Ferrari Refinance

Where a Ferrari is owned outright, a lender can advance against it and take security over the vehicle. You keep the car, you drive it exactly as before, and the capital is released to you or into the business. Equity release against a car is the plainest description of it, and refinance is what the car finance industry calls it.

Directors use it for working capital, for the deposit on the next car, to settle a more expensive agreement, or to take money out of an asset that has been sitting still and appreciating quietly in a garage. It is the one entry on our list of Ferrari finance options that does not begin with buying a car.

The arithmetic is the same as any other Ferrari finance. An advance of £120,000 over 48 months at an indicative nominal rate of 8.9 per cent produces monthly payments of £2,981. An advance of £200,000 on the same terms costs £4,968 a month. Our commercial lending starts at £25,000, which over 48 months at the same rate is £621 a month, and the advance is set against what the Ferrari is worth today rather than against what it cost.

We arrange the finance and we do not lend. Cases start at £25,000 and are placed with lenders who fund cars of this value as a matter of routine.

Worked example

Refinance on a Ferrari 296 GTB

Car: Ferrari 296 GTB
List price: £241,560
Deposit at 20%: £48,312
Term: 48 months
Indicative nominal rate: 8.9%
Deferred final payment: £132,858
Monthly payment: £2,485

Arithmetic, not an offer, and no lender has seen your case. Computed from the list price using the same calculation as every other figure on this site. Change the deposit, the term or the rate and the payment changes with them.

What a lender will advance against a Ferrari you already own

A percentage of what the car would sell for today, not a percentage of what you paid for it. On a Ferrari that has appreciated, and there are plenty of them, the advance can be considerably more than the owner expects. The percentage itself depends on the model, the market and the business behind the application, because the lender wants the monthly payments serviced from trading income rather than to end up selling a supercar it never wanted. Expect the conversation to cover the company accounts and the credit position of the directors as closely as it covers the car, because the credit file and the financial strength of the business set the advance almost as much as the valuation does. On a car worth £200,000 the advance is a six figure sum by arithmetic alone, long before anyone argues about the percentage.

Getting the valuation right before you ask for equity release

This is the entire negotiation. A Ferrari with a documented history, the original specification, a complete service record and a known ownership record values higher than the same model without any of that, and the gap between the two is often larger than any rate difference you could negotiate. Bring the paperwork to the first conversation rather than the third. Photographs, the service book, invoices for recent work, the original options list and any period documentation all move the number. The advance follows the valuation, so an hour spent on the file is usually worth more than a week spent shopping around for finance deals. Most guides to car finance tell you to negotiate the rate. On a refinance, negotiate the valuation.

Refinancing the balloon payment at the end of an agreement

The commonest refinance we arrange is not equity release at all. It is a balloon payment falling due at the end of a lease purchase, where the owner wants to keep the Ferrari and would rather not write a cheque for £132,858. Refinancing that balloon payment across a new term turns one large payment into a fresh run of monthly payments, and it is ordinary rather than a sign that anything has gone wrong. Start it two or three months before the finance ends. Left to the final fortnight it becomes a rush, and a rushed application is a more expensive application every time.

Equity release on classic and collector Ferrari models

This is where refinance earns its place. On a classic car the owner is already holding an appreciating asset and simply wants to use some of the value inside it without a sale. No manufacturer scheme will do this and most high street credit will not touch it, because the security is a car rather than a building. Specialist lenders will, and they price the finance against a considered market valuation. A Ferrari F355, a Ferrari 550 Maranello or a Ferrari Testarossa can all support real capital, and the classic car stays in your garage and on your insurance throughout the term.

What the released capital is normally used for

Working capital, most often. After that, the deposit on the next car, which is why refinance and lease purchase are so frequently arranged as one piece of work. Clearing a more expensive agreement is the third. Occasionally it is a tax bill, a property completion or a stock purchase that has to happen this month rather than next. The lender will ask what the money is for and there is no wrong answer, but there is a right way to give it: a clear commercial purpose, on a business that can service the payments from trading, gets better finance and cheaper credit than a vague one does. Financing working capital against a car you already own is also usually quicker than financing it against anything else you own.

