Swapalease Reviews: In this article and video review I am going to share my experience with taking over a lease on swapalease.com. This was my first experience with a lease take over. Although I do have above average experience with leasing from my time as a Mercedes-Benz car salesman.
I’m going to cover the good and bad from a high level. If you have any questions about taking over a lease with swap a lease or anywhere else (like lease trader) feel free to reach out to me at manny@notwaitingtolive.com. If you’re also considering a traditional new car lease make sure to watch my most popular video on YouTube: “How to Best Negotiate a New Car Lease in 4 Steps”. When is the best time to buy a car? Timing your visit to the dealership has a major impact on sale price as explained in my write up on the “Best Time to Buy a Car”.
The Good Part of a Lease Take Over
There aren’t many swapalease reviews floating around on the Internet. Swapalease worked well as a quick(ish) fix for me (I’ll explain the bad part later). I daily drive a 1994 Jeep Wrangler YJ and the transmission broke right before winter a couple years ago. I needed a car fast but I didn’t want to make a long term commitment to another car.
On their site, you can see a diverse inventory of available lease takeovers ranging from low end to luxury options. The same day I was able to find a 2015 Ford Focus about an hour away for $230/month with 15 months remaining on the lease. The remaining mileage, monthly price, and turn-in date were all accurate, as listed on the swapalease.com.
Finishing out the remaining lease was uneventful. I had no mechanical issues or technical issues with Ford Motor Credit.
About a month before the end of the lease, Ford Motor Credit contracted a company called Alliance Inspection Management schedule an inspection with me. They came to my house a week later and assessed the car in my driveway in less than an hour. They gave me a copy of the report which showed no surprise “wear and tear” fees which was a relief. In any case, having the inspection done weeks before the actual lease turn in is a testament to good customer service from Ford. I appreciate having the opportunity to dispute unfair charges in advance (even though I didn’t have to).
The math for the whole process was simple: Monthly Payment x Months Remaining = Total Balance Due. I also was billed after lease turn in for excess mileage at $0.15/mile (which is a standard rate across car manufacturers).
Some good (and bad) swapalease reviews can be found on yelp.
The Bad Part of a Lease Take Over
Swapalease.com plays almost no role in this process besides hosting the listing for the lease take over. It’s worth your time to check out the Better Business Bureau site for negative swapalease reviews.
They appear to operate as a Craigslist of sorts for car leasing. The person listing the lease and the person taking over the lease must work together and with the leasing company (in my case Ford Motor Credit). The person taking over the lease must transfer personal application information through the person listing the lease in order to be approved by the leasing company (which takes a background role in this process).
The lease paperwork took 3-4 weeks to transfer which was much longer than I expected. I went to swap a lease for a quick fix. What I ended up doing was finding the buyer terms I wanted immediately, but then renting a car for almost a month before the paperwork cleared.
I had to trust the seller at their word, and it worked out for me. But swapalease wasn’t there to provide a safety net. The seller showed me a snapchat video walk around of the car to confirm mileage and condition. I can imagine situations where someone taking over the lease inherits pre-existing damage they weren’t expecting to pay for, so pay close attention to what you’re committing to if you use swapalease or leasetrader.com.
Also to note, I received no clarification to whether or not I would be charged a lease turn in fee. Often lease contracts have a condition that if a person doesn’t lease again from the same dealer, they will pay a fee of several hundred dollars or more. Fortunately in the end I did not get charged a lease turn in fee, but if you’re considering taking over someone else’s lease, keep your eye out for this small detail which can cost you hundreds of dollars extra at the end.
Check out reddit for other Lease Trader or swapalease reviews.