Car Lease FAQs

You can lease a car for one to eighteen months. A rolling monthly keeps renewing until you stop it; three, six, nine, twelve and eighteen month agreements run for a fixed term. Vans run monthly through to eighteen months.

Yes — we credit check every short term car lease application, because it's a finance agreement so there's no version of this without one. It's a soft search, though the search itself is recorded on your file. A person makes the decision, not a scoring engine, and you'll normally have an answer the same working day. What we can't approve: an active CCJ, an IVA, or an active bankruptcy. Better said now than after you've filled in a form.

Usually, yes — expats and newcomers to the UK can lease a car short term. This is one of the most common reasons people come to us, so it's well-worn ground. Apply online and an advisor will go through the additional documents your circumstances call for — typically proof of address, your licence, and something covering your time before you arrived. A short term car lease for expats and newcomers does what a purchase can't: it gets you mobile straight away and leaves nothing to sell if plans change. On licences specifically: EU and EEA licences count the same as a UK one, regardless of when you arrived. Most other overseas licences are valid for 12 months from the date you entered the country, or from when you became a UK resident — some countries also require an international driving permit alongside it. After the 12 months you'll need a UK licence to keep driving.

Students can lease a car short term, and age isn't the obstacle — 18 is enough. The credit and affordability check usually is, and we'd rather be honest about that than take an application we can't approve. If a parent or an employer on a placement takes the agreement instead, you can be added as a named driver on their policy at no extra cost. Tell us the situation and we'll tell you where you stand.

Yes, and it's one of the neatest uses for it. Factory orders slip, and a short term car lease while waiting for delivery covers the gap without committing you to anything: take a rolling monthly and stop it the week your own car lands, or a fixed three or six months if you have a rough date.

Yes, we lease to new businesses — sole traders, limited companies and partnerships. If the company is newly formed we'll normally ask for a director's guarantee, which simply means a director agrees to cover the payments personally if the business can't. It's standard across the industry for young companies.

The agreement has to be in the name of whoever passes the checks and pays for it. But once it's in place you can add as many drivers as you like, provided each one is named on the insurance policy — or covered by a company fleet policy if it's a business agreement.

From £750 on cars, and a flat £2,000 on vans — set by the vehicle, not the length of the agreement. You'll know yours before you order. We hold it while you have the vehicle and return it after collection, less anything due for excess mileage or damage.

You pay by Direct Debit — same figure, same date, for the whole agreement.

Yes, you can pay for the whole term up front if you'd prefer to. It doesn't change the checks — the agreement still goes through underwriting in the usual way.

Prices default to Business, excluding VAT — that's the figure on the card. Switch to Personal on any listing page and you'll see the same price with VAT added. Most of our customers lease as a business and reclaim VAT, so Ex. VAT is what we show first.

Insurance, fuel or charging, and anything you incur while driving — congestion and clean air zone charges, tolls, parking, and fines. Punctures aren't covered by the maintenance package either. Every charge we can make is listed on our fees and charges page.

Cars on terms up to nine months: 1,000 miles a month. Twelve and eighteen month agreements: 833 a month, which comes to 10,000 a year. Vans: 2,000 a month.

You're charged on the excess only, never the whole allowance. Cars are 65p a mile plus VAT on one and three month agreements and 40p a mile plus VAT from six months upward, plus VAT. Vans are 40p a mile plus VAT. The rate is fixed at the point you order and printed on the vehicle page.

Upwards, yes — you can raise your mileage allowance before you order or partway through, with a phone call. Downwards, no. If you already know you'll cover big distances, setting the allowance high at the start always works out cheaper than paying excess at the end.

Our short term lease cars are between brand new and twelve months old. A new one arrives on delivery miles. A used one will normally be under 12,000 miles, and we'll confirm the exact reading before it comes to you.

Direct from the manufacturer, via one of our delivery agents. Nothing we supply is an import.

Every vehicle carries a full UK manufacturer's warranty for the whole agreement.

Every lease car comes with a full set of keys — usually two.

No — the vehicle stays registered to us, so private plates aren't possible on a lease car.

Specification is exactly as listed for that vehicle — you're choosing from stock rather than ordering to build, so what you see is what's available, and there's no upgrading to a higher spec than what's advertised. We don't generally offer a colour choice either, though everything in the fleet tends to be a sensible one (black, white, grey, silver and so on). If you've a strong preference either way, tell us and we'll do what we can to accommodate it.

Ask us about signwriting or racking before delivery. Trades often need both to make the van earn, and we'll tell you honestly what's workable on a short agreement.

Ten to fourteen days from order. We're not a same-day operation, and those days aren't idle — they go on valeting, checks and paperwork so the vehicle turns up ready rather than merely available. If you need wheels this afternoon, daily rental is the honest answer.

Delivery is free anywhere in mainland Britain excluding the Highlands, to your home or your workplace. Collection at the end is free too.

We deliver Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Not weekends.

