Dealers could be potentially missing out on one in five customers who are being narrowly rejected by prime finance lenders, that’s according to new entrant to the motor finance sector, Glasgow based Startline Motor Finance.

Talking about the issue of near prime customers, Startline CEO Paul Burgess said, “For dealers whose panel does not include a spread of risk appetites among lenders, the drop from prime to sub-prime is very vertiginous with the APR rate rising by perhaps as much as double figures.

“Our approach instead is to take a closer look at the circumstances of the person making the finance application, often entering into a dialogue with the dealer. The thinking is that if we can gain an understanding of that person’s overall financial position, then we can potentially work to arrive at a solution that meets their needs.”

Burgess thinks that many near prime customers are falling foul of changing home ownership and employment patterns adding, “There are all kinds of ways in which the factors traditionally used to credit score people no longer apply to many who are actually pretty solid applicants. These include the decline in home ownership, the rise in contract and temporary working, and a host of other general changes to peoples’ overall economic circumstances. This would place them outside of the scope of a prime lender but, in many dealerships, the only other solution is a sub prime. Startline’s flexible lending provides a further option.”