Home » General News » T reg boost to credit

T reg boost to credit

The T-plate registration change in March helped to boost both new and used car finance deals, according to record sales announcements from several leading finance companies.

TEXT: GE Capital Woodchester had a record performance in March, which saw the Edinburgh-based finance house carry out £100m of business.

The level of business represented a 36 per cent increase on March last year and was partly due to the plate change for new cars, according to sales director Neil Clyne, even though GE’s business mainly concerns used vehicles. Clyne said: “The T-plate change in March had a positive knock-on effect for our business, but it was not an August. It is difficult to say what effect the plate changes will have for the industry overall, but we are predicting strong growth.”

Three unnamed major national accounts won since the beginning of this year, also helped the strong performance.

Chester-based finance house, Capital Bank also recorded a strong performance in March for sales of its sub-prime finance product, Finax. Sales were helped by a 35,000 direct mail out campaign aimed at passing on leads to potential dealer business partners in addition to the registration plate change. Finax division manager Peter Landers said “March was good for us and we recorded a 25-26 per cent increase in Finax sales” on March in the previous year.

Holiday and bonus incentives helped Singer & Friedlander Finance achieve a record March. The company recorded a 30 per cent increase in sales for March over its previous best month’s performance. The Surrey-based company launched a campaign last month for the franchised and used prestige sectors of the market, which ends at the beginning of September.

Overall finance for the new cars in the industry increased by 77 per cent in the consumer market in March compared with the same month last year according to figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association. Finance in the used car sector also saw a boost in demand of 16 per cent compared with March 1998.

FLA director general Martin Hall said the March increase would encourage the finance industry which had seen unusually weak demand so far this year.

Leave a Comment