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 When you're leasing a car, you've entered into a contract with the leasing company to take possession of the car for a predetermined period of time. But what if you suddenly want to terminate a car lease early? Or you might also be in the situation where a car's lease is set to terminate and you're wondering what your next steps should be.
Planning for a Car Lease
If you already have a lease on a car, then you've probably gone through a lot of planning to figure out what kind of car you want to lease, how much you're willing to pay, and how long you want to lease the car. But now you might find yourself nearing the end of a lease or perhaps you're considering early termination of the lease. What options do you have when it comes to terminating a car lease? What should you consider before the lease comes to an end?
Getting out of a car lease early can be costly. At times, the financial penalties can almost be equal to the remaining payments themselves. Choosing the right option can save you a lot of money. If you think you can just drop off the car and walk away then you need to understand the implications of that approach and the long-term affect it can have on your credit report.
Options for Ending a Lease Early
If you're thinking about ending a lease early, you need to be careful because unless you do it correctly you can make a pretty costly mistake in terms of money and future creditworthiness. Essentially, you have five options when it comes to ending a car lease before the expiration date. You can:
- Return your vehicle to the dealership
- Lease another car
- Have the car repossessed
- Buy out the lease or do a lease transfer / lease swap.
Each of these options is discussed in more detail in the paragraphs below.
Return a Leased Car
The easiest way to end your lease early is to return the car to the dealership before the lease expires. Keep in mind that you remain obligated to continue making the remaining monthly payments, the cost of penalties for excess wear and tear, and the excess mileage charges.
In short, you can return the car, but your financial obligations do not stop. You're the one responsible for making lease payments until your contract runs out - even if the car is sitting in the dealer's parking lot.
Lease a Different Car
You can also end your lease early by leasing a different car from the dealership. If you decide on this option, make sure you understand how much equity you have in the car. What you owe is based on calculations involving the car's residual value, depreciation and capitalized cost.
If you're in a negative equity position (you owe more than the car is worth), then the money owed is often rolled into the new lease, which has the opposite effect of a down payment. That means your monthly lease payment may be extremely high because you're still paying off money owed from your old car's lease plus the lease cost of your new car.
Car Repossession
If you decide to stop making payments and have the dealership repossess the car without making good on your financial obligations to the dealership, then there is a very good chance a finance company will attempt to recover those payments from you. In simple terms, here is the trade off:
In the short term, you might be able to get away without making good on the lease and paying the dealership the money you owe them. Over the long haul, your credit score / rating may be damaged and that might affect future borrowing of any kind. In fact, this could make leasing a car nearly impossible or much more expensive than it was in the past.
Lease Buyout
Another option you have is to buy out the lease from the dealership or financing company. This option can sometimes work in your favor if the value of the car has unexpectedly held up better than projected by the leasing company. For example, the buy out price might be $15,000, but the car's true market price is closer to $17,000.
In reality, the above example doesn't happen very often. That's because leasing companies are pretty good at estimating car values well into the future. In fact, more often than not, buying out the lease is a costly decision because cars experience their greatest depreciation over the first two years of ownership. That means the actual market price might be lower than the buy out price, especially when terminating just a couple of years into the lease.
Car Lease Swaps
Sometimes leasing companies allow the lease to be transferred to another party that is then responsible for making the remaining lease payments on the car - this is sometimes referred to a lease swap. The person assuming the lease gains the benefits of the down payments you've already made to lower your monthly lease payments. You have the chance to walk away from the car without worrying about taking a hit to your credit rating.
About the Author - Car Lease Termination
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