A personal contract purchase (PCP) is a flexible way to finance a car. It’s a loan that typically offers lower monthly payments than other financing options like personal loans or hire purchases. This is because you don’t have to pay the full value of the car unless you’d like to own it. At the end of the agreement, you’ll only own the car if you make an optional final payment, also often called a balloon payment. Similar to hire purchases, even if you choose to return the car, you’ll pay interest on the full value of the car minus your deposit.

We'll agree a mileage limit with you based on how many miles you expect to drive for the duration of the PCP agreement. If you go over the limit, you’ll need to pay an excess mileage fee when the agreement ends.

You’ll have three options to consider at the end of the agreement, which is helpful if your circumstances change:

• Pay the final payment to own the car outright

• Part exchange the car for a new one with a new PCP agreement

• Hand the car back to us

Example

1. You’d like to finance a £10,000 car over three years with PCP. You plan to drive a total of 30,000 miles over the course of the agreement, so Zopa guarantees that the car will be worth at least £4,000 after 3 years and sets this as the optional final payment.

2. You decide to put down a 10% deposit (£1,000) and finance the rest (£9,000).

3. Since it's been agreed that the car will be worth £4,000 at the end, you’re only required to repay £5,000 (plus the interest on the entire £9,000) over the 3-year period.

4. At the end of the agreement, if you’d like to keep the car you can pay the optional final payment of £4,000. If you don’t want to keep the car, you can hand it back and take out a new PCP agreement, or just hand it back and take no further action.