Initial Disclosure Document
Information about us
Our company
The Electric Car Scheme is the trading style of The Electric Car Scheme Limited (company number 12646157, ICO number ZB030706), The Electric Car Scheme Holdings Limited (company number 13295877, ICO number ZB252629) and ECS M/G Ltd (company number 13292245). Our registered address is The Shipping Building, 254 Blyth Road, UB3 1HA.
The Electric Car Scheme Holdings Limited is a member of the British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Association (BVRLA) (member 10608), is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under FRN 968270, and is an Appointed Representative of Marshall Management Services Ltd under FRN 667174. Our permitted business under our FCA regulation is credit broking. It is important to state that we are a credit broker and not a lender or insurer.
Our services
We provide services as an introducer, credit broker and salary sacrifice administrator. This means that we can arrange vehicle finance for you with selected third parties (through The Electric Car Scheme Holdings Limited) and manage the administration of salary sacrifice schemes for employers (through The Electric Car Scheme Limited). We are not a lender, finance provider or insurer, and we offer a ‘non-advised’ level of service.
Our team of dedicated vehicle finance specialists are trained to guide you through the vehicle finance process and help you make an informed decision. While we are here to help, our team does not offer advice or recommendations, which means that you are responsible for choosing the right vehicle and vehicle finance product to meet your needs. We will assist in this process by conducting a short questionnaire to understand your specific requirements in the form of a decision tree / fact find. We will also point out important pieces of information throughout the process so please read these as they are made available.
Our vehicle finance offering
There are a number of ways to finance a new vehicle in the UK and the right product for you depends on your unique requirements.
We specialise in arranging business contract hire (BCH) agreements for our customers. BCH agreements are suitable for business customers who want to pay a fixed rental for the usage of a new vehicle over a defined period. We typically arrange long term hire agreements (also known as vehicle leases), and at the end of the lease the customer will take out another lease on a new vehicle.
Customers are able to tailor leases to suit their requirements, for example choosing the annual mileage, lease term and payment profile. We also arrange subscription agreements for customers, which offer a shorter term and more flexibility.
Please note that we do not offer conditional sales or purchase contracts such as personal contract purchase (PCP) agreements, hire purchase (HP) agreements or traditional loans.
Our fees & commission
If you decide to order a vehicle with us, you will complete an order form, which will be accompanied by our Information Notice (and this Initial Disclosure Document). Our Information Notice clearly sets out the fees and commission that apply based on the services we provide, and is also found in the footer of our website.
What fees do we charge for salary sacrifice administrations?
We provide services for the administration of your salary sacrifice employee benefit through The Electric Car Scheme Limited.
In this role, we charge companies a fee based on the employer tax savings. This fee is set out clearly in our administration services agreement and is confirmed in a schedule at the point of order for each vehicle.
What fees do we charge for credit broking?
We may also provide you with a credit broking service through The Electric Car Scheme Holdings Limited (and this will be noted on your order form). In this role, we introduce you to a number of finance providers to organise the funding of your vehicle lease. If you would like to know more details about the finance companies that we work with, please see our ‘Our Partners’ page on our website or email us at info@electriccarscheme.com.
We may charge an administration fee in connection with our credit broking and car sourcing activities (and this will be noted on your order form). We will also receive commission from your finance provider for introducing you to them, which is shared with our partner Marshall Management Services Ltd.
All finance providers set their own policies regarding commission and typically the amount will be capped at a percentage of the tax list price (P11D value) of the vehicle. The commission we receive is calculated based on the P11D value of the car (and is typically 2% of the P11D value of the car), as well as a risk premium for leases with a higher risk profile. We may also receive an extra amount based on how much business we introduce and there is often a requirement to achieve certain levels of quality and service. The higher the amount of commission, the more you will pay to hire your vehicle.
This commission goes towards the cost of providing our services to you - including the sourcing of vehicles, sourcing of finance, administration of the salary sacrifice scheme, providing access to our online portal and employer toolkit, as well as providing the risk protection service to you and your employees.
Other useful information
Data privacy and your personal information
As we arrange your finance with the finance company, certain personal information relating to your application will be disclosed to companies that require the information and have good reason to know in connection with your vehicle finance application. This may include our partner Marshall Management Services Ltd, any joint applicant, any person consenting to the credit search, the signatory of the company, the selected finance company, the selected supplying dealership or any third party to whom we must give the information (such as fraud prevention agencies or credit check companies via the finance company).
For more details on how we (and our partners) may use your personal information, please see our Privacy Notice (also found in the footer of our website).
Credit reference agencies
All applications are subject to status and therefore, as part of the application, a finance provider may obtain information about you from credit reference agencies or their group records to check your credit status and identity. The credit reference agencies will record the enquiry, and, in some cases, this can affect your ability to obtain credit elsewhere in the near future. The finance provider may use income verification and credit scoring to assess your credit application. When you have provided your finance application it will be assessed using credit reference agency records relating to anyone with whom you have a joint account or similar financial association. If this is a joint application and such a link does not already exist, then one may be created during this application.
Fraud prevention agencies
In order to prevent and detect fraud, the information provided in your vehicle finance application will be shared with fraud prevention agencies. If false or inaccurate information is provided and fraud is identified or suspected, details may be recorded with these agencies to prevent fraud and money laundering.
Making a complaint
We are committed to providing the best possible service for our customers. Whilst we operate a continuous improvement culture, we are conscious that things do go wrong from time to time. Please see our Complaints process for more information (also found in the footer of our website).
Please note that any calls made to our company may be recorded for training & monitoring purposes