The number of cars being returned to leasing companies because clients can no longer pay their instalments saw a 25% leap in October, in the wake of an abrupt depreciation of RON and a substantial increase in interest rates, managers on the market say.
"Many cars are going back to the companies that charged very low, or zero, down payments; an offer that involved thousands of cars, around ten of which are being repossessed each month. From what I saw on the market, 20-25% more cars were repossessed in October than in the previous months," Septimiu Postelnicu, general manager of UniCredit Leasing, the biggest company on the market last year with 500 million euros in financing, told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
He says that UniCredit Leasing is not yet feeling this increase in repossessions, because the company asked for large down payments, which means that customers are not prepared to give up their contracts so easily. On the other hand, delays in installed payments have increased, something that Mircea Dihel, general manager of OTP Leasing, has noticed.
"The clients with cars find it harder to pay their instalments. Whereas normally they would be 9 or 10 days late, now they are as late as 15 or 16 days," Dihel says.
Over the coming months, the clients of leasing companies will have to bear new interest rate increases. Whereas it stood at about 7% for euros on average at the beginning of the year, the interest rate is now above 9% and will reach 10-11% at the end of December, company officials say.
The clients that can no longer pay their instalments on their cars will see the leasing company repossess their car and they will also lose the down payment and the instalments they had paid up until that point.
In general it is about individuals with average incomes, who leased moderately expensive cars and whose budget was severely hit by the increase in interest rates and in the increase in daily expenses in general, as well as by the variations of the RON/EUR exchange rate.
"Cars returning to leasing companies are generally low-value vehicles, of 8,000-10,000 euros because the current situation on the market has, in particular, thrown family budgets off balance. Expensive cars rarely return to leasing companies because these clients cannot afford to lose their down payment and seek to turn over the leasing contract to somebody else. The problems occur with users of cheap cars, because it is hard to sell a cheap, one or two-year old car than it is a luxury vehicle. Luxury is always the last to react to the effects of the crisis," Postelnicu feels.
It is also noticeable that the number of leased cars with 'for sale' signs on their windows on the streets of Bucharest has increased over the last few months.
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