Car leasing has been an absolute godsend for a lot of people. It’s probably the best way you can drive a recent, high-quality model of car without having to come up with the money to actually purchase it. Although this sounds great, there’s a lot more to the whole process than that. Some people make car leasing a bad experience for themselves by making various mistakes. If you’re looking to lease, here are the slip-ups you need to avoid.

First of all, failing to check your credit score. Your credit score will always play an important part in the leases that are available to you. The dealership will have different categories or tiers for different credit scores. The better your credit, the better the rates will be.

At least a month before you start shopping around, get a report from the MyCreditMonitor website, and read it meticulously. There’s a fair chance there may be some mistakes. If, for example, you paid off a debt that still appears on your report, this will be damaging your overall score. This, in turn, will mean that you’re cut off from some of the better leasing deals out there. Unless you’re happy with being screwed over by the dealership, be sure to look into your credit before you start your search.

Another big car leasing blunder is paying too much money upfront. It’s pretty common for people to be tempted into a dealership by the promise of low monthly payments. Once there, they’re told they have to put down several thousand pounds in order to get those crazily low instalments. Generally, that money you put down goes towards a portion of the car lease in advance.

This may sound fine at the start, but what if the car is written off or stolen within the first few months of use? Typically, the leasing company would be reimbursed by their insurance company. However, that money you put down right at the start would disappear into the air! There’s nothing wrong with making an upfront payment, as long as you put a sensible cap on it.

Finally, ignoring the number of miles you drive. Those low, low payments you see emblazoned on showroom windows always come with at least one catch. Many leasing companies are only able to charge their clients so little because they set very low mileage limits. This is usually around 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year. After all, they don’t want the vehicle to lose too much of its value during the course of the lease. If you go over these limits while you’ve got the car on lease, you’ll probably be charged additional money for every extra mile. If you’re looking at deals with these policies, make sure to take them into account. Find a way to gauge your own driving habits, and how likely you are to exceed any mileage limits.

If you’re able to avoid these mistakes, your car lease should be everything you wanted it to be.