Microsite Alphabet Partner: FAQs

A pre-registered vehicle can be quoted as new as long as the vehicle is less than 3 months old at the date of delivery.

We will apply a minimum of a 5% RV reduction to any vehicle delivered beyond this time. This amendment will happen as we set a contract live with shortfall being deducted from commission.

Please note that it’s possible that a cooling off period will delay delivery beyond 3 months from registration. If this is the case the RV reduction will still apply.

Please refer to the Partner support team or your RDM if you wish to know the rental impact in advance

Quarterly or Annual in Advance payment profiles are available, however these cannot be quoted via icon and a manual quotation should be requested via RDM.

Quotes are valid for 28 days from production.  This includes quotes generated via the deal selector. In all cases quotes need to be saved to the ‘leads’ area of icon.

The minimum contract mileage is 6,000 miles per annum and the maximum is 50,000 miles per annum.  The total contract mileage allowable is 150,000 miles.

The minimum contract length is 24 months and the maximum is 60 months.  Vehicles originally contracted for period of less than 60 months can be extended to this maximum period.

If you require an amendment against a proposal which has been approved by underwriting ( for example the OTR / remove / include maintenance or change of vehicle ) you will need to submit a new quote and proposal through icon.

Please add notes on the new proposal to underwriting detailing the  changes you have made and which proposal number this will be replacing, for example (12568).

You will then be required to set the previous proposal to Not Taken Up (NTU). If unsure how to do this, please contact the Support team.

Yes a contract can be extended to a maximum contract length of 5 years.  This can be combined with contract re-schedule as well.

Alphabet's approach towards early termination of Contract Hire agreements is to ensure that the process adopted does not become a means of achieving profit from the customer. When a vehicle needs to be terminated early, it is generally due to unforeseen circumstances and we will always provide as cost effective a solution as possible.  The way in which Alphabet administer this process is through an open calculation method on an 'Actual Cost' basis.

By using an ‘Actual Cost’ calculation Alphabet’s termination mechanism is not penal – it simply serves to ‘balance the books’ as if the actual term had been specified at the outset, but using the actual market value rather than a predicted residual value. The process adopted is to re-write the contract over the shorter term and to the actual mileage run, re-establish the residual value to the actual market value and having established a new rental, off-set it against the rentals already paid to identify the final charge if applicable.

12 Month Example:

The methodology is as follows - assuming termination after 12 months and 12,000 miles of a vehicle that was originally on a 36 x 36,000 contract:

Rentals charged to date (original contract)           = 12 x £278.00 = £3,336

Total Rentals due (revised contract)                        = 12 x £357.00 = £4,284

Termination charge                                                     = £4,284 - £3,336 = £948.00

24 Month Example:

The methodology is as follows - assuming termination after 24 months and 24,000 miles of a vehicle that was originally on a 36 x 36,000 contract:

Rentals charged to date (original contract)           = 24 x £278.00 = £6,672

Total Rentals due (revised contract)                        = 24 x £293.00 = £7,032

Termination charge                                                     = £7,032 - £6,672 = £360.00

Yes, contract mileage can be increased or decreased providing there are more than 3 rentals remaining on the contract.

Via Alphabet Partner the following funding products are available:

• Business Contract Hire
• Business Contract Purchase (unregulated)
• Finance Lease
• Personal Contract Hire

Maintenance can be added to all funding products including finance lease.

Maintenance can be added to a ‘live’ contract in some circumstances. Generally, the following will apply:

• Within 6 months of start date - pricing will be calculated
• 6 months to 1 year - approval required from Asset Risk 
• 12 months or more - unlikely to approve

 Please contact the Alphabet Partner Team for more information.

We would request the following information from the insurer, as well as a copy of the incident report if possible:

• Registration: 
• Current or last known mileage:
• Date of incident:
• Type of incident:
• Tel/email for primary contact:
• Tel/email for Insurance Company:
• Insurance reference number:

We would then calculate an all-inclusive settlement figure, which we would issue to the insurer alongside a request for our vehicle admin team to send a copy of the V5.

We then come across 2 situations,

1. The insurer agrees to the figure and sends across payment either via cheque or BACS payment. This is then allocated to the vehicle, which is then cleared down off the system and any invoices raised.

