Carlyle Finance - Dealer Finance – The Real Deal

Llanishen, Cardiff ( Pressreleasecollection ) April 6, 2010 - Dealer finance continues to be highly attractive when compared to other lending forms right now. Rates are very competitive and acceptance levels remain high; both very different to the wider personal loan situation. Rapidly growing Carlyle Finance is encouraging dealers of all sizes to ‘seize the moment’ and make sure finance takes a greater role in their business and in their marketing.

Karl Werner Head of Sales & Marketing notes; “Dealers of all sizes must ensure that finance has an increased prominence to help create sales for new and used cars. In both face to face contact and marketing, especially on-line, dealers must confidently provide high quality loan advice to ensure would-be buyers know that they can finance a car in the showroom, helping buyers to make the leap from browsing to buying”

Throughout the credit crunch and recession, Carlyle Finance has stood side by side with its motor dealer customers by substantially increasing lending activity by over 60 per cent over the last year. In doing so it has helped dealers to offer car finance deals that have helped to keep sales moving.

With the scrappage scheme ending, the need to entice buyers into the showroom is even more important and demonstrating that a dealer can help a customer buy a car on finance at an affordable price is set to be a vital part of the required approach.

The attractiveness of dealer finance right now is brought into sharp context by independent research that reveals that the cost of borrowing through a loan has ballooned by 42 per cent as banks have worked to reduce their overall debt. The personal finance group Defaqto has shown that the APR on a £5,000 loan has gone from 9.8% to a high 13.9% over the past two years. The price rise is compounded by tighter underwriting that has seen many applicants who may have previously expected to have been accepted for a loan being rejected, or facing higher interest rates as lenders use ‘rate for risk’ pricing. Finally many lenders have moved to restrict loan advances to current customers as revealed in Carlyle’s latest Loan Comparison Table. The best car loans are no longer just a matter of interest rates (although that is important to many) it is also about getting accepted for a loan and the reality is that dealer finance has a strong track record in gaining higher acceptance levels than unsecured personal loans.

Choosing the right car can often take months of research, involving endless comparisons between different manufacturers and their models, commonly on-line without any dealer contact. Yet when it comes to sorting out how best to finance a car, would-be buyers often fail to seek out dealer finance options, or perhaps more accurately, dealers fail to provide the type of high quality loan advice on-line, adjacent to the information on their car stock. Whether there are special car finance deals on offer, or information about the range of dealer finance products, the reality is that buyers can finance a car in the showroom right now – and do so quickly and conveniently. This is the rationale for CarLoanAdvisor from Carlyle Finance -, www.carloanadviser.co.uk

CarLoanAdvisor from Carlyle Finance provides customers browsing a dealer’s website with easily accessible and informative loan advice in a truly interactive manner. All a dealer has to do is ensure that the link to the CarLoanAdvisor website is in place on their website to start benefitting. As Werner notes; “Too often there have been negative perceptions about motor finance; the reality is that HP has much to offer, it is very competitively priced, acceptance levels are high and by using it to finance a car specifically, other lending forms are kept free. But there is much more than this; dealer finance is fast and convenient to set up and right now it is very available. CarLoanAdvisor has been specifically developed to bring these points and much more product information over to consumers in a relaxed, non-pressured environment, helping customers to buy dealer finance. All the signs are that it works!”

Many loan aggregation sites encourage customers to ‘shop around’ for their car finance – make sure your finance offer is in the shop window – on line and in the showroom.

Editorial Notes

Carlyle Finance Background

Carlyle Finance, which has been operating for over 30 years is part of WesBank, South Africa’s largest financer of cars, itself part of FirstRand Bank Limited.

Carlyle Finance provides a full portfolio of finance products and services including car stocking facilities, relying exclusively upon motor retailers for its sales.

WesBank’s main objective is to dominate in whichever market it enters and therefore require people who have the potential, skills, and ability to achieve the organisation’s goal. WesBank’s mission statement and shared values gives a good insight to its culture.

Mission Statement

WesBank is to be the acknowledged leaders in instalment credit in terms of Customer Service, Profitability and Size.

Carlyle Finance, Ground Floor, Lambourne House, Lambourne Crescent, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, Cardiff, CF14 5GL. Carlyle Finance is a division of FirstRand Bank Limited (London Branch), a branch of FirstRand Bank Limited.

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