What happens at the end of a PCP agreement?

You normally choose between paying the final amount to keep the car, handing it back subject to the agreement, or using any available equity toward another finance deal.

In relation to “What happens at the end of a PCP agreement?”, a finance decision can look cheap month to month while being expensive overall; compare the whole contract rather than one advertised figure.

For “What happens at the end of a PCP agreement?”, read the agreement for the cash price, deposit, total amount payable, optional final payment, mileage allowance and return conditions. The monthly payment alone does not show the whole cost.

For “What happens at the end of a PCP agreement?”, before the final month, ask for the settlement position, return process and inspection standard so you have time to deal with damage, mileage or missing items.

For “What happens at the end of a PCP agreement?”, this answer is written for a Northern Ireland user, but some vehicle-registration, consumer-credit and insurance functions operate on a UK-wide basis. The attached sources — MoneyHelper - Personal Contract Purchase (PCP), MoneyHelper - Buying a car with Hire Purchase, and nidirect - Contact Consumerline — are therefore deliberately mixed where the responsible authority is UK-wide. That is more accurate than forcing every point into an NI-only source.

Practical next step for “What happens at the end of a PCP agreement?”: open the finance agreement and find the figures or clause relevant to this question. If you are changing or ending the agreement, request the current position directly from the finance provider before promising the car to anyone else.