Zuto is a credit broker, not a lender. Our rates start from 7.9% APR. The rate you are offered will depend on your individual circumstances. Representative Example: Borrowing £7,000 over 48 months with a representative APR of 19.3%, the amount payable would be £205 a month, with a total cost of credit of £2,831 and a total amount payable of £9,831.
Yes you can! In fact, over the last 12 months, we’ve helped more than 100,000 customers* with poor credit get approved for car finance. This is because lenders take more than just your credit score into account, considering other factors such as affordability, credit utilisation, and payment history of other credit products.
Instead of paying for a car outright with your own money, you can pay using a loan from a lender, repaying the amount borrowed in affordable monthly instalments (plus any interest).
At Zuto, you can apply for finance online or by calling our team on 01625 619 944. If approved, we can guide you through the process step-by-step, to ensure you get the right car, no matter your credit situation.
*data accurate as of September 2022.
Financing a car should be simple and straightforward. We’ll guide you through the entire process as soon as you’re approved, from filling out the paperwork to understanding the jargon and small print, so you don’t need to worry about finding a car you love.
We know finding and buying a car isn’t always easy, so we’ll help you make the right choice. We offer impartial advice while checking your chosen vehicle’s history and valuation for free.
We don’t charge any fees for using our service, and never add hidden costs. This means you can make an informed choice without any nasty shocks or surprises.
A selection of reviews from customers who we've helped get car finance with bad credit.
At Zuto, our two most popular finance options are hire purchase and personal contract purchase, but you can also choose to take out a personal loan:
Hire purchase (HP): with hire purchase, you pay regular monthly installments over a pre-agreed period, equal to the cost of the car plus interest. At the end of the term, you’ll own the car outright.
Personal contract purchase (PCP): with personal contract purchase agreements, you also pay regular monthly installments over an agreed term. However, rather than the full cost of the car, the payments are equal to the depreciation of the vehicle plus interest. To own the car outright at the end of the agreement, you’ll need to make a final ‘balloon payment’.
Personal loan: a personal loan is a sum of money borrowed from a financial institution like a bank. The main difference between traditional car finance options and a personal loan is that, with a personal loan, you own the car immediately.
We go into more detail about our two most popular finance options in our guide: What’s the difference between PCP and HP?
Whether you’re looking for your first wheels or a family run-around, we can help you find your next car. If you already know what you want, get in touch with our team and we’ll guide you through our lenders’ requirements – and if not, we can help you find the perfect model. Some of the most common models financed by customers with bad credit include:
There are a number of reasons why you might have poor credit, but it’s typically as a result of historical financial difficulty.
The UK’s three main credit reference agencies each use different metrics to measure credit, so there’s no universal ‘bad credit’ score. However, each has their own bands for bad and poor credit scores:
| Experian | Equifax | TransUnion |
Bad | 0-560 | 0-438 | 0-550 |
Poor | 561-720 | 439-530 | 551-565 |
With Zuto, you can apply online without impacting your credit rating. After completing your application, we’ll approach our panel of lenders to find the options available based on your personal circumstances.
Here is how you can apply for car finance with bad credit today:
Our team has over 15 years of experience in helping drivers find the right poor credit car finance, and we accept applications for people with defaults, County Court Judgments (CCJs), Individual Voluntary Agreements (IVAs), mortgage arrears, or late payments on their credit history.
Thinking of getting a new car, but not sure if your bad credit score will stop you getting finance? Read our guide to find out more.
Ever wondered how applying for car finance affects your credit score? Our guide explains everything you need to know before applying.
Whether you’ve got an excellent or bad credit rating, there are always ways to improve or maintain it – and we’ve picked out 15.
Find out what our customers are asking when it comes to applying for car finance with bad credit.
In general, you are more likely to be accepted for car finance if you have a good credit score.
It can be more difficult if you have a poor or bad credit score, but, as a broker, Zuto is able to help find potential options for you by searching our large panel of lenders.
Find out more about car finance eligibility.
It can be tricky to finance a car if you have no credit history, but it’s not impossible. By getting to know you and your financial situation, we can search our panel of lenders to try to find a deal which suits you and your personal circumstances.
Yes, you can apply even if you have a County Court Judgment (CCJ), but it can make getting approved harder. Zuto works with a large panel of lenders who can help you if you have a lower credit score.
Find out more in our guide: Can I get car finance with a CCJ?
You might be eligible with an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA). At Zuto we work with a large panel of lenders who specialise in this field.
Discover more about IVA car finance.
If you’ve been refused financing on a car before, it might be because you:
We go into this in more detail in our guide: what should I do if I’ve been refused car finance before?
If your bankruptcy has ended and you’ve been discharged, you can apply without issue. However, we typically recommend you wait 12 months to try to build up your credit score again – you can find more help and advice in our car finance bankruptcy guide.
You can apply for a loan if you have a default, but your chances of being approved are likely to be lower due to the default itself impacting your credit rating.
Discover more information about applying for car finance with a default.
Car finance depends on your personal circumstances. With over 15 years’ experience, we’ve helped thousands of customers find bad credit finance and a car deal that works for them.
You can apply for car finance with Zuto without impacting your credit score. We’ll then approach our lenders and share the options with you. If you decide to proceed, we’ll perform a ‘hard search’ which is when your credit score could be affected.
There is no set limit for a loan application – it depends on your personal circumstances. You can apply with Zuto without affecting your credit rating; if you’re eligible, you can then proceed, and we’ll carry out a ‘hard search’ which can affect your credit score.
Unfortunately, we can’t offer a guarantee that you’ll be able to finance a car with bad credit. This is because we need to run a credit search to determine whether you can afford to make the monthly repayments.
However, if you’re unsure whether you’ll be eligible, feel free to apply and we’ll conduct a soft search. This doesn’t impact your credit score, and gives you an idea of whether you’ll be accepted by one of our lenders.
Find out more in our guide: guaranteed car finance explained.
A soft credit check is an initial look at certain information on your credit report. Lenders do this to decide how successful your application would be without conducting a more detailed assessment of your credit history. Soft searches aren’t visible to lenders, so they have no impact on your credit score or any future credit applications you might make.
A hard credit check is a more detailed search of your credit report. Each hard search is recorded on your credit report for two years, so any lender searching in the future will be able to see that you’ve applied for credit.
