What happens at the end of your term
Two choices, and both of them are yours. Hand the car back on the end date and the term is finished. Or carry on month by month — at the same rate you have been paying, with no re-quote and no second initial payment.
The end date is fixed at the start
You pick a term — 6, 12, 24 or 36 months — and the end date follows from it. It is on the paperwork before you pay anything, and it does not move. What you decide to do when you reach it is a separate question, and you decide it then rather than now.
Carrying on, at the same rate
When your term ends you can carry on month by month at the same rate you have been paying. No re-quote and no new initial payment.
That sentence is worth reading twice, because it is not how most of this market works. The usual pattern is a good rate for the agreed term and a re-price at the end, which is where people find out what the deal really was. Ours does not re-price. The figure you agreed at the start is the figure you keep for as long as you want the car.
It is a choice you make, not something that happens to you. Nothing continues unless you tell us you want it to.
So why commit to a longer term at all?
The rate. A longer term is cheaper per month than a shorter one, and if you carry on afterwards you carry on at that cheaper rate. Six months is the dearest way to hire the same car; thirty-six is the cheapest.
The trade is commitment. The 24 and 36 month terms carry an early exit fee if you end them before the end date. The 6 and 12 month terms do not. Either way we tell you what applies, in writing, before you sign. So the cheapest monthly figure is also the one that asks most of you, and the six month term is the other way round. Neither is right for everyone, which is why we quote both.
If you are handing it back
We collect the car, or you bring it back, whichever suits. We check it over against the condition it went out in, settle anything owing, and return your deposit once that is done. Then the term is closed.
Fair wear is expected on a used car and is not something we charge for. Damage beyond that is, and the figures for it are in your paperwork from the start rather than produced on the day. The same inspection happens whether you reach the end date or leave early.
You are not buying the car
Worth being direct about, because some motoring products end with the car being yours and this one does not. We own the car throughout and we own it at the end. Nothing you pay is building equity in it, and there is no option to buy it at the end of the term, however long you keep it.
If what you actually want is to own a car, buying one is the better answer and our guide to that goes through the arithmetic honestly, including the cases where buying wins.