As you know I’m not one to moan. But this
month, I’m more than a little angry. No, not about the MPs’
expenses, with MPs charging us for everything from installing
heating under the landing strip in the back garden in order to land
the Learjet in all weathers to toys for the goldfish bowl. Nor am I
going to whinge about the dopey scrappage scheme.
No, I’m going to have a whinge about the way that
brokers are being treated by certain funders. We do not appear to
be on a level playing field. We provide a good stream of business,
but some funders are treating us unfairly.
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My first hint of unfairness related to a deal that
I was working on for an existing customer. I had agreed the deal,
and as I’m a good sort of bloke I even maintained the loyalty of
the funder by proposing him to the same funder that he had been
with for the last three years. Nothing had changed, although his
company profits had dropped a little – but we are in a credit
crunch at the moment, after all. He had a perfect payment history,
but when the funder came back with the decision, my client went
mad. His company had been trading for over 20 years but for the
first time ever he was being asked for directors’ guarantees.
I appealed, as his co-director got a car without
guarantees a few months earlier, and through a different funder
than he had used previously. But no joy.
My client refused to allow me to propose him to
another funder and sulked. Then, without my knowledge, he contacted
the funder direct in order to give them a piece of his mind and
retrieve some of his now battered ego. And what did the funder do?
It apologised for the dreadful mistake and offered to provide him
with the finance without any DPGs – direct. So not only have they
embarrassed me in front of my customer, they have nicked my
business and stolen my commission!
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By GlobalDataNext, I had a customer who wanted a top
of the range 4WD that we had on a special deal. With no time left I
proposed him. He had been trading for 15 years, had some good
accounts, albeit nearly a year old, and he had a large 4WD on
finance about to go back. His credit was excellent. We had his last
three months’ bank statements, which looked solid, and to top it
all he was putting down 15 months’ advanced payment on a PCH over
three years – nearly half the bloody cost of the lease.
After a week of fannying about, this large funder
asked for the latest management accounts. What? He’s a large
hairdressing/beauty business, why does the funder need management
accounts?
So while I’m arm-wrestling the funder, my client
panics and dashes down to the dealer who has a car in stock, and
offers it to my customer at £30 per month more. Within 10 minutes
his application was approved by the captive.
Who was the captive? The same bloody funder that I
had proposed him to 10 days previous! At the moment we brokers need
all the funders we can get, but the credit crunch will end, and we
will be looking long and hard at the funders that supported us.
