This is probably the first time I’ve had anyone get back to me with a success story about their experience assuming a lease. You can find the full story, along with a picture of the ride over at RIDE with G’s Facebook Page. Here are the details of the post made by Jennifer.
Hey, there G… Your site is invaluable to lease lovers like myself. I recently got a sweet deal on a lease assumption through swapalease.com on a 2008 BMW 335i convertible. I think swapalease.com only charged me like ~$30 to get details on the “seller.” The car had 14K miles on it; I got the balance of the 36 mo/36K m…ile lease through BMWFS, expires in April 2011. Monthly payment was $888 but seller gave a $4000 incentive, essentially knocking the payment down to about $688/mo. Plus I got a mini-vacation to Las Vegas to pick up my new ride that is loaded with auto, premium pkg, sport pkg, cold-weather pkg, & idrive.
Special thanks to Jennifer for getting back to me with some feedback about her leasing experience. I think she got a pretty good deal out of it, specially with the extra $4000 incentive that came along with the car, making the payments MUCH lower. This 335 convertible is loaded with tons of options. Me like!
The lesson of this story is simple, if you can’t get the deal you want on a brand new car, head over to SwapALease.com or LeaseTrader.com and browse through their inventory of slightly used ones to see if anything peeks your interest. Keep an eye out for offers that have cash incentives to help lower the price of the car.
Been looking at swap-a-lease and leasetrader for a while. Most of the cars listed have horrible lease terms, and the ones that are good are already “in-process” of being transferred.
@zamo. I think you got a point there. Jennifer’s deal looks good because of the $4000 incentive. Without it, it would clearly be a scary lease to get into. I think the majority of the people who go to swap-a-lease or lease trader these days got totally creamed on their lease deal because they where a) uninformed b) inexperienced c) job loss d) all of the above. So unless people looking for a way out of their contract throw some cash at it, the deals are gonna be pretty bad. Of course, there will always be that one ride that just looks and is a great deal. Just gotta dig through it.
G –
I “Lease Traded” my 2007 BMW X5 4.8 back in January 2009. I tried leasetrader.com for a few months- no bites. I put it on craigslist (north jersey) and within a few days I had a local buyer and with BMW it took another two weeks to complete. To me the specialty sites are too much fluff, craigs list was a free listing and worked out just fine.
If I assume a leasing Illinois I am essentially buying a used car which means sales tax as well. Someone I suppose has to come up with a purchase price — who does that on an assumption?
a short lease still means paying a full load of sales tax. The terms would have to be way better than jennifers to make sense to me. Many of the published lease assumptions defy logic. 3 year old suv’s for 850 per on 60 month leases. What gives with that?
DZ, I think in your case, assuming a lease wouldn’t make any sense. I think folks from TX and MD suffer the same fate too. I don’t know people lease beyond the 36-48 month term, I blame ignorance and poor research.
Hey G, I got a success story from Swapalease as well. I will send you the info in a few days. I assumed the lease on a 2008 G37 couldnt be happier.
Ashe
sweet! looking forward to it! I think assuming leases is a tricky business really. But I certainly believe that there are solid deals to be head out there.
I am on my 4 th car thru Swapalease. A4 with all maintenance & tires paid for & 2100 miles per month for $500/- Viva La Swapalease..!!!
I think leasetrader and swapalease are definitely for those who have time to shop around for the right deal. They are both very similar in nature. You buy a subscription for 30-days in order to get the contact information of the party wanting to swap up. I definitely don’t think this is for everyone, but there really aren’t any other costs involved with these services. You may have to pay to the bank to complete the swap, but other than that, I don’t see that big of a deal. I sure beats paying the bank fee, doc fee, tags, registration, etc…associated with leasing a new car. I will have Ashe’s swapalease success story for you guys later this week along with some more info regarding December leases and potential deals. Stay tuned.
I looked into Leasetrader – but they require a “subscription” to even contact the seller. Totally ridiculous, I’m not going to pay $40 to enroll – what happens if the car is no longer available?
I’m guessing the seller has already paid to list their car – what a stupid setup to force buyers to pay up as well. Anybody know if the other lease trading sites require up-front fees from the buyer?
