Hi Stephanie,

Congratulations and well done on reaching this point and successfully completing your Trust Deeds.

I would approach one of the large car garages and be honest and up front with them regarding your credit rating. They may be able to source you finance for a new vehicle but keep in mind that it could be at a higher APR rate.

If your refused from one garage shop around and try the others.

Hopefully someone will be along soon that can share their experience of securing car finance.

Let us know how you get on.

Hi Stephanie
We got a car through lease2buy, yes we are paying slightly more and we paid a deposit of £900 . It is over 30 months and then the car will be mine. They look at affordability not your credit rating. Tried a large dealer and got no where but there have been people secure finance through them, just your luck I think.
Hope this helps.

Hi Stephanie

My Trustee discharged themselves in August 2015 (i was discharged in March 2014) and my car died on Tuesday.

I looked online for bad car credit and Midland Finance (a broker) seemed to have the most positive reviews for people with adverse credit. I applied, was accepted by Moneybarn and picked up my new car on Thursday. I had to put a deposit of £400 down but the garage took my old car as a trade in.

It is more expensive and they have some garages that they won't use but for me, it was the best option.

Good luck.

I think car finance is seen as a relatively low-risk form of lending as the car is taken back if payments aren't kept up to date.

Thank you so much for your replies, I'm going to look into lease2buy and Moneybarn this morning. I'll let you know how I get on, thanks again x

I was upfront with Arnold Clark and secured finance 6 months after getting discharged. Brand new pre-reg car and a normal APR. Worth a punt....

That is interesting upstream. It might be definitely worth a try. Thank you, that's great to know.

Hi I'm wondering if anyone can remember .... I seem to remember a while ago reading about a car dealer in Ayrshire that didn't run credit checks but went on your affordability - does that ring any bells with anyone? I've had some quotes back but my goodness they're astronomical, I don't want to jump in if I can get a better deal somewhere else. Thanks in advance x

Hi Stephanie,

You are doing the right thing shopping around before committing to a finance deal.

I currently deal with a Financial Advisor and he is an approved agent for Euro Drive Motor Finance. He has been successful in securing finance for clients who are still subject to a Trust Deed and from what he has told me at fairly competitive rates.

They might be someone else for you to contact to see what competitive rates they can offer.

Thanks David, that is definitely most helpful and I'll look into that today, so far I'm quite disillusioned ... I've been quoted £300 a month for 5 years for a car worth £8k, so I'm effectively paying £18k for a £8k car, seems nuts. I'm scared to apply to the likes of Arnold Clark in case I'm knocked back and that makes my situation worse on my credit record. No easy answer but hopefully something at a sensible price will come up for us soon, thank you though, I appreciate that.

I've just spoken to them David and I've been told that until I find a car they can't tell me whether or not they'll be able to give me finance. I just feel like I'm going round in circles here, I don't want to go to the bother of finding a car and dealing with salesmen only to get knocked back, do you think that's what I'm going to have to do ?

I think that's quite common Stephanie.

Where finance is attached to an asset (the car) as security I can see how the vehicle itself would form part of the underwriting decision.

I suppose you could apply using the details of any car to see whether you're accepted? If you were, you could then find the car you want at a similar value with a fair degree of confidence that you would be accepted.

Im in same boat . Needing another car been told Arnold Clark best bet. Any advice. Don't want to knocked back.

I was discharged in March 2014. I bought a second hand car from Arnold Clark in February 2015. It was £8500 and over 3 years. Finance acceptance wasn't a problem. My finance is with a company called Startline Motor Finance. I think my interest rate is around 5 or 6%.