Car Finance Advice

Car financing has constantly evolved and come up with new and innovative ways to allow people to benefit. The latest in car financing is Novated car leasing, popular in countries like Australia and the UK, Novated car leasing allows an employee to lease a car while the employer agrees to pay the instalments. The employee in return agrees to receive lesser pay till the lease finishes. Novated car leasing allows both the employee and the employer the opportunity to access a wider variety of cars at lower costs.

Novated car leases are basically of two types, the first is a regular Novated car lease, and in this case the employee does not receive any finances for operating costs like petrol or any maintenance expenses. The second type of Novated car leasing is a fully maintained Novated lease, in this case the employer pays for operating and maintenance costs of the vehicle too. Depending on the requirement an employer can offer an employee basic leasing or fully maintained Novated car leasing.

For the employee Novated car leasing is useful as it allows him to access cars at lower rates, especially if the employer has purchased or leased cars in a bulk amount. In addition Novated car leasing allows an employee to apply for tax discounts. In addition to tax savings and lower rates, another advantage is that an employee has a wider selection of cars, since employers that offer Novated leasing usually have a large number of cars at their disposal and have tie ups with various car leasing firms.

However there is a downside to Novated car leasing, if an employee leaves his employer, the onus of the payments is completely on the employee and unless the new employer agrees to continue paying for the Novated car finance, the employee has to manage all the payments.

The employer too benefits from Novated car leasing, the biggest advantage is that an employer can actually operate a fleet of vehicles without having to worry about operating costs and maintenance costs, usually employers prefer paying for a regular Novated leasing, thereby ensuring that there are no transportation issues, and maintenance and operating expenses are maintained by the employee. In fact since the employer is actually paying for the leasing for an employee, the employer can actually maintain vehicles off the records, thereby saving on tax while having an effective transportation system in place.

At the end of the day Novated car leasing is a win-win situation for both the employer and employee, in addition to the employer and employee, finance companies too benefit from Novated car financing, by actually having the employer pay for car leasing, the financing company can offer employees with poor credit history cars on lease, as there is a higher probability of receiving payments on time.

In essence Novated car leasing is a tripartite agreement; where there are three parties involved the financing company, the employee and the employer. In fact it is one of the few tripartite agreements where all three parties benefit in different ways.