Not a fixed slot, no. Too much can happen between our depot and your door, and we'd rather not promise a time we can't hold. The driver will call you when they're roughly half an hour out.

No — we come and collect the car from your home or work address.

Insurance isn't included in the monthly price, and that's a deliberate choice. Cover written to suit every driver on the fleet costs more than cover written around you, so bundling it would put your monthly up for a policy that might not fit. You arrange your own and cancel it when the vehicle goes back.

Fully comprehensive, in place from the delivery date rather than the day after, and running for the length of the agreement. Your insurer needs to know the vehicle is registered to the leasing company and on lease to you. We'll confirm the exact requirements in writing before delivery.

Yes, we accept company fleet insurance policies. On a business agreement, drivers covered by your fleet policy are fine — they don't need to be listed individually with us.

Tell us and tell your insurer, so the two can deal with each other directly. Every insurer handles it slightly differently, so check your own policy's procedure at the same time.

We do — every vehicle is supplied fully maintained, and we book the work at an approved service centre. Your part is to tell us when a service is due or something's wrong; we can't see your mileage from here. The package covers servicing, brake pads and discs, wiper blades and tyres as they wear. Punctures sit outside it.

We do — but you have to tell us it’s due. Servicing is paid for inside your monthly price and we book it at an approved service centre, so you’re never handed a bill or left choosing a garage. What we can’t do is watch your mileage for you. When the dashboard starts counting down to a service, ring us on 0333 772 1886 and we’ll arrange it around you.

Go more than 500 miles past a service and the manufacturer’s warranty falls away, which turns a routine job into an expensive one. There’s a £500 plus VAT missed service fee in the agreement, and in the worst case you can be asked to buy the vehicle at its market value. None of that is a trap — it’s in the terms, we’re telling you here, and one phone call when the countdown starts avoids all of it.

No — work has to be done by a manufacturer-approved approved service centre, and we book it. That isn’t us being awkward: the car is under manufacturer warranty for your whole term, and using anyone else voids it. Tell us what it needs and we’ll sort the appointment.

The car tells you. Every modern dashboard runs a countdown in days or miles to the next service, and your handbook lists the intervals. Check it the way you’d check your fuel — the moment it starts counting down, call us and we’ll book it in.

Not from us — we don’t supply a courtesy car. For work covered by the manufacturer's warranty the manufacturer will usually provide one, and we'll help you get that arranged.

Roadside assistance comes as standard on every vehicle. The provider's details travel with the car, so the number you need is already in the glovebox.

You do, in the first instance — congestion charges, clean air zone charges, tolls, parking and speeding all sit with the driver. Because the vehicle's registered to us, though, the notice comes to us first. Where the issuer allows it, we name you as the driver so it transfers to you and you can appeal it yourself. Where they don't allow that, we pay it to stop it escalating and recharge you. Either way there's a £40 admin fee plus VAT, plus VAT, regardless of which route it takes.

Yes, you can take a lease car abroad with a bit of notice. Tell us where you're going, when you're leaving and when you're back, and we'll sort the paperwork, including the VE103B — the document that proves you're allowed to take a hired vehicle out of the country. Ask before you book the crossing rather than the week before you sail.

We collect the vehicle from your home or work address, free, and check it over. If you'd rather keep going, tell us before the end date and we'll extend it or move you onto something else.

Yes, against BVRLA fair wear and tear standards — the industry benchmark, and one we didn't write ourselves. They make proper allowance for normal use: small chips and light surface scratches are expected. Dents, torn trim, kerbed wheels and cracked glass are not.

Usually, yes — a short term car lease can be extended. Rolling monthly and three month agreements extend without fuss, and on longer terms we can nearly always arrange it. If we genuinely can't keep you in the same vehicle, we'll put a suitable alternative in front of you.

You owe the rentals still to run. Stop a nine month agreement after five months and months six to nine remain payable — no penalty on top, but no reduction either. Ending early is the one thing worth being realistic about before you sign, because it's the only cost on this page you can avoid entirely by choosing the right term. If you truly don't know how long you'll need a vehicle, take the rolling monthly.

Clear out your belongings, take the toll tags off, remove any signwriting you added, and have the full set of keys and the service book ready. A clean car is easier to inspect fairly than a dirty one, so a wash the day before is time well spent.

Once the vehicle has been collected and checked. It comes back in full unless there are excess miles to settle, or damage that falls outside the standards above. Either way you'll hear what's being deducted, and why, before it happens.

We do — the car stays owned by us for the whole lease. Drive Subscribe is a trading style of ACL Automotive Contracts Ltd, and we're an owner and broker of hire — the vehicle is registered to us for the whole agreement, which is why it comes back to us at the end and why private plates aren't possible.

Yes. Drive Subscribe is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference 730720, and a member of the BVRLA. ACL Automotive Contracts has been arranging vehicle leases for over twenty years. More about us.

Drive Subscribe has been leasing cars for over twenty years. It's a reasonable question to ask a company you're about to hand a deposit to, and it's worth asking of anyone you're considering.