Salary Sacrifice exit fee

Jennie_C

Hi, I currently have a lease car via a salary sacrifice scheme with NHS Fleet Solutions and have been offered another job. My new employer use another company and whilst they are happy to accept a transfer, NHS Fleet Solutions refuse to do this stating that it is their policy. They will only transfer to my new employer if the new employer will allow them to manage the fleet of the vehicle which is not a possibility either.
I have had the car for a year and my exit fee is over £400. Is there anyway I can appeal or challenge this? I have attempted to email people from NHS Fleet Solutions and continue to get the same answers. I appreciate that I signed a 3 year contract, but this feels like an unfair rip off when another company is prepared to take this on to assist me in my new job role. These schemes are supposed to be supportive but it is currently causing a lot of stress.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thank you,
Jen

ReadingTim

You signed the contract, you agreed to the fees. Did you think it was an unfair rip off at the time?

Thought not.

Furthermore, I can't imagine this sort of thing is buried away in the small print - "what happens if I leave my job during the car lease period" is probably a fairly frequently asked question, and the exit fee answer will probably be pretty explicit too.

Sorry if this isn't what you want to hear.

TheDebtinator

Have you asked if your new company will pay the £400 release fee? Is there a release fee with your new company?

keitlineo112528

l am in the process of getting the lease car under fleet solutions, and carefully reading my end lease charges , unfortunately looking at the endless fee it says on first year you will have to pay 5 months payments, on second year 3 and on last year 1, so basically if you consider this as you say you have used it for a year lm assuming you in your second that means you pay 3 months payments, on what you paying monthly
also reading the terms and conditions it does state if the other organisation that has a lease in operation you may be able to transfer your lease and continue to pay under a salary agreement, in which lm assuming they would be still wanting to get this payment (fleet solutions) and if the other scheme refused this which will mean termination and starting again; hence why they asking for termination fee, best thing is to ring the other lease company and see why this is not possible
im not sure if l make sense but from reading , l think they are happy for you to take the scheme to another organisation but that means the organisation agrees to do the same lease , with the money going to fleet not their own lease company so if the other organisation refuses you to bring fleet lease maybe thats why they want to terminate , l might be wrong but thats how it seems from reading the terms
can l ask has the scheme been helpful to you ? as l have been contemplating about it but l am looking into everything how it will affect my tax credit and things like that , tax credit wasn't helpful much when l rang them

l hope some people will help on here all the best

PeacefulWaters

this feels like an unfair rip off

Silly to sign up for it then.

Jennie_C

Thank you for your posts. I thought it would be a long shot - but you never know. I realise now that entering the scheme, from my point of view was a mistake. My circumstances at the time were a great need for a reliable car and hassle-free driving and I didn't consider at that time leaving my current job. I saw an opportunity to further my career and decided that that was my priority. Obviously from now on I'll tripple-check any small print, but mistakes make us learn I guess.

For the person considering this scheme, I cannot comment on tax credits because I am unsure about this, however if you think you will be staying in your job for the duration of your lease agreement, the scheme can be beneficial. It does have a knock on effect to your pension etc, due to the savings you make (i.e, your salary effectively reduces and pension contributions are smaller). The only expense that really needs considering is that of fuel, everything else is included. The wait for a car is usually 12-14 weeks after placing an order.

On the other hand, I am in the process of obtaining quotes through dealers for a personal lease. When I did this previously, the work scheme was generally more beneficial but at the moment, there seem to be good deals around. It was also explained to me by one dealer that if you lease through them (the main dealer), you build up equity with your car throughout your lease agreement which you do not get with NHS schemes and you can usually get the cars a lot sooner. With maintenance included, this currently works out slightly cheaper than the previous scheme I was on, however, this does not include car insurance for all 3 years where the NHS scheme does.

I hope that long-winded explanation has proved helpful - if you are unsure of any of the above, please let me know and I'll try to clarify further the information that I have.

Regards.

boliston

It's a pity these schemes are difficult to transfer as for many employees it is the only way they could ever get a lease car as a personal lease normally involves a credit check so excludes employees with poor credit. Also there is no tax and ni saving on a personal lease as it is paid from net rather than gross salary.