Have you ever been upside down in a car lease? Need to bail out of your expensive monthly car payments? This website might be able to help you.
The term “upside down” refers a car owner owing more on his loan or lease than the car is worth. This frequently happens with long-term loans and leases during which the car is driven more miles than was anticipated and the vehicle has depreciated in value faster than the loan has been paid off.
Swapalease.com, which claims to be the world’s largest lease marketplace, enables members to walk away from their lease payments early—for whatever reason. The company matches individuals who are currently leasing vehicles they wish to get out of, with individuals who are looking for short-term leases with attractive payments and no money down.
Sellers post the vehicle’s picture and list lease terms, mileage, and other details. Prospective buyers can browse the listings for no charge and contact the seller if they’re interested in assuming a lease.
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Swapalease has two levels of subscriptions for sellers. For the standard option, a $49.95 listing fee is collected when a vehicle is posted to the site. The listing is good until the vehicle sells. Once a seller and buyer agree to make a lease transfer, a $95 success fee is collected.
Alternatively, the Swapalease.com Swapper’s Club membership is $99, and includes unlimited time for your listing and waives the success fee.
Revenue model
Imagine an auction site that doesn’t charge a commission on each completed auction but only charges every seller a fee for entry to the auction house. That’s the revenue model that the Swapalease.com Swapper’s Club is using. It charges one fixed price to post your car on the site, regardless of whether you sell it or find another member who wants to take over your lease.
In effect, the site simply creates a venue where willing buyers and sellers can congregate, post information about their wares, contact one another, make deals, etc. The site’s sponsor, instead of taking a piece of each deal, merely collects an admission fee.
In the case of www.Swapalease.com, it also sells liability insurance.
At this site, the members are car leasers and wannabes (or don’t wannabe any longer). For what other businesses would this revenue model work?
