Having been in this business for more than 15 years, believe me, I understand just how mundane a finance document can be. It may not be as interesting as today’s FT, the new Dan Brown novel, or even the latest celebrity gossip in Hiya magazine, but please, treat them with a little respect.

If you do need a triple espresso and double choc muffin to keep you focused/awake whilst completing the document, try not to place the mug on the document itself, or smear chocolate across the direct debit mandate. Whilst it’s true that the Magna Carta may look heavily tea stained, I don’t actually believe it looked this way when first signed eight hundred years ago.

If there is a point on the document that you disagree with, please discuss this with your finance company’s representative first, instead of simply crossing straight through it. Any reputable finance company should complete the document in full for you beforehand, so always check before adding further information, or using the equipment schedule as a Sudoku puzzle.

Remember that the finance document is a legal contract and should be signed cleanly and ideally not have question marks or choice phrases scrawled across it.

Aside from trying to keep the paperwork away from your lunch, there are also a couple of minor points I felt I should point out:-

1. Signing the document very lightly in pencil so that your copy has the signature, but the carbon copies are blank, is not generally acceptable by a funder.

2. The paperwork needs to be signed by a company director, so if you do manage to trick Mrs Miggins the sandwich lady into signing it, when the processing team check the directors list at companies house, this will soon become apparent.

3. “Forgetting” to sign the deposit cheque, will only delay the process and won’t actually avoid you paying it.

4. Even if deep in conversation with you about last night’s United/City derby, your finance rep will still notice if you try to change the monthly repayment to a lower figure

So please, try to complete and sign the document without any alterations, as this will avoid you having to re-sign them at a later date (which would mean spending even more time with that boring finance guy).

Finally, if as a condition of the acceptance the funder asks you for a proof of your home address, your handing over a BT disconnection notice isn’t going to fill the underwriter with the greatest confidence, but that’s another story.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 7:50 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.