw. I'm not holding my breath to be pinging out finance quotes this time in 4 weeks though!

Hopefully will be a little quicker than 3 months.

Got the keys today, so all hands on deck now.

Thanks

Mat

[Ami 0]

Hi mat. 

Just wanted a update.

How long did it take in the end?

[Mojo121 229]

4 hours ago, Ami said:

Hi mat. 

Just wanted a update.

How long did it take in the end?

This thread is 3 years old ... FFS

[Mat C 77]

Wow. Forgot I’d written this drivel years ago. 

It came through in 5 weeks in the end Still happily plodding along 3 years later

 

[David Horgan 564]

4 hours ago, Mat C said:

Wow. Forgot I’d written this drivel years ago. 

It came through in 5 weeks in the end Still happily plodding along 3 years later

 

Not with Zettle now i assume 

Nice to hear a success story too , 3 yrs and many more to come I hope . 

[Mat C 77]

On 08/08/2019 at 1:21 PM, David Horgan said:

Not with Zettle now i assume 

Nice to hear a success story too , 3 yrs and many more to come I hope . 

No mate, binned them  few years back now ( still got my little reader in my drawer though for some reason! ) 

We're trying so hard to make it work, its been a tough few years, with a few scary moments but we're expanding now and moving to new premises next month, so fingers crossed......

[Mark101 536]

21 minutes ago, Mat C said:

No mate, binned them  few years back now ( still got my little reader in my drawer though for some reason! ) 

We're trying so hard to make it work, its been a tough few years, with a few scary moments but we're expanding now and moving to new premises next month, so fingers crossed......

I like a success story.  My iZettle resides on my desk and makes me smile when I think how proud I was to get it.

Payzone now - Fast and cheap.

[David Ayers 171]

Do really work for CFG or are you actually one of their rivals who have come on here to spam everybody in an attempt to damage CFGs business by annoying multiple dealers.

If so may I congratulate you on a successful operation Sir!