MotoNovo Finance coronavirus support for finance customers

The announcement by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the help available for motor finance customers was welcomed by MotoNovo Finance, which had already introduced a range of measures mirroring the FCA’s proposals, helping a significant number of people in this unprecedented period.

Customers have been able to access a range of services including a flexible period of breathing space and zero or reduced payments for up to three months, to ease any immediate anxiety associated with their ability to meet regular monthly repayments.

To accelerate customer support, MotoNovo developed and deployed an online instant approval 3 month payment deferral process.  This development has enabled the business’ team to spend more time to speak with people who urgently want to discuss their individual situation. To date, MotoNovo, which is one of the UK’s largest used car finance businesses, has helped around one in sixteen of its customers to take up one of the assistance options available to them at this difficult time.

Overall, CEO Mark Standish is proud of the way the MotoNovo business has responded, as he reflects;

“The Coronavirus crisis has been challenging for everyone in financial services. At MotoNovo, my overwhelming reflection on our approach is one of pride for the way our team has reacted and continues to adapt to help our customers and support one another.

“As a business, our purpose is to provide products and services that deliver a compelling customer experience. In achieving this, COVID-19 has been the ultimate challenge to date. Doing the right thing to help customers meant first securing our team and a new home-working model. We reallocated over 170 extra team members to our customer facing teams and well ahead of the FCA proposals, developed a broad forbearance proposition to help many people impacted by the pandemic. All of this was up and running immediately when lockdown was invoked.

“Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and understanding. That said, I recognise that the scale of enquiries and our need to adapt has seen delays for some people, for which I apologise. Our customers can be assured our commitment to care is absolute.”

Customers seeking a three month payment deferral with MotoNovo are being encouraged to use the business’ self-service portal MyMoneyManager to start their support journey. The process is straightforward and the approval process is very quick. Unless a customer has a direct-debit scheduled within five days of approval, which cannot be suspended, the deferral will start straight away.

Any customer who feels the need to talk to MotoNovo direct can continue to do so, telephone lines are busy, but the team is eager to help everyone as quickly as possible.

As well as support for regular monthly repayments, MotoNovo is keen to ensure that customers are aware that: 

• No customers will be charged default interest or arrears related fees during this period of uncertainty. Refunds are being given for any fees that have applied in recent weeks;
• People who take advantage of any of MotoNovo’s ‘forbearance’ support can be reassured that MotoNovo is protecting their credit file  with credit reference agencies implementing a measure called ‘Emergency Payment Freeze.’

Customers can discover additional support and information, including the implications of payment deferrals or reduced payments and what these terms mean at: https://tinyurl.com/qwyekhg

Press release issued by MotoNovo Finance, May 2020