Eligibility & decisions
Declined for fleet finance elsewhere
A fleet decline is rarely the same conversation as a single-van decline. More often it is about total exposure than anything on a credit file: five or ten vehicles at once is a bigger commitment than one, and it is assessed that way. FleetMe is the lessor, so the decision here is ours to make and ours to explain, including when the answer is no.
Your agreement is with FleetMe · we confirm your quote in writing · new limited companies considered
Why a fleet gets declined when one van would not
The question being asked is different. One van is one rental against your trading position. Ten vans is ten, running at the same time, and the assessment is of the whole commitment rather than any single vehicle in it.
So a proposal can be declined at ten and accepted at four without anything about the business having changed. The company that said no was not saying your business is not creditworthy, it was saying that this much exposure, at this point in your trading history, was more than it wanted to carry.
Sector appetite plays into it as well. Some organisations limit how much they will write in one trade at a time, and that has nothing to do with you.
We assess it ourselves, rather than passing it round
FleetMe supplies the vehicles and the hire agreement is with us. That means there is no panel to shop the proposal around and no third party whose answer we are waiting on, which also means we can tell you quickly, rather than after a fortnight of silence.
It matters for a second reason. Every organisation a proposal is shopped to may leave a credit search on the company file, and often on the directors’ files too. A run of searches in a short window is visible to whoever looks next, and it makes the next assessment harder than the first one was.
No filed accounts is the most common blocker, and it is not a credit problem
A great deal of fleet finance is written off the back of two or three years of filed accounts. A company incorporated last year does not have them, cannot have them, and is turned down by a process that never reached a human.
That is the gap FleetMe was built to look at. New limited companies are genuinely considered, and you do not need filed accounts. Commercial underwriting weighs the business, its directors and what it can actually afford, and a young company with real contracts is a different proposition to a young company with none.
None of that is a promise of approval. It is a promise that a person looks at it.
Staged delivery is the most useful thing to ask about
If the size of the commitment is what stopped the proposal, the most direct fix is to make the commitment smaller to begin with. Take the vehicles you need first, run them, and come back for the rest once the fleet is earning.
It is an ordinary way to build a fleet rather than a workaround, and it tends to be a better position for the business too: fewer vehicles sitting idle while the work catches up with them, and a trading record behind the next set.
What is worth having ready before you ask again
Management accounts, if your filed accounts are out of date or do not exist yet. They are the clearest evidence of what the business is doing now rather than what it was doing at the last year end.
Contracts or purchase orders in writing. A fleet is usually being taken on to service work that already exists, and the paperwork behind that work answers the affordability question better than anything else you can send.
Realistic mileage. A fleet quoted at a mileage the vehicles will obviously exceed builds an excess charge into the agreement from day one, and it makes the whole proposal read as less considered than it is.
Your own numbers on what the fleet has to earn. If you have worked out what each vehicle needs to bring in to pay for itself, say so, it is the single most persuasive thing in most applications, and it is the thing most applications leave out.
And if the answer is still no
We will say so, quickly, and tell you what it was. A decline you understand is worth more than an application left open for three weeks, because it is the one you can do something about.
We will not take an application we expect to decline in order to look willing, and we will not tell you a smaller fleet is possible if it is not.
How we work: FleetMe supplies the vehicle and the agreement is with us. Limited companies and LLPs take business contract hire; sole traders take vehicle hire. Either way the longest term is 12 months. Quotes are indicative until your vehicle, term, mileage and rental are confirmed in writing.
Who we can help: Good and fair credit profiles are the most straightforward. New limited companies with no trading history are considered. Commercial underwriting weighs the business and its directors alongside its filed accounts. None of that is a promise of approval, and we will always tell you if we cannot help.
General information about business vehicle leasing. It is not tax, accounting or legal advice. Your accountant should confirm how any of this applies to your business.
Questions, answered
Why was my fleet application declined when my personal credit is fine?
A fleet proposal is usually assessed on the total commitment across every vehicle, not on any one person. Strong personal credit does not change how much exposure an organisation is willing to carry against a business at a given point in its trading history.
Does being declined put my company on a blacklist?
No. There is no shared blacklist. Each assessment is made independently on the information available at the time. What a decline does leave behind is a record of the credit search on the company file, and often on the directors’ files, which is why it is worth being selective about where you apply.
Can a new limited company finance a fleet?
It is considered. New limited companies with no trading history are assessed on the business, its directors and evidenced affordability rather than on filed accounts. Whether the answer is yes depends on the size of the fleet against what the business can demonstrate it can afford.
Do you need filed accounts?
No. Filed accounts help where they exist, and management accounts, bank statements and contracts in writing do the same job where they do not.
Is it easier to be accepted for five vehicles than for ten?
Generally yes, because the commitment being assessed is smaller. If the size of the fleet is what stopped a proposal elsewhere, ask about taking the vehicles in stages rather than assuming the whole fleet is off the table.
Will applying again hurt my credit file?
Each full application leaves a search on the company file and often on the directors’ files. One is unremarkable. Several in a short window are visible to whoever assesses you next, so it is worth getting one proposal right rather than sending the same one to five places.
How quickly will you tell me if you cannot help?
We aim to give a decision in principle the same working day, and that includes the ones that are no. We would rather you heard it from us quickly than waited on it.
Tell us about the business
One short form covering the vehicle, the term and the mileage you need. We come back with a written quote, and we aim to do that the same working day. We will tell you if we cannot help.
Enquiry received, one step to go.
We can put a guide figure together from what you’ve told us. To confirm the vehicle, the monthly rental and a delivery date in writing, we need your business details and the underwriting information.
Next step · about 5 minutes
Complete your business application
It’s pre-filled from your answers. Nothing is committed until we confirm your quote and you sign.
Continue to my application →No obligation · About 5 minutes
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Guide information · last reviewed October 2026. Every business is different, so nothing here is a decision. We assess each enquiry on its own facts and confirm the outcome to you directly.