With a reported 50% of motorists unable to pay a £500 repair bill and 83% a bill for £1,000, resulting in dealerships only selling half of identified repair work, a solution that tackles this for dealers and consumers is bound to have an impact.

The Auto Service Finance (ASF) solution is to allow the cost of repairs to be spread over monthly payments, interest-free.

Now, it claims to be working with nearly 2,000 dealerships and almost 10,000 service advisers. The best performing workshops are processing up to 100 transactions a month through ASF and its new-for-2019 business-to-consumer product and 90% of Audi dealerships are now signed up and promoting the consumer proposition.

The customer can complete the application away from the dealership, removing the need to communicate with a service adviser. They can search for ASF-approved dealerships on the ASF website, through which they can contact them and book servicing and repairs. This has led to more than 3,000 searches, 123 applications and almost £100,000-worth of repair work in the first 10 months since launch.

It saves the dealer time, helps reduce pressure during bottlenecks when customers drop off or collect cars, or when a car is on the ramp, work has been identified and a customer needs to authorise the work. There is also the saving of a 2% card processing fee.

“Since launching our B2C product we have seen existing customers’ loans increase as a proportion to our overall loans from less than 10% to 18%. They now contribute nearly £500,000 a month, up from just less than £300,000. Over the next 12 months we expect this product to generate an additional £3 million in transactions,” said ASF.

Plus in the summer ASF launched an online payment portal allowing customers to buy accessories such as paint protection, GAP insurance and pay a deposit for a car purchase. 

Highly commended: Arena Group’s mstore for Automotive, Cazana’s Companion, GForces’ NetDirector Auto-e

Finalists: Arena Group’s mstore for Automotive, Auto Service Finance’s Online Payment Portal, BCA’s Buyer App, Cazana’s Companion, Click Dealer’s ClickEngage, Dealtrak’s compliance module, GForces’ NetDirector Auto-e, Santander Consumer Finance’s Apply Online, The Motorists Organistion’s SecretService