2. If the insurer does not agree with our evaluation they normally contact us to ask for a breakdown of how we have reached our figure. If an agreement cannot be reached we would then advise the insurer that in the instance of any shortfall that we write a letter to the insured advising them of what has happened including a breakdown of the figures. At this point we give the customer 14 days or more if required to discuss this figure with the insurer.

However, this is only completed if the shortfall is not a policy excess amount for example 250, 500, 750 etc, it is common practice for the insurers to notify us of this via email or on the cheque they send.

Prior to submitting a customer credit proposal on icon, you must read or have sent the customer the Privacy Policy and agreed that they have seen a Fair Processing Notice which complies with Alphabet's requirements. 

You cannot progress to Application stage until this has been confirmed in icon.

The credit risk is determined by the value of the asset.  As payments are made by the customer the outstanding balance is reduced, creating more headroom.

If a customer would like further information on a credit decision, please refer them to Experian.  The website address is www.experian.com.

Please e-mail the request to the Partner support team.  They will require the full name, address, contact name, contact telephone number and e-mail address for the new supplier.  They will also require full bank details for the new supplier submitted on their company letterhead paper.

All invoices should be addressed to:

Alphabet (GB) Limited
Alphabet House
Summit Avenue
Farnborough
GU14 0FB

All vehicles, excluding (Northern Ireland) should be registered to:

Alphabet (GB) Limited (037886)
PO Box 1295
Boongate
Peterborough
PE1 9QW

Vehicles in Northern Ireland should be registered to:

Alphabet GB (021179)
The Mount Business & Conference Centre
2 Woodstock Link
Belfast
BT6 8DD

A novation is when a contract is replaced with a new contract, for example if the current hirer no longer requires the vehicle, or is no longer in a position to continue the lease, it is possible to transfer the agreement to a new hirer. If the legal entity of the current hirer changes then a new agreement with the new entity will need to replace the existing contract. In both instances, a credit check of the new hirer will need to be carried out prior to the transfer.

Any Public or Private, Limited or Unlimited Company or Large Partnership (Li+ Partners) can novate to another of these entities.

We are unable to novate to or from any agreements that are between us and a Private Individual, Sole Trader or Small Partnership (3 or less partners) due to regulations in place by the FCA.

We are unable to novate from a business lease to a personal lease.

• 1 vehicle £250+ VAT
• 2+ vehicles £25 + VAT per additional vehicle

This administration fee covers costs involved with the credit check and transfer of agreements.

The process typically takes between Li - 6 weeks to complete.

Novating an agreement to a new business involves a credit check - we need to ensure that we are lending responsibly and will therefore need to see the current financial position of the proposed new hirer.

Either the latest full set of accounts, or in the case of a new business where accounts are yet to be filed, an opening balance sheet which details the profit & loss, assets & liabilities of the business. We will require an opening balance sheet as a minimum in order to proceed. Any trading business should be able to provide a balance sheet; your accountant should be able to produce this for you. Bank statements can be accepted as supporting information along with the above.

We require the name, date of birth and home address of the director of the new business in order to carry out anti­ fraud checks. This is to protect your business as well as ours. We may also need these details if a Director's Guarantee is required.

As the business is changing from a Partnership to a Company it will be a new, separate legal entity and as such we will need to enter into an agreement with the new entity.

We can accept any handover form that carries all the information we need:

• Delivery mileage
• Condition of vehicle
• Delivery address
• Full name of who signed for the vehicle (A letter or email of authority is also required if this person is not the customer or their authorised signatory)
• Signed and dated by the customer and driver

The cooling off period for a PCH Agreement will vary depending on whether the Agreement is signed on or off the trade premises – the trade premises is described as the Partner’s Premises.  

• If the Agreement is signed on the trade premises, a non-cancellable document will be generated and there is no cooling off period.

• If the Agreement is not signed on the trade premises, icon will ask when the contracts will be signed. A 14 day cooling period will commence from the day after the signing date and no documents will be able to be pushed through during this time.  

As such we are unable to pay out during the 14 days between when the customer signs and the end of the cooling off period. For example: the signing date is input as the 10th of the month, so icon will allow upload and review of documents from the 25th of the month.