# What does 1+2 mean on a car lease?

URL: https://performanceandprestige.co.uk/guides/what-does-1-plus-2-mean-on-a-car-lease

Last checked: 2026-10-13

**1+2 is a payment profile: one month up front, then one a month. The first payment is one month of the monthly figure and so is every payment after it, and the two numbers together cover the three-month minimum term. It is the leasing trade’s shorthand for the shape of the money rather than for its size.**

The payment profile explained: what each number means, what it costs you on day one, and how a 1+2 compares with the nine-months-up-front profiles quoted elsewhere.

## What do the two numbers mean?

The first number is the initial payment, counted in multiples of the monthly figure. The second is the recurring payment that follows it, counted the same way.

So a 1+2 profile means the first payment is one month’s worth and each payment after that is one month’s worth. A 9+23 profile means nine months’ worth up front, then twenty-three further monthly payments. A 6+47 means six up front and forty-seven after.

The notation looks like arithmetic and is not. The numbers are not being added together to give a term — they are describing two different payments. The term is a separate figure, and a quote that gives you a profile without a term has not told you what you are signing up to.

## What does 1+2 cost you on the first day?

One month of rent, whatever the monthly figure on your car turns out to be.

That is the part worth being clear about, because the notation invites the wrong reading. The initial payment is not a multiple of the monthly figure and it is not an extra month bolted onto the front: it is the first of the three months, paid before the car is delivered, and the two that follow are the same amount on the same day of each of the next two months. Change the car and the monthly figure changes; the shape does not.

A refundable deposit sits alongside that first payment and is a separate thing entirely — held as security, not as rent. That one is published, £1,500 to £50,000 depending on the car, and the distinction is the subject of [the next guide in this set](https://performanceandprestige.co.uk/guides/initial-payment-vs-deposit-on-a-car-lease).

## Why is the first payment taken before delivery?

Because a car loses value fastest at the start, and an owner handing over an expensive vehicle to someone they met a fortnight ago wants a month’s money behind them before it leaves.

That is the honest version. The polite version is that rent paid in advance reduces the monthly figure, which is true, but on a short profile like 1+2 the reduction is small — there is only one month of advance rent doing the work.

On the long profiles common elsewhere, the effect is much larger. Nine months up front against a three-year term is a quarter of the agreement paid before the car arrives, and the monthly figure drops accordingly. What has not dropped is the total.

## How does 1+2 compare with the profiles quoted elsewhere?

It asks for far less at the start, and it is quoted against a far shorter term.

The standard UK contract-lease profiles — 3+23, 6+23, 9+23, 9+35 — are built for agreements of two to four years. A 9+35 on a three-year lease means nine months’ money before the car arrives, and then thirty-five payments you cannot easily stop.

One month up front on a three-month minimum is a different proposition. Less money leaves at the start and the commitment behind it is shorter. The trade-off is that the monthly figure on a short agreement carries more of the car’s early depreciation, so it is higher than the same car would be over three years. That is the deal: pay more per month, commit to far less.

## Is the initial payment on top of the term, or part of it?

This is the question worth asking of any supplier, including this one, and the answer belongs in writing on your quote rather than in a guide’s generalisation.

In the trade’s long profiles the two numbers are cumulative: a 9+23 over twenty-four months means thirty-two months’ worth of money across a two-year agreement. That is not a trick, it is how the notation works, but it surprises people who read the plus sign as an addition to a total rather than a description of two payments.

Here the shape is stated the same way everywhere on the site: a three-month minimum term, taken as one month up front, then one a month. The dates and amounts of every payment appear on your quote before anything is agreed, and nothing about the schedule appears for the first time after a form.

## Does a bigger initial payment save money?

A little, and less than the drop in the monthly figure suggests.

Paying more up front removes some of the owner’s exposure and some of the cost of funding the car, so the monthly figure falls. But you have paid the money either way, just earlier. The saving is the difference between the two, and on a short agreement there is not much room for it.

What a large initial payment definitely does is concentrate your risk. Money paid as advance rent is gone whether or not you keep the car for the full term, so a nine-month initial payment on an agreement you end at month four has bought you months you did not use. On a 1+2 there is only one month of exposure.

## What is included in the monthly figure here?

The use of the car for the month, and 1,000 miles of it, on every agreement and every car.

Delivery to an address you choose in mainland Britain sits in the arrangement rather than appearing as a line item later. Collection at the end does too.

What is not inside the monthly figure is the refundable deposit, the insurance excess if you are unlucky, fuel or charge, and anything you spend on parking, tolls or clean-air zones. Those are published on each car’s page, and the full cost stack is on [how it works](https://performanceandprestige.co.uk/how-it-works) rather than arriving as a surprise.

## Who does a 1+2 profile suit?

Someone who wants the car now and does not want to tie up a quarter of a year’s payments before it turns up. That is most people who have looked at a 9+23 and hesitated.

It suits a shorter horizon too. If you are between cars, waiting on a factory order, testing whether a particular car works for your life, or simply do not want to commit to three years of anything, paying one month up front matches the commitment to the uncertainty.

It suits you less if your priority is the lowest possible monthly figure over the longest possible period. That is what the long profiles are for, and they are widely available elsewhere.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is the initial payment refundable if I change my mind before delivery?

Ask before you pay it, and get the answer in writing. Advance rent and a security deposit behave very differently if an agreement does not start, and the position depends on what your agreement says rather than on a general rule.

### Can I pay more up front to lower the monthly figure?

It is worth asking at the enquiry stage rather than assuming either way, because it changes the quote rather than the price list. Tell us what you would like the shape to be and it can be priced properly instead of being reworked afterwards.

### Does the initial payment cover the deposit as well?

No. They are separate amounts with separate jobs — one is rent in advance, one is security held against damage or an excess. Every car publishes its deposit figure, and the monthly figure it sits beside is confirmed when you enquire.

### Is 1+2 unusual in UK leasing?

The short initial payment is unusual; the notation is not. Most UK contract hire is quoted at three, six or nine months up front because the agreements behind it run for two to four years. A two-month profile goes with a three-month minimum term.

### How is the initial payment taken?

The method and the date are set out on your quote and confirmed before anything is agreed. No payment is taken online — a person confirms every booking, and that is the point at which the schedule is agreed rather than assumed.

*Pre-launch note: the driver criteria, deposits, excesses and mileage allowances quoted here are read from Performance & Prestige's own catalogue data, which is still being confirmed with the owner and the insurer. Read them as the shape of the figures rather than as a quotation. What binds is your written quote and your agreement.*