Admiral Money’s Car Finance product has come a long way since expanding into the dealer network just 12 months ago.
Now available in over 500 UK dealerships, the team credits its growth on its focus on transparency and certainty for customers.
We chatted with Ben Standish, Car Finance Product and Commercial Director, to learn more.
Hi Ben, before we dive into car finance, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your career so far?
Hi Ben, before we dive into car finance, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your career so far?
Hi there! I’ve been in the motor industry for 14 years, holding several different roles in business development, programme management, and leadership roles. My background is centred on experience at MotoNovo Finance, Oodle Car Finance, and Tandem Motor Finance, until joining Admiral Money in July 2023 to launch car finance via dealers. I’m passionate about improving the industry and how we as a brand can look to enhance car finance for customers, delivering a truly customer-centric offering with transparency at the core.
For anyone who doesn’t know about Admiral Car Finance, can you sum up our offering?
For anyone who doesn’t know about Admiral Car Finance, can you sum up our offering?
Our car finance offering centres around our strategy to exist in all the places customers research, browse, and buy vehicles – catering for a diverse set of customer needs. We offer hire purchase (HP) and personal contract purchase (PCP), and we build these around two pillars – certainty and transparency. We’re proud to have been the first lender to offer true pre-approval in the showroom and were the first lender to commit to full commission disclosures from our day one dealership launch back in October ’24.
Customer centricity is clearly a priority for you. How do strategic partnerships support this?
Customer centricity is absolutely integral to our offering. We chose to partner with iVendi because of their commitment to offering customers greater, more seamless choice, so it was really important to be aligned in this area above all else. We have a long history of delivering aggregated journeys at Admiral which cater for more choice, greater transparency and maximising stakeholder outcomes. Finance Navigator, iVendi’s new multi-lender tool, takes those learnings and will help us distribute our product across a wide array of motor dealers throughout the UK.
Our presence in dealerships seems to be growing rapidly. How do the team select our dealer partners?
It’s true our growth in dealership presence has been really exciting. We’re now in over 500 dealerships, but our growth is well-balanced with our stringent onboarding process. We carefully monitor review scores, financial strength, and the positioning of finance for customers. It’s also important to us that our dealer partners are committed to the ever-changing landscape of consumer buying habits. We aim to conduct thorough oversight actions which help us spot patterns and gaps to ensure our customers are getting the very best outcomes and experiences when they’re buying cars in our network.
What else is on the horizon?
We’re at the very start of our journey, with a long and exciting road ahead of us. Our new Admiral Marketplace feature points our customers to a host of cars available to purchase from our partnered dealerships, with their desired specifications applied. This feature is still very much in its infancy but as it matures it should help bridge the gap between online and physical showrooms.
It’s clear Admiral Money is all about innovation and instilling trust within our customers.
Want to be a part of the journey? Check out the exciting opportunities at Admiral Money and see how you can help to Make A Difference.
