DealerDeals use a large number of funders and some have changed their policies only to take proposals from businesses whilst other take them from consumers only.

Lloyds said that they would only take business proposals but businesses apply to sole traders, partnerships and limited companies. On the face of it one might assume that the lender was trying to avoid contracts that fell within the consumer credit act, however, sole traders and some partnerships fall within the act so it would seem that this wasn't the reason for coming to this decision.

I believe that it was done because statistics show that consumers are far more likely to go into arrears or default, hence the reason for removing them out of the equation. Some manufacturer's own funders will only offer contract hire to business users through brokers as they want to make sure that retail customers visit their showrooms.

Mercedes Benz and Audi often offer better deals to consumers than businesses so the answer is to use a broker such as myself to find the best deal to suit your circumstances. Finally, when our list shows businesses only it means at that rate is available to businesses only, we can still provide deals to consumers but the rate may be a little more expensive.