Specialist
For structural credit gaps, not bad credit
Built for individuals and businesses that fall outside standard credit-assessment boxes for structural reasons — a new company, an overseas parent, no UK history. This isn't a service for bad credit, CCJs or adverse history, and we won't pretend otherwise.
Non-status leasing serves individuals and companies who don't fit the standard boxes credit assessments use. It is not a route for bad credit, CCJs or adverse history — it exists purely because mainstream funders apply rigid rules that can't make sense of a legitimate but structurally unusual case: a new company with nothing traded yet, an overseas parent, foreign directors who can't be verified in the UK, or someone with no UK credit history after years spent abroad. We've supported customers through this route since 2007, mostly via our car subscription and short-term lease fleet. A credit check still happens, and acceptance is never guaranteed.
Common situations
Who non-status leasing is for
These are the circumstances that trigger an automatic decline from a mainstream funder — structural gaps in the file, not a judgement on how credit has been handled.
Business
- New business start-up with no trading results
- Overseas parent company
- Negative shareholder funds
- Foreign directors of a UK company
- UK business with overseas shareholders
- Overseas business with UK workers or a UK entity
- A company established within two years with thin early figures
Personal
- Expat or overseas visitor
- Returning to the UK after living or working abroad
- No UK credit history
- Director of a foreign company
- Director of a new start-up business
- Only just turned 18, with no credit history yet
Background
Why funders decline these
Businesses and private individuals increasingly find themselves unable to get credit for contract hire, leasing or even hire purchase — and often can't work out why, especially when nothing has actually gone wrong.
There was a time when large leasing companies and funders would accept almost any application. Some were then badly caught out by write-offs and repossessions, and tightened their criteria sharply as a result. They now want to see positive balance sheets, several years of payments made on time, and a credit profile that plenty of genuinely stable applicants simply don't have — usually because of where they've lived or how new their company is, not because of anything they've done wrong.
That's a criteria problem, and criteria problems have solutions — provided the underlying situation is one of structure, not one of adverse payment history.
Straight answer
Do you offer 'no credit check' leasing?
What's different about a non-status application is who reads it. Tell us at the outset that you need a non-status lease, and it goes to specialist underwriters who assess every applicant case by case, rather than to a system that rejects anything outside its template.
They're looking for two things: affordability and stability. This route is built for structural gaps in the file — a new company, overseas ownership, no UK history — not for bad credit, CCJs or adverse marks, which sit outside what we can place here.
Criteria
What you'll need
Having these ready makes a non-status application considerably faster.
Private individual
- Driving licence showing your current address
- Three years or more of address history
- Three years or more of employment history
- Proof of address, such as a utility bill dated within the last three months
- Wage slip clearly showing income
- Bank statements clearly showing income and expenditure
- SA302, where applicable
Business
- Director's driving licence showing current address
- Director's proof of address, dated within three months
- Business bank statements — we may request 1 to 12 months
- Management accounts, on request
- Director's guarantee availability, if required
- Details of your website
- Previous or other company appointments, if required
Pricing
What terms will I be offered?
The advertised monthly rate on our short-term leases doesn't change for non-status customers. What underwriters may adjust are the terms attached to it. Where they assess the risk as higher, they'll typically ask for additional security rather than a higher monthly payment. That could include:
- A higher documentation fee
- A higher initial rental
- A terminal pause agreement
- A refundable deposit or bond
- A guarantee and indemnity
- A charge or debenture on property
Or a combination of several of the above. Whatever is proposed is set out clearly once acceptance comes through, and you're not obliged in any way to accept it.
Practical
Vehicles, credit limits and what happens next
- Which vehicles?
- It depends on the underwriters. Sometimes the full short-term lease range is available, sometimes a selection. You're usually given a reference number to check against individual vehicle offers.
- Credit limit
- Underwriters set a credit limit for every customer, non-status or prime, based on affordability and stability reporting alongside your credit files.
- Which fleet
- Non-status agreements are supplied primarily through our car subscription and short-term lease fleet, which is why the terms are shorter and the structure more flexible.
- Missed payments
- Failure to pay results in termination. If a Direct Debit bounces and isn't settled within 48 hours, we'll arrange collection of the vehicle and bill accordingly.
- Since when
- We've been helping non-status customers since 2007.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Next step
Tell us it's a non-status enquiry
Say so at the outset and we'll route it to the specialist underwriters rather than let an automated system decline it.