Short Term Leasing Compared

We compare the best ways to hire or lease a car on a short-term contract.

Leasing, hiring & subscribing to a car or van are the modern ways to drive brand new regularly. As individuals & businesses have become accustomed to this, the demand for flexible short-term leasing and flexible short-term contracts has risen.

But with the wide range of options available offering different features and benefits, which should you choose?

We will go through four of the UK's most popular short-term leasing options to help you find the perfect option. These include Daily Car Hire, Short Term Car Hire, Subscription Vehicles and Flexible Hire Vehicles. As you may notice, these contracts can be sometimes described as a "hire" vehicle or as a "lease" vehicle. This is because any vehicle that is available on a short term "lease" agreement is classed as a "hire vehicle."

Daily Car Hire

+         Easy to arrange

+         Flexible terms that let you return and hire new vehicles whenever needed

-          Expensive rates

-          You are not guaranteed the exact vehicle you want

-          Often older vehicles

Daily Car Hire is a familiar concept for most UK drivers. You simply agree to hire a vehicle on a daily rate. This makes it incredibly flexible but also incredibly expensive. There are also other problems with these cars as you are only entitled to a vehicle category, not the specific car or van itself and depending on the time of year and the location you hire the car from, you could get an old vehicle. Chances are if you are wondering if daily car hire is right for you, it probably isn't.

Car Subscriptions

+         Everything in one payment

+         Insurance included (at extra cost)

+         Flexible terms

+         Low upfront payments

-          Vehicles are largely older than 12 months.

-          Not everything included in the package is required and used by most drivers

-          Better deals can be found on the vehicle, insurance and maintenance when choosing each element individually.

-          Availability can depend on your credit profile

Car subscription services are becoming increasingly popular as people look for all-in-one solutions for their next car. Although subscription vehicles sell themselves as being a "modern" way to drive a vehicle, they often sell packaged short-term hire vehicles that limit your ability to shop around for the best deal. This is because elements such as your insurance and maintenance provider are predetermined.

If you want the flexibility to hand back the vehicle at any time and are willing to sacrifice on getting the best deal on a new vehicle, this may be an option. Just be careful when you are shopping around you compare the length of the contract and the age of the vehicle to any other deals you find on short term leasing!

Flexible pay-as-you-go Hire

+         3 months then flexible month-to-month terms

+         Great prices

+         Guaranteed acceptance

+         New & nearly new vehicles

-          Mainly commercial vehicles and luxury cars

If you are looking for the best compromise between flexibility and price, then flexible pay-as-you-go hire may be the way forward. On this contract, you are only tied into the vehicle for three months. After this, you are placed on a rolling month-to-month contract that gives you the ultimate standard in flexibility. Unfortunately, the vehicles are usually limited to commercial vehicles (like the Ford Ranger and Ford Transit) and premium vehicles (like the Range Rover Sport, BMW M5 and Volvo XC9O.) However, it’s still worth checking to see if you can find your ideal short-term hire vehicle.

Short Term Car hire

+         Easy to arrange

+         Flexible contracts

+         Brand new cars

+         High-spec vehicles

+         Loyalty bonus

+         No credit check & no credit scoring

+         No commercial vehicles

In our opinion, this is the best way to drive a brand-new high-spec car on a short-term hire contract. These are 6 & 12-month contracts that allow you to leave after 3 months with no penalty. After 6 or 12 months, the car is collected and a new one delivered to you without you having to pay a new large initial payment. The best thing is that you can do it as many times as you want!

These all of these short-term hire vehicles are available to individuals and businesses with bad credit as there is no credit check and no credit Scoring.