Swapalease is a Scam
I’m setting up this blog as a service to anyone interested in using Swapalease.com to exit their current car lease. I’m also interested in anyone that has had similar problems with Swapalease. My issue with Swapalease arises from the listing of my vehicle in their New Lease Program. The New Lease Program is a service that Swapalease offers for people wishing to exit a lease that does not permit straight lease transfers. The service involves buying out the current lease then creating a new lease for the vehicle under new terms. Note that this is not done until after a new lessee is found by listing the car on the Swapalease network. The problem is that Swapalease controls the terms of the new lease that is listed for the vehicle. They can adjust them at any time as they see fit, even if this negatively affects your listing. They claim that market conditions affect the lease terms. That makes sense to a degree. But in my case they jacked up the monthly payment listed for the terms of my vehicle by more than $40 shortly after my listing. They initially admitted that a flaw in their new system was to blame for this increase. Well, after several months of complaining about the change in terms they did nothing to correct it and they refused to refund my money. I’m still waiting for them to enlighten me on what market conditions could possibly cause such a change in the lease terms they listed for my vehicle. Since August 2008 when I listed my car with Swapalease the current buyout is $1500 less due to the lease payments I continue to make, there are 2000 more miles on the vehicle, interest rates have steadily dropped, and new car prices have been slashed due to the recession. How can Swapalease possibly contend my vehicle has risen in value? Who would lease a three year old car for more money than they could a brand new one of the same make and model? It makes absolutely no sense. I will continue to update this blog periodically as I continue to press Swapalease for a resolution. Click here read the report Rip off Report I submitted on my experience with Swapalease: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/406/ripoff0406240.htm
Hey Mike. Thanks for you sharing you insights on your experience. There are a couple things I’d like to address on your post and blog if I may…
First thing, I think everyone should be aware that the BBB is worthless. Some years ago, I started a business with some friends and as soon as my business was registered, I began receiving phone calls from the BBB soliciting my business to become a member. Long story short, BBB gets paid a “membership” fee from companies they solicit. They aren’t really mediators and they will be VERY unlikely to stick their necks out for you when they are padding their pockets with money from businesses you are complaining about. Ironically, the BBB itself (in my opinion anyway) is a scam, so don’t waste your breath or your time with them. Best way to file a complaint? Contact some consumer watchdog (BBB isn’t one in my opinion) group and band together with people who have similar experiences.
Regarding swapalease, based on your explanation of your experience, I find a couple things that may be causing the most of the problem for you. Whenever you “buyout” a lease, the original term of the lease pretty much ends. Therefore, to re-lease the vehicle again, they have to reestablish new terms on the lease, but as an used car (which means higher money factors will be used). This may be the reason why the terms are different than the original. Realistically speaking, there isn’t a way you can buyout a lease and retain the same terms you originally had because those terms where established back in 2008. Market conditions have changed, residual values have dropped since 2008 (even on brand new cars), so I’m not at all surprised in the bump in payments. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be upset, but I do not see this as “scam”.
BEWARE of SWAPALEASE.COM,
You can’t believe everything you read or that you are told, I had a bad experience with them.
Not very helpful when it comes to issues, They keep transferring me to a voicemail box, I’m still waiting for a response by telephone!
@morgan. sorry to hear about your problems with them. I think that’s probably my number one fear with doing business with online companies. I always worry that my inquiries and requests disappear into a black hole known as their voicemail. Haahaa. Definitely keep hammering them to get back to you. This should definitely be something for folks to consider when deciding to do business with these types of services. It can work, as some readers have pointed out, but it can also be frustrating when issues arise.
@G I understand the terms of a new lease can’t retain the terms of the old lease. That isn’t my beef. I understand this isn’t a transfer of my old lease. It is their new lease program for leases that can’t be transferred. My complaint is the promises they made when selling me on listing with them as a new lease. They told me what the terms of the new lease would be for the listing when I signed the contract then less than a month later they changed those terms by raising the monthly payment significantly. When I paid for the listing Swapalease set the terms for the new lease at $380 for 36 months. A month later they changed the listing to $419 for 36 months. I was told as I made more payments on my exsting lease the terms of the new lease would go down, not up. It took me 9 months of complaining before they finally made a reasonable adjustment to the new lease terms of my listing. And this was after they admitted three different times that their system was not calculating new lease terms correctly. And the system is still not right as it does not recalculate terms monthly as it is supposed to.
@mike. i see, in that case, I will have to agree with you on this. That was a pretty scammy thing to do on their part. I personally would not recommend using that program due to the way they calculate the lease payments. Everyone should avoid that new lease program like the plague.
The service issues that prompted my postings concerning Swapalease.com have been fully resolved. I commend Swapalease for taking the necessary actions to resolve my service complaints.
I know several people who have used Swapalease.com to get out of their leases and they told me it was fast, easy and it saved them thousands.
Nicholas
-Hyde Park
I gave Swap A Lease $150 for the application fee and was denied the next day. I have yet to receive anything from the bank that denied me. Also, I have checked my credit history and nothing comes up from this bank. Wondering if I just got scammed out of $150.
Amy, how long ago was this? Also, did you get a letter from the bank denying you? or did Swap a Lease deny you? Last question, how did you pay this fee? If it’s with a Credit Card, you might be able to dispute it.
I paid three hundred dollars to list my 2009 Nissan 370z with Swap a Lease. I may as well have just thrown the money out the window. They assured me within a few weeks I’d have multiple offers but after 3 months I’ve had not a single inquiry much less an offer. If this site is not an outright rip off and the very best it’s overpriced and completely ineffective.
I’ve shopped on swap-a-lease and leasetrader and have rarely come across a good deal. A large portion of the vehicles listed have monthly rates that are not very good (it looks like many didn’t negotiate a good lease deal and are looking to have someone else assume their mistake). The few good ones I came across always reflected a “swap pending” or something like that. I’m curious whether there are many success stories or whether they are few and far between.