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FAQs

1. What is involved in transferring a lease?
2. Why would I want to take over a lease?
3. What is the Effective Payment?

1. What is involved in transferring a lease?

The basic lease transfer process is virtually the same for all leasing companies. The individual wishing to assume the lease submits a credit application to the leasing company. If approved, lease transfer documents are prepared and signed by the holder of the original lease and by the individual assuming the lease. The transfer is complete when the signed documents are returned to the leasing company and processed.

There are variations in the fees and details for each leasing company, but the leasing company's customer service department will be ready to assist with these variations and details as you navigate through the transfer process.

2. Why would I want to take over a lease?

Taking over someone else's lease is a great way to lease an almost new car and get a great deal at the same time.

Remember, when you lease a new car, it's only new on the first day. Therefore, if you can find a deal where someone else has paid all of the upfront fees associated with a new lease (commonly $1,000 – $3,000) and simply take over the payments from there, wouldn't that be good deal? What if that person would be willing to give you the equivalent of 1, 2, 3 or more monthly payments for free? Now that's a great deal. That's what we're all about.

3. What is the effective payment?

When a person decides to advertise their lease on Lease or Release, they are given the option of offering a cash incentive to the person who assumes their lease, or asking that person for a down payment. Choosing either option will have an effect on what the true monthly lease payment for that vehicle is after all factors have been considered. Asking for a down payment will increase the cost while offering a cash incentive will reduce it. The Effective Payment listed for each vehicle is the monthly cost of leasing that vehicle after the value of a down payment or cash incentive has been calculated over the remaining term of the lease.

Consider an example:

Let's say that a vehicle has a pre-tax monthly lease payment of $300 and that there are 10 months left on the lease term. If the individual advertising the vehicle is offering a cash incentive of $1,000 to the person who assumes the lease, we would need to spread the value of that cash incentive over the remaining months on the term to arrive at the true monthly cost of assuming the lease.

To do this, we would first need to divide the cash incentive by the number of months left on the term. Then, we would need to subtract the result from the pre-tax monthly payment. The calculation would be laid out as follows:

On the other hand, if the individual advertising the lease for this vehicle was asking for a down payment of $1,000, the process for determining the Effective Payment would be essentially the same, except that after dividing the down payment by the months left we would need to add the result to the pre-tax monthly payment rather than subtract it. The calculation would be laid out as follows:

As you can see, offering a cash incentive or requesting cash down can have a huge impact on the true monthly cost of taking over a lease. Using our example vehicle, a $1,000 cash incentive reduced the true cost, or Effective Payment, to $200 per month, while requesting $1,000 cash down actually increased the Effective Payment to $400 per month.

Needless to say, the Effective Payment for each vehicle is what you should look at when deciding whether or not a particular lease is within your budget.

If you have any further questions or concerns relating to the site, please proceed to the "Contact Us" page where you will find contact e-mail addresses and our phone number. The Lease or Release team wishes you all the best in making use of this site, whether you're here to get out of a lease ... or into a new one.