What a Ferrari refinance costs, and how it compares

The rate on a refinance is usually a little above the rate on a purchase agreement, because the lender is advancing against an asset it did not select and cannot inspect on a forecourt. Against that, there is no deposit to find. On a £150,000 advance over 48 months at 8.9 per cent the monthly payments are £3,726. Set that against a sale: selling a Ferrari Roma bought at £199,355 releases more cash, and it also ends with no car. Refinance is the option that keeps the asset, and that is the entire case for it. It is a strong case when the asset is appreciating and a weak one when it is not.

Refinance compared with hire purchase and lease purchase

Hire purchase and lease purchase are car finance for a car you do not yet have. Refinance is finance against a car you already hold. The three sit side by side more often than people expect: a director refinances an owned Ferrari to raise the deposit, then takes hire purchase or lease purchase on the new one, and ends up running two agreements against two cars from one conversation. The security position differs too. Under hire purchase the lender holds title until the final payment. Under a personal contract purchase the same is true. Under a refinance you keep title and the lender registers its interest against the vehicle instead.

What we need to see before we can quote on a refinance

The car and the company. On the car: model, year, mileage, specification, service history and how long you have owned it. On the company: the last two sets of filed accounts, recent management figures if the filed set is stale, and a note of any existing finance. Nobody needs a formal valuation to start, because the first conversation is about whether the numbers work at all. On a strong file we can tell you the likely shape of an advance quickly, and we would rather say it does not work than run you through a car finance application that was never going to complete.

Which Ferrari models we arrange refinance on

More Ferrari models than any other type of finance on this site covers, because the car already exists and a lender is valuing it rather than forecasting it. Current models are straightforward: a Ferrari Purosangue at £398,000 or a Ferrari 12Cilindri at £335,000 needs very little argument. So do the models a step back from current, and financing a Ferrari 488 GTB or a Ferrari F12berlinetta against its own value is ordinary work. Older models are where the valuation matters more, and classic cars are where it matters most. If you own the Ferrari outright there are few models we cannot raise car finance against, and the list a lender will refuse is far shorter than the list a leasing company will refuse.

How Ferrari refinance deals should be compared

On four things. The advance, because a lender offering £20,000 more at a slightly worse rate is usually the better deal. The rate. The fees, which on secured car finance can be meaningful. And the early settlement terms, because a refinance is often repaid before the term ends. Ferrari finance deals are quoted on the monthly figure and Ferrari refinance deals should not be, because the advance is the thing you came for and the monthly payment is only how you carry it. Most guides to Ferrari car finance never mention refinance at all, and the car finance options pages on dealer sites skip it entirely, because there is no car sale at the end of it for anyone to earn from. That absence is worth noticing when you are deciding whose guides to trust and whose finance options list is complete.

Purchasing the next car with the equity from this one

This is the sequence we see most. You own a Ferrari worth £120,000 outright. Refinancing it releases most of that as the deposit on the car you actually want, so the purchasing decision stops being a choice between the two cars. The dream of a second car in the garage is usually an arithmetic problem rather than an affordability one, and making the dream work is normally a question of where the deposit comes from rather than what the monthly payments are. That is the least romantic description of a dream car anyone will give you, and it is the accurate one. Personal guarantees will be asked for on both agreements, and a personal guarantee given twice against two cars is worth reading twice, so treat the personal exposure as carefully as you treat the rate.

Questions we are asked about hypercar and supercar refinance

Can I keep driving the car, and yes, it stays with you, on your insurance, throughout. Does the finance appear against the registration, and yes, the lender records its interest. Can a car already on finance be refinanced, and usually yes, by settling the existing agreement out of the new advance. Can it be done on a hypercar rather than a supercar, and yes, on the same basis, though the valuation work is heavier and the pool of lenders is smaller. Can it be written to me personally rather than to the company, and yes, it can. Where an agreement is regulated consumer credit, it is arranged through an FCA-authorised firm we work with, so ask for the personal route if that is what suits you. Most FAQs on hypercar finance skip refinance, the FAQs on dealer sites rarely mention it, and the FAQs on leasing sites never do. Our tips: get the paperwork together first, and ask each lender for the advance before you ask for the rate.