What is a Payment Waiver?
If you are a private customer with a Personal Contract Purchase, Conditional Sale or Personal Finance Lease contract, Payment Waiver is included as standard within your contract. This allows our customers to waive up to six monthly instalments, in the event of certain circumstances such as redundancy.
How to qualify for a Payment Waiver?
We know unemployment can cause many concerns for people when considering a financial commitment. Our Payment Waiver will cover you if you are made redundant through no fault of your own, waiving up to six of your regular monthly payment, which you will never have to repay, we will pay them for you. However there are certain conditions that you will need to meet.
Should you still be unemployed after we have waived six of your regular monthly payments, you will be given the option to hand back your vehicle and walk away from your agreement without any further financial liability, on the basis that your account is not in arrears. You can also pay off any outstanding arrears and still be entitled to walk away. Excess mileage and/or damage charges may apply.
What key conditions do I have to meet?
- You have been in continuous full-time employment (i.e. 16 or more hours per week paying class 1 National Insurance as determined by HM Revenue and Customs) with no more than two employers for at least six months before asking us to apply the waiver;
- You have been made unemployed involuntarily through no act, fault or omission of your own;
- You have been unemployed for a continuous period of 30 days;
- You will need to give us full written details of your employment before we can apply the waiver; and
- For each month you’re unemployed (and want to apply the waiver) you give us written proof of your unemployment.
If at the end of the six months period you continue to be unemployed and unable to pay your regular monthly payments then you can hand the car back to us. If you do this, we will waive all future instalments (including any funded insurance), but you will have to pay:
- Any previous arrears
- Services charges
- Excess mileage (calculated on a pro-rata basis)
- Damage charges
Please note, this may not always be the best option for you. Depending on how long you have made payments to us or the amount of deposit you paid originally, you may wish to consider part exchanging or selling your vehicle to a third party. In which case, you may wish to contact your dealer to discuss your options further. Whatever you plan to do, we urge you to contact us if you cannot make further payments, don’t delay and try to avoid defaulting on your agreement. You will find details of agencies you may want to speak to and help available on our financial support page.
When we cannot apply the payment waiver?
- You have not satisfied the criteria detailed above;
- You were notified of a redundancy (such as a consultation period) or made redundant before entering into this agreement or within 90 days of the of the start of the agreement;
- You have breached a term in this agreement (including non-payment);
- You are over the statutory pensionable age at the time they become unemployed;
- You have a fixed term employment contract or are a sole trader or in partnership; and/or
- You are in employment.
How do I ask for Payment Waiver to be applied?
You will be required to complete a Payment Waiver application form. The information you will need to submit in the form is as follows:
- Your agreement number
- Your name and address details
- Your date of birth
- Your contact information
- Your most recent employer’s name and address
- Your position
- Your contracted hours per week
- The start date of your employment
- Your redundancy date
- The date you registered for job seeker’s allowance
- The date of your last job seeker’s allowance payment
- Your national insurance number
Once you have gathered all your information required, please go to your online account to complete the form and upload your evidence.
If you haven't already, register your account via two step login process. You will need your agreement number and your registration number to hand.